Another Victory

"Why do you have to fight with me over everything?" Doug asked his wife.  "Why do you have to contradict me?"

"I don't fight with you all the time," Monique replied.  "And I don't contradict you."

"Well you are driving me crazy.  You sure know how to push my buttons!"

Monique continued polishing her lengthy nails a lovely shade of jade green.  "I do nothing.  You push your own buttons.  You drive yourself crazy."

"Oh....never mind.  I have a really bad headache," Doug mumbled.

"You mean you choose to have a really bad headache."  Monique smiled sweetly.  Picking up a copy of Therapy Today she fanned the hand with damp fingernails.

When Doug left the bedroom for the night she gave a happy sigh.  One more victory.

Prisoner of the Mirror

I never thought a piece of glass--two dimensioned
could hold my entire being.
Don't I have three?
Maybe more, says H.G. Wells.

Push chest out, stomach in;
narrow eyes--wish self away.

If only
i had brown eyes....
if only
i were taller....
or maybe shorter....
if only
i were ever thinner!

or recently,
if only
i were younger....

Those gray hairs can be dyed.
Dim the light--
i can almost pretend
away laugh lines.

Oscar Wilde was right.

When i was young i wished i were pretty
wasting what looks i had.

The glass looks on mockingly.
A cruel moon to my tainted sun.
Who can break me out?

Ugly Women

Ugly women, let us face it
simply were not formed for love.
Pretty girls, clear-skinned and slender
are a gift from up above.

Brains and heart avail us nothing.
In love Beauty takes the prize.
Wicked men take strapping wenches--
men of virtue use their eyes.

Some men claim their higher minded
looking for sweet Christian girls.
Soul and spirit cannot draw them
like thin legs and glossy curls!

Blessings on your marriage  portion.
Hopeful bridegroom take your wife.
Like a pool so bright and shallow
stagnanting in forest hollow--

drink from it for all your life!

Mother Mirror

Every day her image
becomes a little clearer--
my mother
in the mirror.

Do I frighten her
as I become her?

When Girl is Woman
must she become
a Crone?

It makes me glad
I do not have
a daughter.