Epistle poem challenge from Ella

Yesterday I accepted Grace's invitation to write a rondeau, and today, at the writers' group, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Ella has challenged us to produce an epistle poem.

I immediately thought of epistles as the admonishing finger of St. Paul directing everyone from the Romans to the Hebrews how to live their lives, even though I've known since early Sunday School the word epistle merely means letter.

With apologies to the Pauline school of ecclesiastical thought, I took my own epistle in a different direction: a politician asking his or her busy constituents to answer a list of apparently pointless questions.

AMBITIONS AND DREAMS

To whom it may concern, she read,

And “whom” of course, was she —

“Please answer everything in red,

“Return A.S.A.P.”

A.S.A.P. for me, she said

Just may not be the same

It is for you, or Bill, or Fred

Or others I could name.

I have a job and kids and school,

I have Pilates class,

I have two pets, I have a pool,

I have to cut the grass.

I have to clean the house and car

And wash the windows, too,

I have to keep my golf at par,

Volunteer at the zoo.

When do you think I’m gonna find

The time to fill out reams

Of questions you have had designed

For your political dreams?

I just don’t care if you are mayor

Or chieftain, pope or king,

If you are boss of anywhere

Unless you do one thing:

Find someone who will do my work,

And watch my children, too,

Then I can do just what I want —

Volunteer at the zoo.

© Photos by: Kay Davies, Maria Davies, Gloria Johal and Richard Schear