Change and Renewal

[picture of my gas meter, Copyright Jimmiehov]

Mary, Mary, how does your gas meter flow  

With little wheels spinning and numbers changing  

Comes a little man who reconditions them  

Good as new they will be with improvements made

    

Fix yours today before the market goes out  

It will send your numbers to a satellite  

You can get your bill via the Internet  

Meter readers gone like lift operators  

  _ _ _ 

 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2021, All Rights Reserved. 

 - I am linked with Rommy in the Writers Pantry #82 at https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2021/08/writers-pantry-82-here-in-my-car.html?m=1 

  - I am linked with Rosemary for the topic prompt, "Change and Renewal," at her Weekly Scribbling #81, https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2021/08/weekly-scribblings-81-change-and-renewal.html

 - There Rosemary has asked us to write about change and renewal.  She chose this topic after her apartment/flat needed a complete renewal due to a severe invasion of Mould.  

 - 88 syllables were written today for my ditty.  The associate pastor at our church worked for and with his father reconditioning gas meters for customers and utility companies when theirs would go on the fritz.  He has a meter in his office with glass sides and top for the purpose of showing customers how the meter worked.   Clever.   That job was before he went into the ministry.

 . . 

NaPoWriMo 2021 Day 23 -- Cross THE River

 [photo from Wikipedia - Park on the Rio Grande] 

In the late 50's, early 60's, I lived in a house on the 

right and rode my Vespa Motorscooter along the river 

 - - - - 

 "I am twenty, drifting in la chalupa, the blue boat painted with roses, white lilies . . . there was still the little boat, the chalupa you built once, slowly, in the yard, after school." Little Boat by Jean Valentine - 1934-2020 https://poets.org/poem/la-chalupa-boat 

  - - - - 

 The Little Boat 

Tuesday morning the boat was not crowded  

Though it would comfortably hold twelve 

It only had this little Mexican 

woman and a man with a big straw hat 

The woman was carrying grocery bags 

She stopped, kissed the ground, "U.S.A." 

She went in the general store, had coffee 

The man seemed to be seasonal, he left.

While the boat left and came back, woman shopped 

A family of five got on the boat and 

the father pulled the rope around, around 

Another couple boarded, he pulled not 

Out of sight they went, probably to homes 

But the boat was loaded when coming back 

Standing room only for the men. They came  

for TexMex day, BOGO, Buy One Get one 

Those were the days, no Customs Agents here 

No Border Patrol either, all that was 

done at the park gate by officials there 

We came, went, crossing on the Little Boat 

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 - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2021, All Rights Reserved 

 - I am also now linking this again, this time with Magaly, at The Writer's Pantry #81, https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2021/08/writers-pantry-81-no-more-blogger.html .  And I am posting it there, LATE AGAIN.

 - I made a couple of changes and I'm linking it again on May 16, 2021, with Rosemary in The Writer's Pantry # 70,    https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2021/05/writers-pantry-70-words-for-healing.html?m=1 

 - I am linked with NaPoWriMo, National Poem Writing Month,  Day 23, https://www.napowrimo.net/day-twenty-three-7/

 -  There our challenge at the NaPoWriMo was "to write a poem that responds, in some way, to another. "  I chose the poem above by Jean Valentine, Little Boat.  It reminded me of the old days, 1970's when the Big Bend National Park was open to the fold from Mexico and we were free to go to Mexico to shop for Hispanic items that we could not get here.  Many visited relatives who were still living in Mexico.   

The small boat that went across the Rio Grande River was attached to a rope and above was the other side of the rope, to be pulled one way or the other to propel the boat across the river.  

 - I am attempting to write at least one poem a day for the National Poem Writing Month.  Today is Day 23 of the 30, you can see my progress here, NaPoWriMo 2021.

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