@CWPFairfield Folks Know My Greatest Gripes, But on Day 18, I Was Invited to Explore Them Punctually and Poetically

With reference to Lucille Clifton, #VerseLove writers were challenged to write succinctly (busy people don't have time) and to write with punch. What irks you? Hmmm. I have a lots of pet peeves, but there's one that continues to occur and reoccur over and over again. In the U.S. where we all can use a few more steps, why is it so hard to bring them to where they are supposed to go? Ugh. Drives me nuts, but I do love being told to 'make it brief, Crandall.' 

And so I tried.

Gripe

    ~b.r.crandall

It’s not because

Cheerios 

hit the blue 

bowl at 6 a.m.

and the last cow

somehow escaped

the fridge.

It’s not because

Nick the neighbor

was bellyaching  

about gas prices

while latching

4-wheelers 

& a jeep

to a trailer

pulled by his wife’s S.U.V. —

they’re mud-bogging 

this week

in Massachusetts

with family and friends.

It’s not because

texting turds

were terrorizing traffic,

tautly tantalized by

Floofnoodles 

on Tik Tok. 

It’s because

stray wheeled cages

meant for shopping

were abandoned 

by muttonheads,

only to play

bumper cars

in the Big Y

parking lot

assisted by 

the wind.