Linda Mitchell’s Clunkers

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Marcie, HERE. Thank you for hosting. It’s been a pleasant summer this year and I want to be outside as much as possible to attend concerts, visit a local Fingerlakes winery or two, visit state parks and read on my porch. Summer in New York is too short!!

My heart goes out to those impacted by flooding and fires across the country, driving more and more discussion and action on climate change.

I spent some time this week thinking about Linda Mitchell’s clunkers. She provided quite a list, some more impossible than others.

I decided to simply have fun with one of them, one that made me think about how each word in a sentence changes it, sometimes dramatically.

THE LAST WORD 

We don’t
(Don’t what?)
 
We don’t want
(Want what?)

We don’t want you
(Oh . . .  I see)

We don’t want you to worry.
(Oooh. That will teach me to jump to conclusions)

©Janice Scully 2022

The clunker was: “We don’t want you to worry,”if you haven’t guessed. And it seems relevant as there is a lot of worry in our lives. So, how lovely to imagine a sincere “We don’t want you to worry,” rather than other imagined possible sentence endings.

Though I don’t do much gardening, I do have coneflowers and daisies coming up along the side of my house. They are beautiful this year. I also saw a monarch butterfly fluttering around the flowers, though it didn’t make it into the photo.

Thank you, Marcie, for hosting.