This was distracting me, so I thought I’d get it out of the way
It seems to be a little poem, what I wrote just now:
LAWNMOWER MAN
Oh, Lawnmower man
How I hate you.
It is not possible that your lawn needs mowing
Every day, every day
Ev
ery day, ever
y day.
You have a tractor.
How pleasant for you.
You sit at your ease and ride, ride, ride.
Either you wear earmuffs
Or you are Deaf.
One or the other, it cannot be neither.
I cannot see you to tell,
So I am using pure logic, here.
I think you must hate your wife.
You say, “Oh, no, dear, I cannot converse
With you on a lovely sunny afternoon,
For as you can see, the lawn needs mowing.â€
Or it is your wife who hates you?
“Fool of a man, must I listen to your blatherings
When as you can see, the lawn needs mowing?â€
The lawn needs mowing every single day.
The grass cannot be permitted a fractional inch,
A centimeter of freedom.
Impertinence!
Perhaps you are studying golf-course maintenance.
If so, when are your finals?
I will send you champagne when you graduate.
But, no, it has been five years now.
I fear you have failed in your ambitions.
Alas.
Find a new dream.
One day I shall push through the brambles
Scratching my arms on the thorns, crushing
The poor little leaves as I tear through.
I will stride across your perfect perfect
Perfect grass, and come up behind you.
I’ll snatch those high-tech noise-blocking
Earmuffs from your head. You will turn
In surprise, and shut off the motor,
Agog at the madwoman.
I will speak.
I will say oh so many, many things.
They will startle and amaze you.
And if it should be that you actually are
Deaf,
I will say exactly the same in American Sign Language.
Because I have that ability.
So be warned.
No escape for you,
As there is none for me.
