Parker's NaPoWriMo 2017 - 3. April 16 - 22

April 16

Can you explain why
negative times negative
equals positive?

Signs alike attract, my love,
so it was ordained above.

If I were to add
unlike fractions together,
can I cross-cancel?

Anger rarely works, my dear:
treat your fractions with good cheer.

When I integrate,
what part of the expression
gets substituted?

False are friends who promise much,
better use the simpler touch.

Isn't the tangent
in the unit circle graph
perpendicular?

Angles take it in their head:
go where demons fear to tread.

Sorry, I can't hear:
will this new material
be in the next test?

Stitch and mend and cut your cloth,
don't get lathered in a froth.

April 17

I.
To be an angel is no easy task
for one might harp while others stand on guard
or do such things as heaven's voice may ask -
it matters not if one should think them hard.
Regardless if the job be sword or song,
the principles of paradise are prime,
for angels always know what's right from wrong,
as they have done since ere the birth of time.
Though merely mortal might we not ascend
to greater heights than those with robes and wings,
as we each other's errors may amend
as kindness, grace or mercy often brings.
For higher than the angels do we live,
humanity has power to forgive.

II.
Robins'
pre-dawn chorus
serenades morning stars
better than angel hosts sang at
Christmas;
heaven could not ask for greater glory
to herald the blessings
of love for the
new day.

April 18

I'm sorry that I daydream;
sorry I take too long on the most basic of tasks,
and sorry I'm going deaf;

I'm sorry I neglected
to check my pockets before putting my clothes in the wash
and sorted the laundry wrong;

I apologize that I
leave important decisions hanging till the last minute,
and often choose the wrong thing;

I'm sorry I tend to hover;
I'm sorry I seem incapable of turning out lights
and for reading late at night;

I'm sorry I wasted your years,
sorry for habits I can't break, and for things you can't take,
and for my insecurity;

Yet in all my transgressions
there is the one, enduring, abiding, transcendent grace:
your warm and forgiving smile.

April 19

We never swam in waters deep,
our conversations did we keep
to subjects erudite or plain;
the recollection makes me weep.

A chat in most familiar vein
did not arise in your domain,
our minds for higher things were bent
from carnal insight to abstain.

And thus to schooling was I sent,
the brain and body to augment,
but naught about my secret joys
was said, despite the soul's ferment.

I wish I'd talked with you of boys,
and how one's ignorance destroys,
or that suppression's price is steep
to him its sterner tools employs.

April 20

So now we mind manners, if manners there be,
they'll drive you bananers, and don't slurp your tea.
What place for your salad fork's valid, I ask;
to whom sing your ballad, untaken to task?
How far and acutely to bow in Japan?
Or compliment chefs in remote Kazakhstan?
How nice to respond to a text message vile?
Share sympathies grave in the Emerald Isle?
If chilly in Chile, are sweaters okay?
To every Canadian must we say 'eh?'
Exposing your shoulders is rude in Assam,
but go right ahead in South Beach without qualm.
Some actions cause riots or laughter, I know,
depending on where on the Earth you might go.
A turn signal's proper when driving in Linz,
in Boston, to signal will make others wince.
Wherever your palace or humble estate,
a kiss is good manners with you and your mate.

April 21

I.
Why are the things I'd just as soon forget
so permanently lodged within my brain,
wherein they sing lugubrious refrain
to strains of shame's abrasive clarinet?
A night recording songs on blank cassette,
affection from my hopeless crush to gain;
but my existence seemed to him a bane
to be consigned to schoolboy oubliette.
And now I'm in the twilight of my years,
forgetting comes more easily, I find;
recalling lunch will often grind my gears,
my cerebellum often is unkind;
but even as my final couplet nears,
your lovely smile is ever on my mind.

II.
I wish
I could forget
the look upon your face:
revulsion, incredulity,
disgust;
silver
dawn light differs from shadowed night,
cold facts from passioned heat;
truth from urge to
forget.

April 22

I believe in love between
heart and heart, though sight unseen;
I believe I'll give away
of myself from day to day;

I believe in being kind,
charity in act and mind,
for compassion understands
love is passed through all our hands;

I believe in mercy free,
in forbearance constantly,
I am pledged to justice true,
every person, every hue;

I'm naive enough to hope
that forgiveness is no trope;
I believe we'll all abide,
reconciled and side by side.

I believe that you and I
light the world as life goes by;
and I trust that all we do
strengthens, builds my love for you.