walkabout
This poem came to life as a result of a discussion on the Friends of Mississippi Mills FB page about people walking in the street instead of on the sidewalk.
I offer these two definitions of the poem’s title “walkabout.” The first from urbandictionary.com:
A spontaneous journey through the wilderness of one’s choosing in an effort to satisfy one’s itchy feet, a need to be elsewhere, the craving for the open road, that space over the horizon…yes… something like that… you can’t quite touch it so you have to go find it because you just know it’s there…Or maybe it just feels good to go walking around … 😉 Yeah. It’s WALKABOUT.
The second from Dictionary.com:
noun
Chiefly British.
- a walking tour.
- an informal public stroll taken by members of the royal family or by a political figure for the purpose of greeting and being seen by the public.
Australian.
- a brief, informal leave from work, taken by an Aboriginal person to wander the bush, visit relatives, or return to native life.
- absence from work.
walkabout
by punkie © 2021
Click on the audio player if you would like to hear me read the poem:
walkabout
there’s all kinds of talk
about where one should walk
when stepping out in our small town
we strollers, some say,
must stay out of the way
stop popping from nowhere like clowns
roads are meant for your cars
unless you’re from mars
in which case up might be down
but the salt on the sides
dogs’ paws can’t abide
when owners take them out and around
and then there’s the ice
in patches (not nice)
causing falls and oops! broken crowns
plus, we all have to distance
despite mass resistance
of being locked in our homes tied and bound
so please, say us walkers,
stop balking like stalkers
let us be in our streets to rebound
© 2021 Susan Macaulay. I invite you to share my poetry and posts widely, but please do not reprint, reblog or copy and paste them in their entirety without my permission. Thank you.
https://amazingsusan.com/2018/03/18/grist-for-the-mill/
note to self: do not argue with people whose purpose is to argue
