[Critique Group 2] My Piece for June 27th

[Abbie Taylor]

Last week's prompt in my Third Thursday Poets group meeting inspired this. It was suggested that we write about a warning we would give to children. A day care center recently opened next door, and I once overheard kids admiring the treehouse in my back yard. Fortunately, they have a fence, and I have a fence, so it would be hard for them to get to it, but I thought I'd write this poem, anyway.

***

STAY AWAY FROM My TREEHOUSE

Little one, it looks inviting, doesn't it, A house nestled in an old oak tree? 
It's far from homey.

I don't know how long it's been there. 
The wooden ladder is no doubt rickety, perhaps unstable.

If you manage to get to the top,
who knows if the structure will bear weight?  
Like the cradled baby in the treetop, 
you and the house could tumble down, down, down, 
land on the ground all broken.

The ambulance would come and take you away. 
You'd spend weeks, months in the hospital, 
wearing a body cast from head to toe. 
All you'd be able to do 
is lie there and watch television. 
Dora the Explorer would get old after a while.
You'd long to be outside with your friends.

Your parents would sue me.
I'd have to sell my house
in order to pay your hospital bill,
move to a senior apartment complex,
no longer enjoy my own back yard,

so you'd better not climb into my treehouse
if you know what's good for both of us.

Abbie Johnson Taylor, Author http://abbiescorner.wordpress.com
http://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com
abbie at mysero.net
Order my new memoir at http://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com/memoir.htm