This year's poem

Every year, Marci's mom gives us an assignment for Christmas day and whoever "wins" gets "big bucks" (like $25)

IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE CHRISTMAS THEMED!

This year's theme is "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"

Here's my submission:


There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
By Susan Russo



There was an old woman who lived in a shoe
Got a letter in the mail saying rent was past due

When opening the letter, she cried out, “Oh Heck.
I haven’t even gotten my social security check.

My husband had a pension and a 401K
But the income all stopped back when he passed away

And here I am now left with bills and with rent
No money left over- don’t know where it went

And if I don’t pay, they will soon kick me out
To live on the streets, of that there’s no doubt

And I’ll no longer have my luxurious shoe
To live in… but now, I know just what I’ll do

I’ll go down to the store and I’ll play the lotto
“A Dollar and a dream” is my favorite motto.”

So she went to the store and she spent her last buck
On a lottery ticket and wished herself luck

A mere two days later, the woman was dead.
A brain aneurism had burst in her head.

The landlord came in and he packed up the shoe
And put it back up for rent. If only he knew

That with all of the things that he’d stored in the shed
With the woman’s TV, couch, chair, table, and bed

Was a ticket worth so much that had it been spent
Could have paid off his mortgage, made up all the back rent

He would even have had some left over to spare
To buy a new shoe, but no one knew it was there

So it sat in the storage shed, yellowed and old
‘Til they had a garage sale in which it was sold

To a man who, when he found it, just threw it away
Never knowing the ticket was a winner per se

And could’ve helped out his grandma who’d lived in a shoe
When she got a letter in the mail saying rent was past due.

the end

© Susan Russo 2006