Bumbershoot
Umbrella’s lighter offshoot


Peggy Landsman’s

work has appeared in online and print literary journals and anthologies, including Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes (C&R Press), Spindle, and Iodine Poetry Journal.

Her poetry chapbook, To-wit To-woo, is available from FootHills Publishing.

She has also published a contemporary romance novel, Passion’s Professor (Midnight Showcase), under the pen name Samantha Rhodes. 

Visit her website.


—Back to Bumbershoot Contents—

When I Weighed Two-and-Twenty (Apologies to A. E. Housman)

When I weighed two-and-twenty,
I heard a doctor say:
“Give chips and dips and chocolate,
But not your health away;
Give pounds away and inches,
But keep your energy.”
But I weighed two-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I weighed two-and-twenty,
I heard him say again:
“The excess of a lifetime
Is only lost with pain;
And it will cost you plenty
Before you’re halfway through.”
And now my wallet’s empty
And I weigh two-twenty-two.



 
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