I had fun writing my Pleiades poems in November, so I thought I’d try my hand at playing with Limericks. This style of poetry consists of a single stanza of five lines. The first, second, and fifth lines should rhyme. Also, the third and fourth lines should rhyme with each other. These short poems should have an AABBA structure. The limerick is a folk style of poetry. It can be humorous and, at times, bawdy. I’m not certain if I can achieve witty or bawdy, but hopefully, I can stick with the rhyme pattern. Therefore, my first Limerick is dedicated to the memory of the Queen of Soul.
When I was in high school, the guy who sat beside me in history class, lived next door to the house Aretha Franklin visited when she came to Kokomo. He said every time he saw her limo pull to the curb; he mowed the lawn. Thomas claimed he had a good chance to discovered. I saw two major problems with his line of thinking. Firstly, how was the Queen of Soul going to hear him above the sound of the lawnmower? Secondly, a degree of talent is required in the discovery process. Thomas couldn’t sing a lick. I heard he moved out of town and became a police officer.
The Queen of Soul
A Queen once visited a city named Kokomo
She found there was nothing to do or nowhere to go
So she wrote a funny song
And she sang it all day long
About the First time, she saw it start to snow
So, there’s my first Limerick. It wasn’t funny or bawdy, but it was historical. This short poem offers a quick look into the life of The Queen of Soul.
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.
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