Sylvia Fights Change With Ridiculous Rhyme

Sylvia
By Anne Sullivan

“I can’t stand it!” Sylvia yelled, kicking her dish across the porch.
Noticing that she’d taken care to empty her dish of kibble before she kicked it, I didn’t stir from my seat on the porch bench, but asked, “Now what’s the matter?”
“Change! I can’t stand change!” she shrieked.
“I’m not much on change either,” I said, “but it seems to happen anyway. It’s a natural part of life.”
“It’s not fair! Every time I get to know and like someone, they move. I just can’t stand it!”
“Who’s moving now?”
“Jackie Kraft, that’s who. She’s already sold her house and she’s almost on her way out of Socorro. I can’t deal with it. She’s the only person in the whole wide world who gave RingWorm, Gordo and me baskets from APAS for Christmas every year without fail.”
“I give you Christmas presents and so do other people.”
“That’s true but not whole big baskets full of all the best things to eat.” Sylvia salivated at the memory. “And not every year. Jackie is the best.”
“That’s definitely true. Besides everything she’s done for APAS and Good Sam she always donates to Baldwin Cabin Public Library, too. The whole community of Socorro and Catron County will miss her.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever recover,” Sylvia said, flopping down. “If she’s leaving right away, I don’t even have time to make her a present. It’s really not fair.”
“Maybe you could write her a nice poem as a goodbye present,” I suggested.
“I”ll try,” she sniffed. “But I’m too overwrought to be much of a poet.”
I went inside to fetch pen and paper for her. Returning, I laid them on the porch floor for her and went back to my book.
An hour passed during which Sylvia wrote and crossed out and wrote again and groaned and wrote and sucked the pen and finally, spoke the magic words, “I’m finished.”
And this is what she wrote:
Dear Jackie Kraft,
It’s hard
To be a bard,
When my heart is breaking.
My heart you are taking.
Because you are leaving
I am grieving.

You are going
And I’m not knowing
If I’ll ever see you again
Or even when.
But I tend to forget
We’ve never really met.
Isn’t that sad?
It’s really too bad.

Will you come back
To see us?
Your whereabouts we
need to track
From worry to free us.
We wish you’d stay
And not go away.

We’ll never forget you.
We don’t want to let you
Get away from us
Without making a fuss.
You’ve been generous
and kind
And we’ll never find
Another like you.
Boo hoo.

So goodbye for now.
Knowing you has been a wow.

I HATE CHANGE
IT’S WORSE
THAN MANGE.

Sylvia Fights Change With Ridiculous Rhyme