IF LIFE
IF LIFE GIVES YOU A LEMON
Her name was Lemon and she was
a giantess at least as big as her piano
With a name like that why on earth
would she call me sourpuss?
Later much later I learned this was
a projection For underneath mounds
of sunny-funny kindergarten teacher lay
a cruel and sour dictator
While I was dignified quiet and 5
She said if I’d only smile (a lot) she would
call me smiley I just wasn’t sure that I could
So I traded my Elmer toy for absolution (he now sat on her piano)
Miss Lemon sang with an open mouth
a huge round orifice where I feared
Elmer and perhaps a few of us might disappear
I had no choice but to swipe him back
and smile a cheshire grin Lemon O Lemon
you taught me well to fear pianos & hate school
But later much later when my 5 yr. old client
complained: The teacher treats me like a donkey
I accepted her disdain and taught her that :
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely*
But mostly I taught her that no donkey
was she and nor would she ever be
__
*Lord Acton
Spring 2013
songanddancegirl 