Self-Help
There are always people coming up with daring notions
On the ways to get in touch with difficult emotions.
After we have read their books, we’re nearly twice as tense—
We should have saved our dollars and just used our common sense.
Derring-Don’t
Movie super-action heroes
To the strains of age have knuckled.
It’s safe to say that even they
Often find their swash has buckled.
Pat D’Amico is a former school teacher who lives in Kirkland, Washington. Her verses have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Light, and Lighten Up Online. She contributes regularly to Northwest Prime Time, a newspaper for readers over fifty in the Seattle/Tacoma area.