Vacant: To Let

CARRY ON TUESDAY

http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/

The words in blue are from the film 'The Italian Job'.

VACANT: TO LET

Look, if there's one thing that I've learned

 It's that I am an ignoramus!

It's been an in-tray out-tray life,

Nothing brilliant or famous.

Knowledge has gone in one ear

And then in a very short time

It's flowed away out of the other.

It's been tantamount to a crime!

Consider, first, my schooldays,

Which weren't on the whole too stressful.

I pegged-away at learning things

And often I was successful.

But let us consider algebra!

I coped in a passable way,

But no-one must ask about algebra

If they meet with me today!

The same thing applies to Latin!

I managed to conjugate,

But all the Latin's oozed away,

Completely gone, of late!

Now things are getting worse, I fear!

Of course, nobody blames

Funny old ladies such as me

If they forget peoples' names!

But I try to learn the difference

Between persons A and B

I even think-up mnemonics

Hoping they'll benefit me!

'Mary's got the big ears',

'Alice has got a squint'

I aim for a mental picture

That might give me a hint.

But still the names elude me;

I forget again and again.

Look, if there's one thing that I've learned

It's that I need a brand new brain!

*

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BEIGE BEAUTY

Sometimes colour overwhelms us;

It dazzles and explodes!

Our senses reel with brilliance;

Colour strains and overloads.

It's just like someone shouting

Or a clarion-call that's brash.

'Look at me!' it bellows,

'I can sparkle! I can flash!'

'I'm RED!' you'll hear it jangle;

'I'm ORANGE!' hear it yell.

Yet we sometimes yearn for shades

As soft as those inside a shell.

This beautiful mosaic

Is gentle on the mind.

We can quietly peruse it

And see what we can find.

It's very beige is soothing;

It's texture finger-felt.

We enjoy the shapes and shadings

That mix and meld and melt.

Can you find the pieces

Of the pottery and tile?

The oyster shells and pearls

That once grew closely for a while?

The crystal and the marble

Now so smoothly intertwined?

White turquoise? There's a wonder

That's very hard to find.

And there's something called a microbead

Nestling in this scene;

Something small and round and bright

And neat and beige and clean.

This is a tactile picture.

Were it in vivid hues

We might gain in intensity

But, oh, what we would lose!

*