Afternoon at the Lake

Note: This poem is an Empat Empat. The form for the Empat is four stanzas of four lines each which alternate in rhyme. However, there is also a refrain which is the first line of the first stanza, second line of the second, and so forth. So the rhyme scheme is Abab cAca adAd eaeA. There is no official rule for syllables in the Empat Empat, but the contest for which I wrote this one required that every line be eight syllables except for the refrain which had to be six syllables.




Don’t you get my hair wet!
I had it done just yesterday.
Cost a lot of money to get.
It looks perfect, wouldn’t you say?

I’m at the lake to get a tan.
Don’t you get my hair wet!
And there’s a very sexy man.
He is looking at me, I'll bet.

Why are you filling that bucket?
I think you really ought to know,
“Don’t you get my hair wet!”
Means you’d better not get—uh-oh!

So you think that you are funny?
I am not giggling. I'm upset.
Why didn't you listen to me?
Don’t you get my hair wet!