Gutters Today

Home improvement gone wrong is a reason to frown;
this occurred with my gutters so high above ground
sagging like lazy, thin metal things by the eave.
Those long nails that secured them pulled out, I believe.

So the Gutters Today project started toot sweet
with the hopes that the house would look well-kept and neat.
No more nails would be used, but steel screws in their place
for the gutters that looked to be hanging in space.

Having fastened the gutters with screws a foot long,
there was nothing to indicate things would go wrong.
For the grip in the wood made the gutters secure
as I paused on the ladder high handed and sure.

Then I had an idea from my bustling brain
to keep one step ahead of the oncoming rain.
I would line all the gutters with sponge end to end;
it would bar overflows and the water would wend.

Now fast forward a few months to middle of spring;
I espied in my gutters a curious thing.
There were maples trees growing in sponge by and by;
(maple seeds by the score fell from out of the sky.)

Maple trees shedding seeds had a curious fate; 
I did not have a clue they would sponge-germinate.
Still they took to the sponge like a cat takes to nip;
I secured my long ladder all ready to rip.

Tiny roots grabbed the sponge like a hungering maw;   
there were so many wee maple trees that I saw.
And my journey around the house covered each side;
tossing trees in a barrel for their oneway ride.

Now fast forward another month, summer in full
when again on the ladder I had to tree pull.
Maple seeds microscopic in sponge never quit:
and by now I was getting quite tired of it.

(Filling Home Depot barrel of myriad tree
  set my mind in a spin and it soon dawned on me
  how prolific in nature the will to survive;
  give life just half a chance and the living will thrive.)

In a mess so inglorious, sponge turned to mold;
it was time to make new from the gutters of old.
I attempted to make gutters maintenance lite,
but in doing so I made a bad-looking sight.


40 Lines
Anapestic Tetrameter
Writer’s Cramp
8-18-19