(written August 2018 for Jeannie’s 40th birthday)
(inside jokes abound. Also not based on that 1960’s TV show)
When I think of Jeannie, I think of someone who screams
while swimming in glacial streams,
one who’s laughter and pity to others brings,
when running around as she sings,
crashing into impossible things,
like little sidewalks amid wide greens.
But today it is we who shall sing,
(hopefully we won’t run into anything),
of another successful year
of Jeannie’s undying cheer,
like a happy tune without a tear
(save that of love for one so dear).
Though her year now be the big 4-O,
she still makes lots and lots of dough,
and many cakes that warmly glow,
(and in the tummies of those who know)
confectionarily so.
But the year 40 is known
to some as a blow,
as a fell year to know,
a year when the roses grow a little lower,
when the Olfactory senses are a little slower,
when seasonal allergies prevail extremely,
bringing on sneezes that seem unseemly.
Yet she still troubles to smell those roses,
despite the difficulty of stuffy noses,
for smelling roses has not lost its fun
(besides, it does take one to known one).
But then many things will make her sneeze,
it’s just one of many Jeannie–syncrasies.
But there is nothing idiosyncratic
about travelling to places exotic,
whether ancient European castle halls,
or really ridiculous Chinese walls.
Ah, there are so many things to mention,
in order to put on her undo attention.
But I thought I’d stick with the easy ones,
like what happens when she sings and runs,
or when she smells things that she sees,
convincing friends to eat weird leaves,
or how she taught her siblings a silly song,
“Camptown restaurant, five miles long”.
And though there are accidents on mountain bikes,
and awkward moments on alpine hikes,
and moments where with hand on hip,
she squints at the horizon with finger on lip,
and quips, as she heaves a heavenly sigh,
“Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die”…
But I’m sure by now you’ve all thought
of many more stories than I’ve got,
and so I invite you one and all,
to please, speak and enthrall,
with many more stories that you know,
(which she’d wish our memories would let go),
…but that’s the Jeannie we all know,
and the one whom we all love so.
-JHJ