Quarantine#1, Parody of Take A Chance on Me - originally sung by Abba

Quarantine #1

March 31, 2020

If you’ve got some time

In this trying time,

Honey please hear me

Stay away from me

If you need me, that’s too bad

Stay away from me

If you’ve got no place to go

Stay away from me

If you’re all alone

Well, friend, we are all alone

And it’s best if ye

Stay away from me

Gonna do my very best

From my head to toes

I don’t want the COVID test

Poking up my nose

Stay away from me

That’s all I ask of you, mister

Stay away from me

We can’t go dancing

But we can go walking

As long as we’re far apart

Listen to some music

Maybe just talking

Sharing thoughts from our hearts

‘Cause you know I’ve got

So much that I wanna do

Don’t wanna lose it all because of NINETEEN

I wanna travel some day

Some place far away

But I think you know

Right now I can’t go

I’m a hermit now

You should be one, too

We’re in quarantine

Stay away from me

Wear your mask and I will, too

Gonna be at home

Wash your hands (who me? Yes, you!)

Don’t go out and roam

(musical interlude)

Stay away from me

Come on, give me a break, will you?

Stay away from me

(very long musical interlude unless you want to hear the whole song over again)

Ba-ba-ba, ba, ba

Ba-ba-ba, ba, ba, ba ba

Stay away from me

Stay away from me

Gonna do my very best

To be virus-free

To not need that test

Stay away from me!

Link to instrumental version so you can sing along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovBbe1N9WKw&fbclid=IwAR2cPVxVIXaZqvwbQp9UN7fwkg0EpEAtgY0gKJTtyLkAg9NJyimiPVQNINk

Quarantine #2, A Parody of "Downtown" (original sung by Petula Clark)

Quarantine #2

March 20, 2020

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely

You can never go - downtown.

When you’ve got trouble, wait, it’s going to double,

But don’t try to go - downtown.

Just listen to the chirping of the birds you see around you,

Linger on your front porch where no viruses surround you.

There you’ll be safe.

The threat is much less at home

You can watch television, sleep,  or play on your phone

Just don’t go downtown

Things are too scary in downtown

The risks are too hairy in downtown

COVID is waiting for you.

Just enjoy all the time you’ve been given

Forget the movies downtown

Away from your boss it’ll just feel like heaven

No fighting traffic downtown

Just listen to advice from all the doctors, that they give ya

Maintain your distance, brother, so that COVID doesn’t get ya

Happy you’ll be.

Your family’s so much safer home

You can play games together or make up a poem

So stay there

Where all the germs are clean, stay there

Where you can have sweet dreams, stay there

You’re gonna be alright now.

Someday we’ll be free again to roam throughout the city,

Someday we’ll have reason to get dressed up real pretty,

Won’t that be great?

So maybe I’ll shoot you a text

We can forget all our troubles and not get too vexed

And think of some day

Things will be fine, you know, someday

TP’ll be back in stock, someday

Just don’t go downtown til then

Downtown

Downtown

Downtown

Downtown

Link to an instrumental version so you can sing along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evZ0_zbu27c&fbclid=IwAR2m_zGVlOZogTsAjOAyO50vo-EvGTnpgml2fCE1IBfmZ-8ssAuOKo5OeGQ

Traces of You

I wrote this song a few months after Mike committed suicide. Mike was a collector of many things, and after his death I had to clean out his home. A lot of his things ended up at my house. Mike had also done a lot of building on my property, and for a long time it seemed like everywhere I looked, there was something he had owned or built, a memory, a trace of him. It was a hard time.

Traces of You

Jackie Ginn

May 10, 2017

Sitting here all by myself,

I see traces of you.

Complex, simple, weak and strong -

All traces of you.

When I walked away from you

I tried to put you out.

I wanted all things to be gone -

Gone, without a doubt.

But still I find these traces here,

And what am I to do?

Surrounding me both day and night,

These traces of you.

Some traces I can hide away

So I don’t have to see,

But some creep out of corners

Unexpectedly.

You left this world behind you.

It’s tragic, and it’s true.

And you left me ever holding

These traces of you.

The Incredibly Stupid Miss J

The Incredibly Stupid Miss J

Jan. 15, 2016

The incredibly stupid Miss J

Chose to marry Mr. M. one day

Not for fortune nor fame,

But to give the babe a name,

And with no babe on the way,

She might have married anyway

Because she was incredibly stupid.

The incredibly stupid Miss J

Fell for muscular biceps one day,

And the handsomeness of his face

Caused her careless young heart to race.

She ran off one January day

And married Mr. J.

Because she was incredibly stupid.

The incredibly stupid Miss J

Always chose to say “yea”

So as not to hurt the guy,

Hence she married Mr. Y.

Plus he played in a western band

So she gave Mr. Y.  her hand

Because she was incredibly stupid.

The incredibly stupid Miss J

Felt extremely lonely one day

When along came Mr. G.

Right time, right place, thought she.

Just how wrong can a woman be?

Pretty wrong, because you see,

Miss J was incredibly stupid.

How many wrong reasons to marry

Before a woman gets wary?

How many bad days and bad nights?

How many cross words and fights?

And it’s really sad and funny

That she never married for money,

The incredibly stupid Miss J.

Battle Scars

August 11, 2014

Life is just a bowl of cherries, someone said.

Easy to breeze on through,

Come out unscathed on the other side.

If only it were true.

When I was born, a tiny little

dark brown birthmark mole

Was the only mark upon me.

It was planted on my sole.

My first battle was with chicken pox.  

I was but a very young child.

A small circle mark on the side of my nose

Proved my case was very mild.

At age eight I was running on gravel

And a fall took its toll on me,

A deep circular scab that I kept picking

Left a big scar on my knee.

Then a year later I fell off a bike

And the handlebar hit my gut.

A semi-circle mark was left

After it healed from the original cut.

Poison oak left a tiny white circle

At the base of one of my toes.

But for several years after, I was

Free from physical woes.

A ring snagged on my finger 

After eight or ten years.

Just a small stripe now reminds me

Of that moment when I shed tears.

A few more years and my gallbladder

Caused pain when it went all wrong.

Surgery left an abominable

Abdominal mark a foot long.

Many years passed with no new visible scars

And I felt pretty good about things.

I had no idea of the battles I'd fight

When cancer entered the ring.

 A lumpectomy left my left breast

Much smaller than the right.

Port installation left a wound

That will always be in sight.

That about brings me up-to-date

With my wounds and scars of life.

Some battles were large, some battles were small,

Some earned during times of strife.

We enter mortality flawless

In body, in spirit, in mind,

But life drags us all through the wringer

And leaves battle scars behind.

Now don't let me start

On the scars of my heart.

Cuckoo

A couple of years ago I posted a few little poems about bird names and how they are applied to humans.  Here's one I forgot to post.

Cuckoo

Foolish and crazy and silly,
Running about willy-nilly.