Jessy Delfino's Blog

I LOST THE LIGHT

My cat jumped up and knocked over my fluorescent mercury filled light the other day, breaking both my lamp and my lightbulb, spilling mercury all over my house.

After sweeping it up and probably getting mercury poisoning, I looked on Craigslist for a lamp -- that is where I find everything I need in life -- (if you don't know, I found my fiance there) -- and I found this listing offering a free original Tiffany lamp if you wrote a good poem. So I wrote this poem:

Ode To Light

by Jessica Delfino

"Light!" They say, He said out loud

"Let there be light!" He yelled out proud

And just like that, the lights turned on

And mountains came, and dusk, and dawn

And animals and bridges, too

And octopi and 2 Live Crew

And Amish people, turtles, rain

Australia, France, Chicago, Spain!

But light was somewhat primitive

Not yet a gift that we could give

At weddings or online for free

That would not come til, later, see

When Mister Edison came round

And others with a dream abound

Like Tesla and Sir Newton, too,

Ben Franklin, that whole thinking crew

They knew that sun light would not do

And fire was quite risky, too

There must, must be a better way

To light the night up like the day

They went to work and fought and learned

And countless hours of daylight burned

And finally they let there be light

Inside, outside, even at night

And now we have light everywhere,

We leave lights on without a care

My dad would yell, and say, "Woah, hey!

Don't leave the lights on, dammit! K?"

Oh, how it's changed so through the years

Been utilized, encouraged cheers

Enlightened homes, killed germs, quenched fears,

Lit up the stage for Britney Spears

Now I'll cease to pontificate

Yet, know, though switch flicks I create

Each time I smile at the sunrise

The beauty falls not on blind eyes

However, I was disappointed to receive this in reply:

Congratulations on being the runner up in our light poetry competition!
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/zip/2538952073.html
If you would like to pick up your consolation prize of a stained glass light bulb, please get in touch as soon as the rain lets up.
xoLisa

p.s. Your poem was fantastic but my alter ego [XXXXXXXX] felt she needed to disqualify you because she knows you in real life. What are the odds?

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I could go on about how irritated that a person I don't know knows me and therefore disqualified me from winning a really gorgeous free light, but then, I guess you win some free Craigslist lights and you lose some free Craigslist lights.