Ernest Hemingway Title-Tributes …[ Altered Titles, But They Are "Close" To The Originals; Three Short Bri-Poems ] Poem by Bri Edwards

1 - For Whom The Belle Toils [ suggested by: For Whom The Bell Tolls ]

James Wright Livingston owned a plantation in 1850's Louisiana.
He had two sons and three daughters, and a gorgeous wife, Pollyanna.
They had sixty field slaves to care for the cotton fields and cattle,
but just one house slave.At times it caused a domestic battle ….

….between Jim and Polly AND caused other plantation-wives to talk,
the wives who, …...to do ANY housework, would most surely balk.
Jim came from money.He could afford more house slaves, yet said "No! "
[ And, ‘secretly', some nights (or days) , to a black mistress he would go. ]

The one kitchen slave, Mattie, fed, killed, and cooked the chickens.
But Polly washed, hung, and ironed clothes, working ‘like the dickens'.
She cared for five children and Jim, and she kept their house clean.
[ Perhaps her chores helped make her the plantation-wife most lean? ]

Jim, meanwhile, managed his field slaves, farm, and his two sons,
teaching Robert and Alfred the ways to use and care for slaves, stock, and guns.
He did not ignore Polly, providing fine clothes, perfumes, and bath oils,
but it was whispered by some: "Good Lord, look at how poor Polly toils! ! "





2 - The Son Also Rises …[ suggested by: The Sun Also Rises ]

It's vacation time and we've come to Cuba,
to visit Ernest's old ‘home', and do some scuba-
diving.

My dear wife is the first to get up today.
I rise next as the coffee smell finds its way..
….to me.

Our little girl is the next and, ...no surprises, …
FINALLY our teen-aged son also rises.





3 - The Old Man And His Pee …[ suggested by: The Old Man And The Sea ]

It's been eighty years since he last ‘wet the bed'.
But now has come the day that he long did dread.


(May ….2nd ….2019)