Character Study

lillian

As a youngster,
she loved playing outside,
building dirt castles with lollypop flags.
Grade school entrepreneur,
her lemonade stands featured mud pies,
hand crimped with sand frosting on top.
Today, a sweet toothed geologist,
she loves layer cakes, marzipan sculptures
and all rock candy.

candy-2201940_1920

Quadrille (44 words exactly, sans title) written for dVerse, where today we’re asked to include the word “zip.”  You’ll find it stirred into the marzipan! Also posted for Napowrimo, Day 9: prompt to write about the large and the small….stretching it here….from dirt and sand granules to geologist?

60 thoughts on “Character Study”

  1. Shuku April 9, 2018 / 12:48 pm

    I absolutely love this – I don’t think it’s a stretch at all from ‘sand and rocks’ to ‘geologist’. It’s a lovely progression. Layers, marzipan, rock candy, stratas!

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 1:00 pm

      Ah….you understood the reference to layers! 😊. Glad you enjoyed!

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      • Shuku April 9, 2018 / 1:02 pm

        I did! And I did indeed enjoy it very much!

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:41 pm

      Always happy to hand out smiles 🙂

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:41 pm

      Oh yes….and I made them into chocolate chip cookies with pebbles as the chips! 🙂

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  5. kim881 April 9, 2018 / 3:13 pm

    I love the sweet way you sneaked in the prompt word, Lill!

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  6. jillys2016 April 9, 2018 / 3:20 pm

    Oh, you are so, so clever! I had to read twice before I found it in between the layers of sweet things. And I don’t think you are stretching the NaPo prompt at all – that one bamboozled me this morning. Love this charming poem, Lil!

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:42 pm

      Thanks, Jilly. A fun one to do! Didn’t know if folks would catch the layers….as in sedimentary and strata 🙂

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      • jillys2016 April 9, 2018 / 7:29 pm

        Oh, yes! One of my favorite classes in college was Geology. My daughter collected ‘pretty’ rocks as a child; she would slip them into my purse without my knowledge. Danged if I could figure out why it was so heavy! She collects to this day and I still know my way around a mineral kit 🙂

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:43 pm

      Ah yes……..those dentist appointments are the downer of a sweet tooth!

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:43 pm

      My husband is a geologist….he just rolled his eyes 🙂

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  9. Jo Aylard April 9, 2018 / 3:31 pm

    This is so sweet! I especially loved the phrase, “building dirt castles with lollypop flags.”

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:44 pm

      Ha! You’ve picked out the phrase that was the most difficult to come up with….I had the dirt castle idea but had to figure out how to “sweeten” it! 🙂

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:45 pm

      Thanks, Paul. A fun one to write!

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  12. Charley April 9, 2018 / 5:17 pm

    marZIPan Clever! I was at a total loss, but it’s been too long a day. 🙂

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:46 pm

      Well, I started with a country song with zippity-doo-dah and then was nibbling on a sweet….looked over at my geologist hubby….and there ya go! 🙂

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      • Charley April 9, 2018 / 8:29 pm

        Sounds like a system that works.

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:47 pm

      Mud pies were the best to make….I used to put pebbles in mine and then “bake them” in the sun so they’d be chocolate chip cookies! 🙂 Ah the imagination of youth!

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:48 pm

      Always fun to have a little treasure hunt within a poem 🙂

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    • lillian April 9, 2018 / 6:49 pm

      Hiding words in a poem is like having an Easter egg hunt every time you write! 🙂

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  16. lynn__ April 9, 2018 / 7:03 pm

    Love your secret ingredient for marZIPan, Lillian….so clever 🙂

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  17. Mish April 9, 2018 / 7:51 pm

    I like the way she evolves in this quadrille. When we are able to follow our passions throughout life, we are very lucky. 🙂

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    • lillian April 11, 2018 / 9:11 am

      It really is true, right? To have a life’s work that is also a passion, that we truly enjoy….
      My husband is the geologist….although he most definitely doesn’t have a sweet tooth.

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  18. Waltermarks April 9, 2018 / 9:24 pm

    Marzipan, sticky business that. I knew you’d find a way to slip it in. That’s a great childhood study

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    • lillian April 11, 2018 / 9:13 am

      Thanks, Walter. We have a really wonderful bakery in the North End (Boston’s little Italy) called Modern Pastry Shop and they always have marzipan sculptures in their window…usually its fruit shaped and colored and shaded as an artist would…what you can do with a little almond paste is amazing.

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  19. peterfrankiswrites April 9, 2018 / 10:06 pm

    So clever – love the dissonant idea of a ‘sweet toothed geologist’ – as the natural progression from her childhood. A life compressed into these brief 44 words.

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    • lillian April 11, 2018 / 9:13 am

      Glad you enjoyed! Ah yes….the quadrille compresses whatever the subject! 🙂

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    • lillian April 11, 2018 / 9:14 am

      Thanks, Carol. It really is happenstance that it applies to the Napowrimo hint of this day.

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    • lillian April 11, 2018 / 9:14 am

      Thanks for your yummy reply! 🙂

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  22. revivedwriter April 10, 2018 / 4:47 pm

    This made me smile. It’s interesting how a person’s childhood interests can morph into something bigger but similar as they grow up.

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    • lillian April 11, 2018 / 9:15 am

      Exactly! And….always happy to hand out smiles!

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  26. Janice April 11, 2018 / 10:20 am

    Clever inclusion of zip! I enjoyed the poetic sketch.

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  27. purplepeninportland April 12, 2018 / 8:12 am

    Rocks, sand, and marzipan! Not a stretch at all. This is so clever, I couldn’t find the ‘zip’ right away.

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