One night, before I lost my hair, a very dear friend and I had a long online chat which had me in stitches. From picturing myself bald, with a tweed peaked cap and horn-rimmed glasses, we suddenly invented a whole new character – Alpatooti. This mysterious being brought me so much laughter – along with my wonderful friend who understood the game and played me match for match. I felt Alpatooti needed a poem. So here it is written as a chant poem for Bjorn’s latest dVerse challenge.
alpatooti alpatooti this new being becoming, growing hairless, boobless, abstract, gormless laughter looney alpatooti alpatooti alpatooti great tall hatch jump in, it’s poison Pac man, hack man, tax man axing cancer alpatooti alpatooti alpatooti crowd the tears into tiny spaces stuff them, cherish them, shout them catch them alpatooti alpatooti alpatooti blankets, wheat packs beanies, yak sacks love coming like breath cuddle-me-daily alpatooti alpatooti alpatooti we’re marching, wobbling, giggling ‘ til cheeks are wet banks of thanks to all and alpatooti
Oh, I love this and humor is always something to uplift us in dark times. Alpatooti is quite the character and I smiled more throughout the poem, giggling at this when coming back to it:
“hairless, boobless, abstract, gormless
laughter looney
alpatooti”
Beautifully written and so relatable in the way how we use humor to cope with things. If we didn’t have humor, especially those in police departments or the medical field and the like, we would succumb to the tragedies. I enjoyed reading this. ❤
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Thanks Lucy!! ❤️❤️❤️. I am so glad it made sense. Kind of hard to tell from the inside, sometimes. 🙂. Thanks for your lovely, full and empathetic response. 💕💕
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This is so fantastic. I love it to pieces.
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Excellent ☺️ thank you. 💕
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I just read “This is your House” and love it. But I can’t find how to comment or like. Bit dopey of me.
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I tend to have little spazz attacks about comments, so I turned them off to chill myself out. I hope you’ll come back to read again. I’ll turn them back on when I link with something, but I didn’t think mine really fit the prompt.
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Ok. No worries. Do what works for you. 🙂💕. I will come back and read again.
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Creative creature! Alpatootie, I can tell you’re a spunky cutie!
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🤣❤️
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That is fabulous Worms! ❤
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Thanks, Kate!! 💕
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The bouncy rhythm in this is fantastic, as is putting two fingers up to your cancer in this lovely, bubbly poem. Your positivity, although you must have bad days, is an absolute inspiration Worms. 🧡
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Thanks Hobbo, I am sure those closest to me could tell you I have glum patches. But humour is a great saviour. Recently the same friend and I were contemplating the creative eyebrows I can draw on. 🤣🤣 Thomas the Tank Engine Triangles. John Howard (ex Aussie PM) foxes brush. Angry Bird darts. Hee hee. It’s fun to imagine.
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😂 kangaroo bounces!
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I can only quote Gordon Ramsey, “WOW”.
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Thanks. 🙂. It must be one of the more polite things he said. 😉
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This is fantastic: charged with bravery, positivity and a sense of laughing at all the challenges life throws at us. It sounds like you have a wonderful and valuable friend 🙂
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She is fabulous! 💕💕 Thanks, Ingrid.
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This is absolutely marvelous, mixing the humor with the background… the rhymes and the repetition of the name alpatooti really made it for me… and having a friend who you can laugh with at the trying times is the best thing of all.
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Thanks, Bjorn. 🙂. Much appreciated. And yes, some friendships are simply invaluable.
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I think I met Alpatootie one rainy night in the neighborhood pub …..
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🤣. No doubt. Alpatooti turns up in surprising places.
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The honest mirth and genuine love that resonates in this piece bespeaks the bond of friendship that gave birth to Alpatooti — wonderful write! 🙂
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Thanks, Rob. T’was a night to remember. 😊
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I love you Alpatootie … to the moon and back a million times. This is priceless.
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Thanks Helen. 🙂💕
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What a great word. Just the sound of it lifts the spirits. (K)
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😊
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Thanks for the rollicking good roller ride with frooty looty Al Patooty 😀
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😊
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alpatooti =), first, i love this poem, this is a keeper, second third forth and so on, i love your strength and your wit and your resolve, and thank you for sharing this, for reasons i’m not going to get into, but, yeah, thank you for sharing this.
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Thank you Phillip. I am glad it spoke to you. I feel so lucky with all the support I have. 🙂
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well well we have a lot in common, cancer took my boobs too! I’d known I had it for ages but she was still too shocked to get my humour 🙂
So glad your friend got it and rolled with you … this is brilliant writing, a rollicking chant and an uplifting attitude!
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Thanks so much! A fellow Alpatooti. Thanks for telling me. It’s amazing how many of us are out there.
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for sure, a club nobody wants to be a member of! When was your mastectomy? Are you clear?
Mine was Sept 2012 and all clear since, although the femara almost killed me 😦
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😢. My mastectomy was May this year. They think they got it all but still having chemo, then radiation and then hormone treatment. But I don’t think it’s Femara. I think the drug they mentioned started with T. It seems a long way off still. 23 weeks or something.
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Tamoxifen is the most common, good luck with the treatment … which hospital? Nosey parker aren’t I .. no need to answer if you don’t want 🙂
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The Canberra Hospital. 🙂
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then you are fairly COVID free I hear, take care and if you ever want to chat about it just leave a msg 🙂
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Thanks! That’s a lovely offer. Where did you receive your treatment? Yes, we are so far *touch wood* pretty Covid free. Hospitals are still taking the precaution of mask wearing. Sydney seems very close and this Delta variant is a bit scary
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I was living in India at the time but came back to St George, Sydney for surgery … I now live in Ballina 🙂
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Glad you’re all clear still. that’s great news!!
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