Slice of My Life: Boggle with Joe

For the last ten years of my father's life, my husband and I played Boggle with him every Saturday morning (no matter--as I have often said--how much I had to drink on Friday night). For those unfamiliar with Boggle, it's a plastic grid of lettered dice; in a series of 3-minute rounds, players attempt to find words in adjacent letters.You only get points if no other player writes down the same word.

We actually played Big Boggle, which is a 5 x 5 grid rather than a 4 x 4 grid. And we only allowed words of 5 letters or more, which made us feel superior to those Boggle players who wasted their time writing down words like "cat" and "tree."

At the time, I was in the semi-habit of writing simple poems (doggerel, actually). Here's the poem I wrote for my father's reading pleasure:

BOGGLE

The reasons we like Boggle abound

It’s simple; no rules that confound

Need nothing but skill; no luck involved

Except when Joe crosses out Rob

No two shakes are ever the same

No here-we-go-again refrain

What fun to say “that’s an eleven”

The rare fifteen is close to heaven

We all look forward to INGs

And words that begin with RE

Whether the version is five or six

We do enjoy our Saturday fix!