PAD Challenge Day 25: Hug Your Plumber!

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "thought" poem, and (2) write an "occasional" poem; that is, a poem written for a specific or special occasion, like Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem. 

One of my favorite occasional poems is Richard Wilbur's "Wedding Toast", which I read at my son and daughter-in-law's rehearsal dinner years ago. I've also written a few occasional poems myself, like a villanelle called "Odd Couple" for my in-laws' 50th anniversary. For today, though, I was at a loss for what occasion to write about, then I Googled "today's holidays" and came up with a list of unusual, obscure and lesser-known holidays celebrated today, April 25, like this one. (I worked in the "thought" theme at the beginning, but it's a bit of an afterthought, so to speak.)

National Hug a Plumber Day
 

I know it seems unlikely, but
one day some person thought,
"I hope they don't think I'm a nut

when I say that we ought

to give our favorite plumbers hugs,
those masters of the pipes,
the scrappy gals and hearty lugs
who each day earn their stripes

with wet and dirty work, some days
in water to their knees.
Let's have a day to offer praise
and give them all a squeeze!"
 
Of course, that's hard to do this year
with viruses about -
perhaps instead, just give a cheer,
a fist bump or a shout

to those who fix our sink and loo,
and sundry leaky bummers.
Let's hope in Twenty-Twenty-Two
we all can hug our plumbers!