Bad Poetry: Ode to a Torch

(Some say torch, some say flashlight. In real life I usually say flashlight, but the Poets & Storytellers United prompt specified the word torch.) 

Dear little battery-powered torch

Whose cool, small light will never scorch,

You've beamed through many a night and day

When electricity'd blown away.

Of recent gifts from my late mother

I've loved you more than any other.

What's made your usefulness so large

Is that your batteries recharge.

I've missed a late friend's Ray-O-Vac

But, having you, I really lack

Nothing by way of safe, cheap light.

Those who made you did their work right.

In the 1990s my mother and one sister used to peddle Avon products. Not all Avon products are cosmetics. One year they were selling pocket-sized rechargeable torches, or flashlights, whichever, and I received one for a birthday gift. Another year, later, I stayed off the grid all summer. I had half a dozen battery-powered lights including a cheap plastic imitation of the classic Ray-O-Vac, a big lamp whose battery compartment had to be unscrewed with a Phillips screwdriver, and the pocket-sized treasure. The Avon flashlight, or torch, outperformed the others...and it still does.