Dueling Lawnmowers by Duane Anderson

They had matching lawn mowers.
She mowed the front yard,
and he mowed the back.
It reminded me of the movie Deliverance
where I first heard the song Dueling Banjos
at the beginning of the movie
where a young boy playing a banjo
dueling an older man playing a guitar.
Why they called it Dueling Banjos
I never quite understood since one of the instruments
definitely wasn’t any banjo I was use to seeing.

We have also seen dueling pianos,
where two pianists trying to outdo each other,
and dueling pistols where
one of both didn’t survive the outcome,
but dueling lawn mowers,
that is definitely a new one on me.

Yes, I’m sure it gets the lawn mowed faster,
so now I am waiting for them to
finish with their lawn mower routine
to see if they break out
dueling weed whackers to trim
the grasses along the foundation of the house
and along the fence.

And then I wonder
if they also have dueling vacuums
for cleaning the carpets inside their house.
Dueling,
the options are unlimited it seems.