Tag: Summer 2020

The Chinwagger’s Complaint

These fopdoodles don’t know diddly-squat.Their cattywampus minds can’t distinguishdipthongs from dongles, doohickeys from fartleks.They confuse the mythical with the actual,mistaking the Washington snallygasterfor snollygosters sitting on their fence.A two-letter switch defines their ignorance.On weekends you’ll find them at shivooswhere they’ll divagate about the demiseof jackalopes and kerfuffle aboutgobbledegook. Where one word would do,they add hundreds... Continue Reading →

Other Little Brother

Boy, you can talk.I hear you over the talking heads on tv newswho aren’t saying anything new anyhownot like youwith your fresh eleven-year-old perspective:“The politicians don’t really want to fix this.They just want to raise money and get votes.”I hear you in the van after church: “the Biblesays that Jesus had hair like a lamb’s... Continue Reading →

Two Covid-19 Poems

1.We keep our distance.We need our space.We work in separate rooms,but we can zoomright up to your face.We are building up resistanceto each other. The dietis what you would expect.The streets are so quietyou can hear the silencebuzzing like an insect.We know how to protectour face, our hands, from you,an acceptable level of violence.What else... Continue Reading →

You Will Not

A guidance counselor, parent, or coach,Each utters the same remark, “You will not.”People you believe are beyond reproach,saying to you, you haven’t got a shot.You will not pass the test or make the grade.You will not perform when it truly counts.You will not win the game when it is played.You will not beat the pressure... Continue Reading →

The Falls

Out my old new road, past Rocky’s junkyardoverflowing with rusty cars and barking dogs,round the bend at Ottie’s chicken farm,across the old stone bridge, along a grassy fieldthat winds along a small streamto our falls at old Cross Creek.And you journey here in couples or groups,intent on wading out into my waters,risking rapids, you step... Continue Reading →

Treehouse

I look at the ten-inch bolts I just purchased. They are heavy, rust resistant steel rods with a screw end with octagonal nuts and a square head on the other end. I wonder if they are strong enough to hold the four by four posts that protrude past the back end of the two door... Continue Reading →

Special

Ever since my son’s diagnosis, I’ve dreamed           that I could spill a box of toothpicks and he wouldyell out the right number, like Raymond in Rain Man.           Last semester, a student with Asperger’s announcedto our class that yes, Frank O’Hara was right           in “The Day Lady Died,” about Bastille Day 1959taking place on a Tuesday, and when questioned,           he... Continue Reading →

How Do You Know You Can Do Better?

run out of breath, & silence followsrather than the little death. stub my shinson everything. not the bull in a china shop,I’m a bull on the porcelain Earth.if there’s a Bandage District in your town,my afternoons help its workers earn.when the mail runs, seems like daysno answers come, but a few new questionsin the form... Continue Reading →

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