House for Sale in Shady Acres The question isn’t why your little world is suddenly going to hell. The question is what can you do about the black couple touring the house on your block where the sign just went up day before yesterday. The neighbors are calling and everyone’s asking what can be done before they buy it. Old Smitty is barely cold in […]
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Parents Night Emma used to do real good in school her mother tells her new teacher. It’s Parents Night at Ryland Elementary. Mostly mothers in attendance. What’s the problem, her mother asks. Fifth grade shouldn’t be hard for her. Emma’s never had a grade lower than a B, her mother says. Teacher says Emma doesn’t do her homework and talks a lot in class. Her mother can’t believe it. Says her […]
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The following is a collection of poems about Vietnam veterans and how their lives were forever changed by the horrific effects of the herbicidal warfare compound known as Agent Orange. A Life Without Guard Rails You think you got problems? You probably do but would you trade with Phillip, a Vietnam vet who still thinks Agent Orange lurks in every puddle […]
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AFTER THE FACT The mystery of history Reduces all to sophistry If fecklessly, not skeptically, Accept we its validity. Did Kennedy form strategy Preventing Cuban tragedy When quarantined Fidel at sea? Or was it serendipity? Did atom bomb need dropping on To-be-defeated-soon Nippon, Because Japan, to its last man, Would fight invasion hand-to-hand? Was Civil […]
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LIFE AFTER DEATH (One Day in Pompeii) We walk the stones of Pompeii Where grooves from chariots live And try to fathom that day When Mt. Vesuvius heaved. The mountain belched now and then Whenever Vulcan saw fit To blow his bellows again And clean his forges of grit. Some smoke and ashes the norm. The […]
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THE MYTH-ING LINK? (Based on Genesis of the Grail Kings, by Laurence Gardner, 82001) Are we the progeny of a race Who weren’t terrestrial, but from space, Who intermarried with Homo clan And so created Cro-Magnon Man? Are tales Sumerian more than myths (Perhaps 2001’s monoliths)? Were Anunnaki of whom they tell The Greeks’ Atlantean parallel? […]
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SMALL BEFORE THE SEA We have only pictures, A journal and rubble From what was a fixture To keep ships from trouble. A lighthouse, built sturdy, On Unimak island Around 1940, With Coast Guard as client. Five Guardsmen were manning The station that morning, Both horn and beam spanning The sea with their warning. At […]
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THE END I witnessed the end of the world today.* Galactic alignment blew it away. The sun grew much hotter; neutrinos changed And heated the core till crust rearranged. So much speculation to Mayan doom: An asteroid fatal may nearby loom, Or gamma ray burst from galactic core Could fry the earth’s surface like none before. […]
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LA BÊTE DE GÉVAUDAN: 1764-1767 (THE BEAST OF GEVAUDAN) (Based partly on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_of_Gevaudan and translations from http://www.dinosoria.com/bete_gevaudan.htm and http://facteurx.chez.com/betegevaudan.htm) What devastated Central France three centuries ago? “A Wolfman Beast” said those who glanced and dodged this deadly foe. “La Bête de Gévaudan” – from Hell some thought this demon came. Yet only kids and women killed, no […]
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A Good Customer I saw Al once a month for 30 years, maybe more, doing business together. He retired to hunt bear in Alaska, hook Tarpon in Florida, golf in Scotland. He had it all planned. Nothing would stop him. Months later I learned doctors said he had cancer of the blood. The outlook was bleak. I called Al and he said six months, […]
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