Posts for June 30, 2023 (page 10)

At 5:30 sharp we sat down to dinner, Dad at the head and the five of us kids scattered 
around. There was meatloaf with the Heinz ketchup brown sugar glaze and Mom’s
homemade scalloped potatoes creamy with milk, slivers of onion, grated cheddar cheese
dotted with butter.. Steamed fresh green beans. She always had three, a meat, starch, and
vegetable. Salad was lettuce, quartered bright red tomatoes, shiny green sticks of green
pepper from Dad’s backyard patch of garden.

Dinnertime was family time. After the blessing, the boys would wolf down  their food,
especially the meat. It was a race to grab the last piece of meat on the platter. Dad watched 
like a hawk, diving in for the kill piercing the meat with his fork. A collective groan emerged.

We were hungry, not in the mood for Dad’s barrage of questions. My friend Linda Lynn
gave it the moniker, 20 Questions after staying with us one summer which is a whole other
story. Dad chortled when she said it, something we would be sent to our room for even 
suggesting. He tried to connect and keep abreast of our lives, both academic and social.
Mom filled in the gaps, cushioned the bad, always the peacemaker. How was the math test?
 You mean the one you kept me up till 2am showing your engineering precision to my artsy 
brain? Who needs algebra anyway?

Pitting us against each other while he watched from the sidelines laughing. Aware
that he did it for amusement, we fell for it every time. He took time to know our 
triggers. Deep down we were glad.
 

I love your soul,

not just a tad bit no

it’s like a rabbit hole

and if you’re a dipole I’m the opposite I know because the operant pairing makes me whole

you carry me away; arteriole

a good trip like cheerio

I clearly need to know,

how deep it is you go

Where else could I go fot a story prompt,
Where else would I have seen real life unfold
Other than the Walmart in the floodplain
By the railroad tracks
Where I used to shop for records
At the original discount store?
I bought Beatles records
Blue and white and Sgt. Pepper
Frolicking in circles – scratch needle in groove
Where could I go to see the big bottom girls
On bicycles while Qyen shines on
In bohemian rhapsody?
No, kiss me under the bleachers,
Behind the dumpster, in the backseat
Of a Chevy at the drive-in.
Giant creatures battling for domination
And your hand slipped over my breast
And maybe south of there.
But the Walmart still has McDonald’s
Still has big mommas smacking their children
And blue jeans rumpled on the shelves
And fake Nike sneakers
And orange cheese puffs
And coke-a-cola.
Where else could I find you
Since the days when this place flooded
And the train rattled by, blowing its whistle?

Our little town was built
By clay and bricks mined
From men like my great-
Grandfathers who wore
Their fingers to the bone

They thrived for years
Until the need for fire
Brick was no longer a
Necessity as it once was

One by one the furnaces
And brickyards closed
Buildings left to rot and
Return again to nature 

The past of this place  is
Long forgotten, except 
For the few of us who
Know that this place
Was built literally 
Brick by brick

Pages
There are none left
to pour my soul into —
so instead I must find another
vessel

‘artist’

a title i have given a decade to
a badge i wear around my wrists and in my teeth

i can so easily taste the word
gotten so used to way its colors shine in my peripheral vision

like the way sonnets sound sloshed around another high schoolers mouth, so uninterested and so uninspired

‘art’

it’s the noun that so seamlessly transformed into a verb
it’s what can be created

or something that just grows and twists and develops on a page and in the air and all around

it’s what hits people in the face at one am and gives the early birds a reason to watch the sunrise

there’s some poetic justice

a convoluted oxymoron when artists create art and so easily disregard their God-given title

Do you remember the last time you made a wish upon the evening star?
Star light, Star bright, first star I see tonight.
Did you lose faith because wishes were granted in reverse
Or disguised behind a cloudy, lidded moon?
Wish I may
Did you wish for something better? For someone lost? For your own weary heart to mend?
Wish i might
Without fail, I wished for you. Certain the stars would light the way
Have the wish I wish tonight
Maybe it’s time to start again