ON THE NOELS

I was poking through the larder the other day on the sixth Noels.
I was thinking Christmassy thoughts, trying to keep the Season alive within me,
At the opposite side of the year.

It wasn’t easy; the heat without was oppressive
High summer
Humidity enough to flood the lungs, like breathing underwater

When dressed at all that day we were in swimsuits
Thumb over the end of the hose
Misting ourselves down on the porch
The wood hot enough to cook eggs
Metal surfaces too hot to even look comfortably at,
Nevermind touch.

Coming inside I scouted for food
Found a surprise.

There were four of them left
precious like curved scepters in a jeweled box I took one out
carefully peeled back the cellophane Intending to enjoy it myself, I found the need to break it in half when The Eggman entered the room his memory for such Christmas treats as long as mine


We stood at the window watching light play on the Otter Pond
It TASTED like Christmas
Tasted like a hundred happy memories
Like song and family and warm fires and colored lights
It tasted like Home.

We stood at the window, The Eggman and I
Tasting the cool of Christmastide
In the furnace of Summer.

My Haiku's Are So Aggressive

Let's meet at the line
Of scrimmage, mate, face to face
A battle pending.

PARABLE OF THE ROACH

Lil' Miss Sunshine and I were playing on the deck
spraying water with the hose in the Florida sun

a roach headed for the back door
intent on exploring the wasteland beneath our fridge

I sprayed it with water and blasted it to the edge
I thought I'd be Zen and not stomp it to death

from it's back it righted itself and headed again towards the door
I blasted it again, off the edge of the deck

The bug spotted the neighbors door and headed that way
a grey toad jumped out of a crack behind it and swallowed the roach whole

There's a lesson in there, I know
but I don't yet know what it is.

Vogon Fight Song

Small minds, small ideas, rules
Scorn them not, you maverick!
Hail the status quo!
Hail bureaucracy!
These things, these systems you abhor
As fussy, boring, and didactic
May save you someday.
It is true, they may prevent
The launch of an idea that will change the world
For the good of all humankind,
It is also then true that
They have the power to halt the march of crazy.
And for that, you should be jubilant.

"5 THINGS I WISH FOR" BY SUNFLOWER

OLD MOTHER HUBBARD WUZ HERE

When your cupboards are filled with the ghosts of food
and you can't get to the store
and you can't make a boxed cake because you're out of eggs

Buttered noodles shall never abandon you

PRECIOUS MEMORIES

Precious memories, unseen angels
sent from somewhere to my soul
how they linger ever near me
and the sacred scenes unfold

precious memories, how they linger
how they ever flood my soul
in the stillness of the midnight
precious, sacred scenes unfold

precious father, loving mother
fly across the moonlit years
and those home scenes of my childhood
in fond memories appear

precious memories, how they linger
how they ever flood my soul
in the stillness of the midnight
precious, sacred scenes unfold

as I travel on life's pathways
I know not what years may hold
as I wonder hopes grow fonder
precious memories flood my soul

precious memories, how they linger
how they ever flood my soul
in the stillness of the midnight
precious, sacred scenes unfold

precious memories, how they linger
how they ever flood my soul
in the stillness of the midnight
precious, sacred scenes unfold

---Old Crow Medicine Show

"MY CHAOTIC LIFE" BY SUNFLOWER

My eldest daughter brought down a small collection of poems that she'd written and illustrated for school. though this is not the first in the book she wrote, this is one of my most favorites:

A MOPEY LIMERICK

Mine goodwife, Goldberry, ripped this one off last nite after reading my
poem about Morning Coffee


There once was girl from Erie
Who's outlook was said to be dreary
she would sit around and mope,
she just couldn't cope
the Dr. said Asperger's was the theory

(it's been a tuff week for our Sunny-flower, folks: there was that tropical storm what's-his-name... Al or something... that buggered her trip to Florry-Daah, and we've been too broke to go anywhere...)

MORNIN’ COFFEE

My 12 y.o. daughter is a coffee drinker.
Granted, she takes hers foofy
Creamer, milk, hot chocolate mix
Stirred (not shaken)
Served in a glass beer mug--
HAPPY ST. PATS! 1992--
But her old man didn’t become a Java Man
Until he was 16.

She sits in her PJ’s at the laptop
Feeding her NeoPets
Checking her email
Drinking her coffee
Her brother runs up to check in
And give her arm a tight squeeze
Before running off

Our Missing Piece is back with us
(momentarily)
And we’re sharing morning coffee.

Unburdened

It's so much easier to face the day
When I'm not the only one working for pay.
The drive seems shorter.
The work easier.
And the bills not so scary to pay.

GOODBYE TO MY UNCLES

Goodbye to my Mama, my uncles and aunts
One after they went to lie down
In the green pastures besides the still water
And made no sound

Their arms that had held me for so many years
Their beautiful voices, no longer I hear,
They’re in Jesus’ arms and He’s talking to them
In the rapturous New Jerusalem

And I know they’re at peace in a land of delight
But I miss my Mama tonight…

Goodbye Eleanor and aunt Frannie and Jo
Goodbye Uncle Jim and Elsie and Dot
Goodbye to my Mama who went to lie down
And now is gone…

Who’s hands are these all rough and hard?
Nails are torn with toil and care
Who cleaned the house and swept the yard?
Touched my cheek and stroked my hair?

Thank you Mama, the Lord give you peace
Bless your voice and the songs you sung
Bless your arms and your hands and your knees
How you loved us when we were young

The Lord’s my Shepard, I’ll not want
I have my Mama, my uncles and aunts
Water so still and pastures so green
Goodness and mercy following me
Goodness and mercy following me

---Garrision Keillor, Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin
“A Prarie Home Companion”

SLEEPING BEAUTY

when I watch her sleep

I see the future shadows

of who she'll become

Applejuice is positively sinful...

I've tried before
but can't ignore
the taste of applejuice.

Where once was just
hardly a lust
now gives my tongue a goose!

Truly feeling life
is somewhat rife
with tons of sensations.

While there is quite
a just delight
we also feel chagrin.

And what better way
to thus display
my point that life's a treat?

Than take a drink
and really think
how applejuce tastes so sweet!

Always,
Jas...
~written when the author dropped the cocoon of emotional protection and decided to live life to the fullest for the first time just weeks ago, and tried Applejuice for the first time (though he'd had it lots of times before) and discovered just how sinful it was!

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

This haiku goes out to my cousin on his 32nd birthday...

Aaron is my cuz.
I think he is great even
Though he's miles away.

A NUDE LIMERICK

Wrote this this AM still stewing about the friggin moron who called the cops 'cuz they spied our toddler standing nude at our back window...

A person incredibly rude
Called the cops ‘cuz they saw my son nude
But the officer said that night
It was Sol’s God-given right
And the callers right to be a prude

The cops also said, apparently
That the caller had also spied a nude me
But if you squint through my patio glass
And you spy my naked white ass
Then that’s what you get for invading my privacy

So this morning when we descended the stairs
We made sure that we came down quite bares
We all shook our bums
And jiggled our tums
In a celebration of letting down our hairs.

Besides, it’s Florida! It’s much to hot
To go around wearing a lot
So we wear garments quite teeny
Like an itty-bitty string bikini
And strut around in all that we got

The whole thing is so incredibly silly
To have the cops run ‘round willy-nilly
When there is terrible, REAL crime
Going on all the time
But instead they’re dealing with a 3 year old’s willy

And so my friends, to this suggestion abide
If you’re examining your neighbors house on the inside
You may spy someone’s tits
Or their partner’s naughty bits
And it’s best to just to turn your gaze to the side

So let me close on this thought for the day--
You can interpret it just as you may--
If God wanted us to be nude,
‘cuz He don’t think it’s rude,
Then we would all be BORN that way!!

THE PICTURE

There are pictures on the piano, pictures of the family
Mostly my kids but there’s no picture of your and me
You were 5 and I was 6 in 1952
That was 40 years ago, how could it be true?

We were sitting outside the drawing at a table meant for cards
And it must have been in autumn, falling leaves in the front yard
With a shoebox full of crayons, full of colors oh so bright
In a picture in a plastic frame, a snapshot, black and white

You were looking at my paper, watching what I drew
It was natural I was older, 13 months more than you
A brother and a sister, a little boy and girl
And whoever took that picture, they captured our whole world

Now a brother needs a sister to watch what he can do
To protect and to torture, to boss around, it’s true
But a brother will defend her, for a sister’s love is pure
Because she thinks he’s wonderful, even when he’s not so sure

In the picture there’s a fender of our old Chevrolet
Or a Pontiac, our dad would know-- surely he could say
But dad is dead and we grow old, it’s true the time flies by
And in 40 years the world is changed, as well as you and I…

---Lauden Wainright
Sung by Sally Dworski on Prarie Home Companion, 6/3/06

QUICK

our 3 year old son

can strip nude in 10 seconds

we know, we timed him

FLASHBACK

Reading Peanuts strips
Christmas nineteen fifty-six
snow on Snoopy's house

it brought it all back
waking in late December
fresh, crystaline snow

snow perched on branches
sparkling in the morning sun
greets me when I wake

I decend the stairs
to find the Christmas tree lit
sparkling like the snow

I pause, hold my breath
light filters through the windows...
Close my eyes... I'm there

"COME AND FOLLOW ME"

This is a good'un for the first Friday in Joon:

Every day the world begins again
sunny skies or rain
come and follow me...

every sunrise shows me more and more
so much to explore
come and follow me...

Every morning, every day
every evening, calling me away...

While the sun goes 'round I'll still be found
following the sound
somethings calling me

when the world goes drifting back to bed
memories in my head
wonders follow me...

every morning, every day
every evening, calling me away...

every morning, every day
every evening, calling me away...

---Uncle "Traveling" Matt and Nephew Gobo
"Meet the Fraggles"

Fraggle Rock

ON THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION

the day dawned and the light streamed in.
I awoke before my sleeping son and laid there in bed reading delightful morning thoughts
and listening to him breathe

when he awoke he was all smiles and hugs, happy to see me home on a weekday
we played peek a boo and hold-hands in the comforter until it was time to go downstairs

morning milk, but nothing to eat, we awaited the arising of mine goodwife

kids in the car, we fought the heat of early noon to the store to stock up on food

home, we unpacked and gobbled frozen waffles, a favorite

suits on, we besmeared ourselves with SPF 40 and headed to the water
where the kids squealed and split their faces wide with grins of pure joy to be in the water

pinky-red and dripping we return to the dark, cool dark of the apartment
drink limeaid, a favorite summer-only drink from my childhood
my children smack their lips at the tartness and hold cups aloft for more

naptime for mom and baby while the Eggman plays with blocks and I write
endless text rolling around my head, pressing outwards like fluff bursting from milkweed pods

it's summer and I change the wallpaper of my school laptop to Dink's Ass, something unthinkable on school time and I laugh loud with schoolboy glee when I press the OK button
("and who's tushie-can is THAT?" asks my wife
"my new girlfriend's" I quip back
"Uh-huh..." says she, then a pause
"it IS a good looking ass, though...")

tho' it be the beginning of summer, we made a giant pot of comfort food and ate it until we were weighted to the spot

As the sun sat, the Eggman began looking out longingly at the ripples on the pool and wished to go and dip his toes again

though it was approaching 9 PM, why NOT go swimming?
Why not stay awake until 2 AM reading Twain on the balcony?
'Tis June the First
'Tis summer; nothing else is required of me

Flea Bag Motel

The old TV's broke.
The promised cable service
A deep, profound lie.