Guilty Pleasures

My Sis is a pretty little thing, sometimes,

all ruffled up in checkerboard gingham
and lacy trim just skimming across
knees plastered with Spongebob band-aids
from a losing battle with her new bike
                                                         
Oh my, those too short days
of Barbie and telling the most awesome secrets with gal pals
under the big Catalpa in the front yard
that bloomed lovely orchids, then later shed ugly black pods
that crunch when stepped on .

Theodore from down the street

tried to schmooch on her when Suzanne wouldn’t
but she turned away and told him she had a cold
because really it was Jimmy Waskowski
that she wanted to kiss her.
 

She has a crayon picture of Jimmy

kept scrunched into her plastic Dora purse
along with a hankie from Gram, a baggie of hard old gummie bears,
and a hairbrush she can’t use cause she brushed Rex with it
when he got into the burdock out back.

 Mom will be calling her home for dinner soon

The family all must eat together
but she’s twitching to go go go upstairs
to her secret space under the bed
and put down all of this fantastic day in her diary,

which I now must close  and carefully put back as I found it

to get downstairs to dinner before I am missed.

Current Events

One drop

 

falls from the eye of a mother

grieving that her young son is dead

at the hands of a cop who says

his dark skin was not the issue.

 

One drop

spilt from a plastic gallon ladle

of a Navajo woman in New Mexico stretching

one of 7 allotted for cooking cleaning and coffee for a whole week

because a nation forgot to care for its own.

 

One drop

From the brush of a apple cheeked Iowa lad

scrubbing his prized 4H Heifer that no one will notice

because they are so involved watching a rich man drop from the sky

with promises that even an Aztec God would envy.

 

One drop

mopped from the brow of a smoke jumper

Loaded with 40 pounds of heavy gear

spading earth in 100 degree heat to protect

 the 3^rd generation home of a Washington family.

 

One drop

molecule of the simplest hydrogen and oxygen

Most bounteous and precious

binder to our very being

twining us all together.

-Jerry Wendt 2015

Billy Joe MacAllister

Billy Joe MacAllister

 

Pinnacle is not a point of permanence       

just a prominent perch of ponder,

not necessarily portent for a fall.

There is ever option to rise

buoyed by cumulous of tomorrow.

 

Tallahatchie river flows on,

 balance to perspective from point

atop Billy Joe’s shoulders.

Try to sort sawmill grist,

separate tinder from timber

 

Many stood ; more still to stand,

rising from this place

instead of falling into muddy water.

We have him to thank.

It only seems the solitary place.

 

We know better now

Billy Joe gave us that gift.

Today is not about tomorrow

where shadows  fall different or not at all

Tallahatchie ....

 

I Know You Now

I didn’t know you then,

certainly didn’t invite you in,

and was innocent to your plans.

You had no morality,

you just snuck in my door

found a home and moved in.

 

You violated me

Intimately invaded my core

and had no intention of leaving

until you left me decimated and useless

helpless to your ongoing rape

heedless of wasting away to death.

 

You are a bully

disregarding all my plans

you tried to control me,

sneaky at first and then boldly

you asserted your command

overwhelming and ravaging me.

 

But I prevailed.

I had friends

who stood beside me

and very learned people

who knew your ugly ways.

They had weapons to bear upon you.

 

A battle ensued,

I was worn thin,

every sinew of my being stretched

beyond what I thought possible.

I tried to become whole again

to heal what you brought upon me.

 

Now I think you have left

I hope not just hiding .

I still live with memory

of your hideous crime.

 I am ever wary of your veiled ways,

forever scarred from your vicious intrusion.

 

I overcame being afraid.

I am proud that I fought and won. . .so far.

If there is to be another battle I am ready

I no longer fear speaking your name,

Cancer.

I know you now.

 

 

 

Ahooga

Ahooga

Thomas caught, hand in cookie jar.          

Interrupted, he recoils,

“Crash” goes the jar.

What are you doing ?  Nothing.

 

Ahooga

Sitting across a pub table

Sam’s date gives her most alluring smile

inadvertent “Burp” drawing attention

to the spinach appetizer caught in her teeth.

 

 

Ahooga

Grandpa bends to pick up a croquet ball

pants tearing open his seat

“GrrrrRIP  cracks the air”

to the delight of his watching grandchildren.

 

Ahooga

The gum Blanche was chewing at the funeral

dropped from her quivering lips onto the departed

“Splat, “

sticking right there on her lace collar.

 

Ahooga

Jimmy’s parents bedside at hospital

willing his broken body to mend.

( silence )              

Deaf, he did not hear the horn.