December 18, 2008 – 7:31 am
A blizzard had come to Jack and Jane’s town,
the snow not just falling but blitzing down!
Peering out a window, finding visibility near zero,
deciding no way would they try to be a hero,
they glanced at each other with their best mock frown.
So with Jack on the land phone, Jane on the cell,
while watching weather the exact opposite of that of hell,
both called their boss with something delightful to say,
“I’m snowed under, can’t make it in to work today”,
as already sub-freezing temperatures dipped and fell.
Giving themselves the day off was really a perverse pleasure,
before the recording both heard served to lessen the measure.
Jack and Jane’s respective offices had been closed,
until the severe winter storm had been weather deposed.
“Oh well”, said Jack, “we still get a day or more of leisure”.
November 18, 2008 – 8:45 pm
Now please, dear readers, please don’t be alarmed,
and hopefully not too disappointed if that’s your take.
The reputation of any persons won’t here be harmed,
nor any occurances or events will this story partake,
and you’ll not be reading about porn for goodness sake.
But you’ll learn about trash, more than you wanted to know,
and if you prefer the term “garbage”, it’s still apropos.
In the United States at least, trash is a growing affliction,
each of us, at home and at work, creating 4.5 pounds a day
of a commodity we’d as soon not have, without contradiction.
A 70 year old has generated 50 tons of trash, says one survey,
as much as 10 African bull elephants together would weigh.
And, although recycling trash in the US has steadily grown,
two-thirds still wind up in a landfill or incinerator it’s known.
November 14, 2008 – 7:37 pm
In the United States, in the year 1929, the Great Depression
wrought severe financial crisis and hardship throughout the land.
Even those previously rich awakened to meet monetary repression
and ate from soup lines, while others, too proud in them to stand,
leapt from a skyscraper, their mind’s last decision and command.
In the state of Ohio, the then tiny farming town of Westerville
is today one of the largest suburbs of Columbus, Ohio’s capitol city.
Life there continued normally in 1929, escaping the Depression, until
in late November, 1931, it finally hit the town and it wasn’t pretty,
but Westerville’s town fathers in no way simply wallowed in pity.
Beset with a multitude of problems, their local bank topped the list,
as The Bank of Westerville had run drastically short of cash
and Ohio’s banking superintendent shut it down with an iron fist,
becoming one of 5,000 US banks failing from the Depression’s bash.
But the town of 2,900 needed a bank, if it was to survive the crash.
November 4, 2008 – 10:58 am
Bruce thought he heard it, he was fairly certain, but not sure
of the chirping of small yellow birds at his window screen.
And though it would be a while before his alarm clock would lure,
the birds did the trick, he leaped from bed like he did as a teen.
Bruce hadn’t felt so good in so many countless years,
and his wife already had put breakfast on the table.
The birds had awakened her also, or so it appears,
and for a moment he felt surely he was living a fable.
The omelet was the best he could ever remember,
and he wondered if coffee had ever tasted this great,
if it did any spark of it’s memory was a long dead ember.
Bruce ate eagerly, then fought temptation to lick his plate.
He hopped in the shower to get ready for work,
wanting to surprise the boss with his earliest arrival yet.
He turned on the water with his customary jerk,
and the spray was immediately perfect, as if preset.
September 28, 2008 – 9:48 am
It’s the world’s largest and heaviest living bird,
a strange looking winged creature that can’t fly,
and to say it’s handsome would be totally absurd.
Native to Africa’s savannahs and deserts hot and dry,
the ostrich is social, preferring to live in a herd.
And though it’s true they’ll never take to the sky,
among fowls on the ground their speed’s the last word.
The ostrich is built for running, with legs powerful and long
and, for added velocity, only two toes on each hoof belong.
They sprint in short bursts at over forty miles per hour
and can easily maintain long distances at thirty-one,
for running ability, the ostrich has maximum bird power.
But if they can’t fly, why don’t their wings total none?
They flaunt them proudly for courtship to empower,
to impress the desirable mate their fowl heart has won.
And wings help with balance, as up to nine feet ostriches tower
while zipping along the desert with ten to sixteen foot strides,
wings aiding them to stay upright, instead of falling on their sides.
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