Mowing Our Children Down With Weapons of War

Tears will never wash the pain away
My heart has stopped
Tears will never
It's dark there now
The Black is seeping, growing
Seeping into every crack, every
cell, every membrane, memory
Rain will never wash the pain away
I'm bulging with grief
The pain of knowing that I stood by and did nothing.
My imagined and real pain of parents, sisters, brothers
cousins, Aunts and Uncles, Grandmothers, Grandfathers
and friends must bear
Is haunting, hunting, horrifying and the black
just keeps running as a river.  Splashing it's way into my eyes
ears nose throat.  Finger tips skin hair
Hundreds! Is the count of these acts really
in the hundreds now?  And yet as a nation we are
paralyzed.  Is there some sort of congressional
committee working on this?  Don't we have
committees for everything, researching,
investigating, recommending?  Why isn't
the media pursuing, printing, videoing
the few people who do care, who do have
ideas, who are pressing and pushing for protection
for our innocents?  What kind of society
are we?????????????  How can we
keep acting like nothing has happened,
turn a blind eye, pretend that Florida
is far away and that we are safe
I guess I should be saying I not we
That's what I've been doing.  These
terrorist attacks and that is what
I am calling them no matter what
the definition is.  What action will I
take?  Will I take this personally and
know that if they aren't safe, if they are
hurt then nobody is safe and everyone
harmed.
Why don't we have a term that fits the
description of this horror film played
over and over in real life?  Mass shooting?
mass killing?  More like Mass Murder,
Mass Carnage, Butchery, Blood Bath.
If we use more graphic terms will our
leaders listen and act? Will I?  Mass
shooting...what a laugh that isn't funny.
I am going to join the fight somewhere
against this horrifying specter, the
blackness that is stretching its inky tentacles
across the land of the imprisoned and
the home of the cowardly.

The page is empty
white and bright
as the moon that's
high tonight


These little black squiggles
will hopefully make sense
 make you sigh
And sometimes giggle

The pressure is on
I'm my Jessie's partner
Buddy, assistant, (not really)
easier to twirl a baton.

To faithfully write
compose, deposit
words on a page
takes a little might.

brain exercises
that's what I'll call them
will keep my aging
brain from losses

healthy mental
alertness, awareness
intelligence and
thinking prowess.

Will be my reward

                                                         
It's Up to You

It's up to you
the path you choose...
You see the paths so
clearly before you now
There's the one that follows
fear and loneliness, the path
of least resistance ironically
takes us into the woods alone.
And drops us there and doesn't care.
You say the other path is way too hard
It makes me sweat and grunt and start
again again again and again.
The path to loving yourself is
certainly worth all of the pain.
For it leads to all other paths
full of fruit trees lining the way
Picture yourself eating the fruit
of relationships full of harmony
closeness, laughter and love.
It's there for the taking
one step at a time
With patience and focus
the tortoise won the race!
Although it's not a race
It is a destination and
what you will need is
only your good will
and persistence and...
The Savior who loves
Us all the same
Who beckons, lay your
burden at my feet and
follow me, even yoke
yourself to me, even take
shelter under my wing,
see my Light, it is lighting
your way. Look up, do not
complicate your life.
Look up!

Some days nothing different happens.  Today was not that day.  Today I saw something I've never seen or done before.  I guess when you are a custodian at a huge university you better get used to being surprised.  Picture is of my souvinir, a blister, too much plunging.

What is Orange and Floats?

Bet you can't guess what I'm thinking!

Here are some hints to get your wheels turning.

Two inches long, and one inch wide
Smells sweet and good to eat
except when mixed with toilet paper
and pewy poopy.

Could have been nine little
goldfish happily swimming
These are blind and cannot swim.
Just tossed around from rim to rim.

Sad to say I was the one who found them.
one by one they came up from the deep
being sucked and sucked till they couldn't creep.
Only nine! there must be ten!

The pot is still overflowing when flushing
They keep popping up and floating
Is this never ending, before my eyes
Orange things keep appearing!

I know you can't begin to guess
so here is the crazy answer
Some idiot girl unsuccessfully tried
to flush their cantaloupe down the sewer!

What were you thinking you might say aghast
My theory I just came up with
is their shaking fingers fumbled and fumbled
And into the toilet her fruit salad tumbled.

Then you have to say,
when number 2 is on the way,
why, bring your delicious
fruit salad into a stall
where it could poosibly fall!

Little Henry William,
we know so little of you.
You lived so vibrantly in the womb
Just out of touch,
just out of our grasp
we'll grieve for our loss.
To stroke your head,
hear you coo and giggle,
see you suck your thumb
burp and tumble.

We try to picture you
in our mind,
a full grown spirit
to comfort our sorrow.
Running around in heaven
on God's merciful errand.

Patient and faithful
that God in his heaven
all knowing, all seeing
will pour out
grand blessings and
faithfully comfort.

We'll keep our daydreams
safely tucked in our secret hiding place
until the time we meet
and embrace you face to face.

Life can be like the sunshine and warm breezes but quickly turn stormy.  An unwanted hot flash, and a million other things can rub me the wrong way.  Sometimes I feel like a hypocrite.  I'm all sunny one minute the next I'm not a very nice person.  Happy that I don't have to be perfect but sometimes I wish I was a little farther down that path

Eager to be
eager to feel
eager to see
eager to know
things of the Spirit
joy
peace
love
gratitude
Like the sun that shines so brightly
at times I do so
Like dark clouds scudding quickly
that can overcome the glow
Why do I let shadows creep in
and steal my heavenly peace
Love, take the place of pride
and make me see all living kind
inside of me, a part of me
by thy patient grace.

Here is a poem I wrote November 25 the day after Thanksgiving.  A very trying day.  I cried myself to sleep that night and actually wrote this in bed because I couldn't sleep.

Help Us
See the rose that fades away
See the parched and barren land
Angels come quickly, hear our cry
for the lost and lonesome die.
Send the gentle rain
Take back the hail, sleet and snow.
Turn our hearts and make them flow.
Flow through valleys lush and green
giving more as we go.


Winter
The lights are up!
Our hearts are full!
Snow is fluffy
on the ground.
Evergreens everywhere
snow resting
on their arms.
Get the skis out
time to glide.
It's cold
yet it's warm.
It's dark
yet it's light.
Serve the chocolate
Turn on the tree!
Life, winter, the barren tree
We can dress it up
to be what we want it to be!