So Sayeth

(the third chapter of Shell Games)   England and its North American extremities also spoke much a similar language.  One wrote to confess it was growing very tired of seeing only subjects’ backs; the other replied it was equally leery of losing the necessary leverage and independence an arm affords. Another volleyed folly eventually ensued….

At What Cost?

  written 1999, with a vast demolition and renovation  June 13-14, 2016   From where I stand Two feet short and losing ground It’s worth asking now, as I go down What’s the point of a kingdom If it costs a crown? The little old cannon on the knoll That once was manned Will not…

Incidentals

written June 4, 2016   Cornelius Cochran, besides having a rocking name, was known by my mother’s side of the family as the brightest known fruit on their limb, the polished family relation you set out for guests.  Cornelius, you see, was a 19 year-old farm boy on his family’s homestead near Blandford, Massachusetts on…

On the Moon, and Out of Lemonade (Anything But Tranquil)

written March 2, 2006 This is me, trying to relax, unbinding my mind knotted, as my body is carried hither in yon upon the Atlantic Ocean, living cargo in a luxury naval frigate. Which makes me wonder: what do those already in a tropical paradise visualize to shake the wrinkles from their nerves? I might…

Pigs Make an Appearance

written 1999   Pigs are marching on the lawn Pigs stare with their eyes to the dawn Pigs in my attic and pigs through my hall Pigs wishing they could see the sun through the wall Pigs dance jigs and pigs wear wigs Pigs sell stock and horde fancy digs Pigs, what a crime they…

Shell Games

written February 2015   Shell Games Not many know this: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s heart, the slippery, pulsing piece of warm meat that propelled its perfumed, armored outer shell into leading the famous Scottish insurrection, now resides in a cathedral in Frascati, Italy. It happens to be in Italy and not Scotland because in 1746 the…

Transactions

written February 2015 Transactions What Axel Landon’s birth certificate, dated July 4, 1876, did not say, was that its existence , as well as Axel’s, was the result of a fifteen minute ya’tun between Jackson Landon and pretty, butter scotch-haired Sylvia Morton, Pinefield’s lone, sixteen-year old prostitute. The miracle of life. If the Pinefield Town…