Happy Father’s Day, Uncle Bill

According to my Uncle Bill
half the town was Koettings
the other half Keelers
anyone else in that tiny place had just married in.

A 70+-year-old bright-eyed Koetting rogue
Youngest of 9 or 10 or 11. . . I forget. . .
I couldn’t keep count of all
those strapping German-Catholic babies.

Everyone loved him, and he loved
Hogan’s Heroes, not M.A.S.H.
(too many commies in M.A.S.H, not his war)
He gave fatherly advice but didn’t usurp the role.

Koettings and Keelers and them
that had married in. Everyone loved him.
Son of immigrants, proud VFW inductee,
Texas farmboy, my mother’s sister’s husband.

Beloved Uncle Bill.

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My Favorite Martian

Detail of Phantasmagorical painting from Pripyat. Original photo by Simon Smith via Flickr, cc-sa2.0

I’d never met a boy like you
with green skin and a tender heart.
Your pain hid behind a goofy smile
My soul brother from the very start.

You were out of this world, fantastic
Above the earthling’s rough and tumble
And if you wanted to fit in
You never let us see, nor stumbled.

If fate does let us meet again
In another life or dimension
Share heart & wisdom one more time
I promise to pay better attention.

You were out of this world, fantastic
Your friendship always was sublime
My soul brother from the very start
Share heart & wisdom one more time.

( A eulogy for a friend who died unexpectedly.  Requiescat in pace, lab partner.)

5/7/5

The music is gone

There is beauty in silence

My empty heart sleeps

Escapee

Jane Doughtery Poetry Challenge #41

We ran out into the Rain,
who’s to blame?
Dog. It’s the same, tired refrain

We argue until all’s red
nothing solved
Many pointless tears will be shed.

The pattern is relentless
the dog runs
Chasing after him is senseless

At the river he will stop
Dog’s had fun.
We get pulled over. Oh hi, Cop!

And yet we have no regrets
We love him.
We’re wet. Dog’s safe. Damned beloved pet.

A Classic to Start the Week

Poem by Wendell Berry. Photo from Unsplash. Made on Canva.

Please Check All That Apply

photo by SDRandCo, via morgufile

They are all just labels he said
See
so easy so right
All the trouble of negotiating humanity
reduced
to a pithy aphorism
that denies the
reality
of the struggle to keep up when
all those labels
keep
knocking us down.
He insists on minimizing
denying
the grinding experience of
a world where labels trump all
Yes so easy when those
labels
aren’t on you.

Bridgewalk

Harbor Bridge at night http://smartlightliving.de/leuchtdioden-statt-leuchtturme-corpus-christi-harbor-bridge-strahlt-nun-in-led-licht/

The wind tears at the red flag of my hair
Am I mistress of all I survey?
Ocean, clouds, far off island
A coming storm writes secret messages
into refinery smoke.
Trucks pass, the bridge quakes and
my heart quakes with it–
Our lives balanced on a monster
of concrete and steel.
The fear passes and there is
nothing but the view.
The smokestacks belch a dragon or two
just for me.

 

BridgeWalk Info