A repost for Memorial Day 

Lock is frozen

snow tonight

thaw it open

Zippo light.

Got a pint of Southern Comfort

fuel to keep a body warm.

Not much gas to run the heater

eleven hours till the dawn.

Well maybe just a little heat

hear that… Read full post »

A repost for Memorial Day

When your son was killed that Summer night

you were filling up the car.

You didn't know 'till you saw my face

what I already knew.

While you slept your husband died

on a hill outside Dak To.

You had no idea when… Read full post »

Fifty Eight Thousand

Two Hundred

Seventy two.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized.  It is hard to believe it is 37 years since the… Read full post »

Memorial to Thich Quang Duc - Ho Chi Minh City 

Thich Quang Duc was a Buddhist - a Vietnamese Buddhist living in South Vietnam in 1963.

South Vietnam had been created by the Geneva Accords whereby the French dissolved the colonial administration, Ho Chi Minh’s communists ruled the… Read full post »

The son of the Allentown butcher

will lead the way

point man on the sweep today

through God’s heavenly green cathedral

Verdant canopy reaching to heaven

flickering sunlight illuminates

mottled parrots red and blue

on the moss a mantis waits

Her body rises as he… Read full post »

Demonstrations like they used to be - this one for passage of unemployment insurance in Union Square - March 7, 1930

How "free" are we as a people to affect change in government policy or indeed any change in government? Are we more free than the British or French? The/… Read full post »

"The Cardinal and Theological Virtues", which was painted in 1511 by Raphael and represents a combination of law and religion, makes up one wall in the ‘Stanza della Segnatura’ room in the Vatican.

That's Sly Stallone on the left in the painting -… Read full post »

Staring at the pile of bills
doesn’t make ‘em any smaller
shufflin the envelopes
doesn’t get the mortgage paid.

Out o’ work a whole year now
running out of unemployment
must apply for food stamps soon
get the kids on medicaid.

Keep on sending resumes
showing up for all/… Read full post »

The Princess and the Geek - May 1963 - At the Ft. Hamilton High School Prom.   She's laughing because the photographer's background matches her dress and her shoes.

Did you ever think about how you got to where you are?

Everyone does at one time or another. How… Read full post »

So it’s Sunday morning and the "news" shows and respected journalists are yammering about whether or not coming out for same sex marriage will help or hurt Obama’s re-election efforts.

"Sixty percent of those polled indicate his stance will have no effect on their vote; 16%… Read full post »

A repost for war mothers 

Summer sun reflected

off a wheelchair

holding half the soldier

he used to be

in half the body

he used to have

the dent above his left ear

now hidden in his hair

His mother buys a popcicle

and places it… Read full post »

Those of you who waste your precious time reading me may know, through one source of information or another, that I recently self-published a collection of poems.  This earth shattering news went up on my daughter's Facebook page, immediately rocking the poetry world.

I’d always be… Read full post »

...to the girl I met when she was 17, loved and lusted after in high school and was my partner in life for more than 40 years until I buried her 8  years ago.

Well the Republican National Convention in August is fast approaching and our fair city is getting ready for potential disaster.

Some 50,000 plus of delegates, news organizations, free lancers, bloggers, talking heads, strippers, hookers, rent boys, foreign commentators etc. will be des… Read full post »

http://youtu.be/-Wb1ViP3QMY

Color film of London, May 8, 1945

 Churchill announces the end of the war.

 (sorry, the video cannot be embedded)

 See it if you never have.

"In all our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this." Read full post »

the illusion

Foot binding -

"the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice likely originated in the Southern Tang Dynasty in Nanking but spread to upper class families and eventually became common among all classes. The tiny narro… Read full post »

A repost is allowed on a slow Sunday evening no?

:-) 

Tutmoses looking 'cross the Nile 

saw your reflection on the water.

Cleopatra held Antony’s hand

and kissed it by your light.

Nero plucked his lyre

while you shined on burning Rome.

Did Mehmet gaze upon your… Read full post »

Tutmoses looking 'cross the Nile 

saw your reflection on the water.

Cleopatra held Antony’s hand

and kissed it by your light.

Nero plucked his lyre

while you shined on burning Rome.

Did Mehmet gaze upon your face

atop the walls of Byzantium?

You shined that night

on… Read full post »

An anonymous woman being dragged away from Tahir Square by police as one of them kicks her in the chest.

Excerpts from a book by Nawal El Saadawi: "The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World." She is an Egyptian novelist, MD and militant writer on Arab women's problems/… Read full post »

 Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
and found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?

In mem… Read full post »

On the first anniversary of my return from blindness - a repost 

This morning I had my yogurt and coffee in the lanai on a nice, rainy day watching sandhill cranes for the first time in what seemed like a very  long time.

Yesterday my daughter delivered me to… Read full post »

Introibo ad altare Dei

I will go in unto the Altar of God.

As a boy in the early 1950s I was an altar boy - of the Tridentine Mass.   Yes, now they are referred to as alcolytes but in 1950 the common term was altar boy.  Those… Read full post »

The kitchen witch

still hangs

in the window

Dangling from a string

along with spirits and distant echos

she moves ever so slightly

as if a ghost had passed

a little too close

The sun shines on her

and on the button

the witch always wears

I heart Rhode Island… Read full post »

Ok.  I posted this earlier but few read it.  I'll give you another chance.  If no one reads it this time, I promise I'll take the hint. 

Giacomo Matteotti 

Italy was at war - the First World War. By 1918 Italy had been at war for more than three &n… Read full post »