bouyed, no doubt, by my adoration of you

              the geese drift by on their quest for further on

      &nb… Read full post »

Prior to my fourteenth birthday, I begged my parents to buy me a guitar.  Finally, after several days of pleading and whining and gnashing of teeth my father said to me, “I will get you a guitar for your birthday, but I suspect that if I do it will… Read full post »

First, let’s get clear, the world is not ending tomorrow.  Tomorrow, the “good” Christians will be raptured up to heaven leaving all us sinners (which I think includes damned near everyone here on OS) behind to ponder our fate.  The world, however, is not act/… Read full post »

My mother died last June after a long and bitter illness.  It was not a surprise nor was it unwelcomed by most of the family as she suffered greatly and was without much of a mind during the last few months of her life.  My father, however, took her death… Read full post »

I love you, Pop.

I know they kept you and Mom upright past your primes

It’s all about the money, of course. 

Money for medicines and machines to keep our weak hearts pumping, our rusty limbs moving, tired synapses connecting ever more slowly..., slowly..., and slowly.

Past our… Read full post »

I do not know her face

But, I know her heart.

I do not know her touch

Still, she kisses my soul.

She stitches together ideas and dreams

As pearls on a string

Shining and beautiful

Each its own treasure unique

She knows the memories somehow

That I… Read full post »

I am responding to Ann’s open call in the form of a list. I know there are several people on OS that absolutely hate lists and although I’m unsure of their reasoning, I respect their right to hate this one as well.  However, for me to try to convey in… Read full post »

I read a lot of OS.  I read the good guys and the bad guys.  I read the cool kids and nerds.  I read the trolls and the whatever non-trolls are called.  I read the poetry, the prose, the fiction and the non. I read it all.  However, much of my/… Read full post »

It seemed rather benign to me; a rather small pain in the left side of my chest that radiated up to my left shoulder and down my arm. It wasn’t debilitating, but it was annoying.  So, after two days and a great deal of urging from family and friends I called… Read full post »

I first read Thoreau’s Walden and Civil Disobedience (the two are almost always printed together) in 1969, my junior year in high school.  The pages stunned me with they’re  truth, seemingly leaping from the little paperback and imbedded itself in my psyche as an earwig i… Read full post »

Last night’s China Texas City Council Meeting was a turning point in the agenda I had set for my first term as Mayor of our tiny community. 

Three grants have been applied for and awarded to the city in the last few months:   One for $45,000 for Hurricane Ike… Read full post »

                                                … Read full post »

In honor of St. Valentine’s Day the following is a tribute to the kiss.  A kiss, the simple act of pressing one’s lips onto the lips (or other body part) of another.  An act which has brought boundless human pleasure and an equal amount of human misery.

&nbs… Read full post »

This whole thing began in the 1980’s with Ronald Regan.  He embraced what the pundits call the Southern Democrats.  In addition, he gave them a new name; a new and important powerful sounding name.  He called them the Moral Majority. 

The Moral Majority… Read full post »

Yes, this is another list.  (I don’t care, who asked you?) 

It is just for the men though as I know nothing about women.  So women, please, just be on your way because this isn’t for you unless you’d like to leave a copy for your husband.

I’m… Read full post »

My lovely, brilliant, kind-hearted wife has a reputation for bringing home strays.  That’s how I came to be there in the first place.  This is an attribute that I love about her.  We have given homes, both temporary and permanent, to a veritable menagerie of cats, d… Read full post »

Over the last couple of days here on OS, two posts in particular have caught my eye and the eye of many, many of you.  They were the post by Robin Sneed about having to spend two weeks in jail over a traffic citation and Trig Plain’s post about his neighbor/… Read full post »

Mad Typist, where are you????  

I’ve been waiting, less than patiently, for three weeks now for you regular NFL re-caps. Nothing.  Thinking I’ve just somehow missed them, I go directly to your blog.  Still nothing. 

 What’s up with that? 

Th… Read full post »

                  As Alice's glass

              To this Haiku from my last

  … Read full post »

As a young child, you thought your elders knew everything.             

As a teenager, you thought you knew everything.             &nbs… Read full post »

On Sept 3, 2009, at a special meeting of the City of China, TX City Council, Mayor William (Butch) Sanders resigned his post.  This was a shocking development to me.  It was more shocking to me than to the other council members because a few months ago, I was… Read full post »

I love language.  Not so much the mechanics of it and the rules thereby, (That last statement is probably readily apparent to many of you) but rather the way people twist and turn it in what I find rather humorous ways. 

As a much younger man,… Read full post »

I attended a town hall meeting last night in Beaumont Texas.  The event was sponsored by the same folks who sponsored the, so-called, tax opposition tea parties in this area. While the event was billed as “non-partisan,” the featured speaker was U.S. House Rep., Re… Read full post »

Wake the fuck up!! 

It’s time for you to do your part and help trash the economy! 

That’s right, it’s your damned patriotic duty!!! 

Hell, it’s your human duty. 

You’re killing America!  You’re killing the world!… Read full post »

My mouth taste like rotting citrus

squirming against my own angst

Worms from my brain moving under my scalp

Somehow this cannot be justice

Like Sinterklaas encumbered by width

I feel squeezed as if wedged in a chimney

This poem chases me as a wolf

I haven’t been… Read full post »