no choice but to keep on going round the Sun
kicking and screaming
or docile as a slug
either way we share the same sky

Another school year is underway. I thought a repost would be appropriate:


7:30am.
Pleasantly cool morning, a fresh cup of hot coffee sits on the glass top of the patio table.
School buses are rolling towards the high school a quarter of a mile away.
Others are walking  with their backpacks, heavily laden with enough material to prevent them from standing *****.
Some in groups, some in twos,
boy and girl in love, hands clasped together-
All like the animals heading towards the ark.
I wonder what they are thinking.  
Perhaps an exam to face, an unfinished essay due, the upcoming weekend.
Or, just wanting to-

"Make it through the Day."

copyright: richard riddle: February 19, 2015

"Dad!, I have a date tonight, can I borrow a couple of bucks!" "Borrow, or have?", he always replied. After all, he and mom were the ones who were working. "Well, cars run better with gas in'em." That's the way it was for many of us back then.
On a Friday, or Saturday night, I could take my girlfriend to a movie, then to a popular teenage burger joint, meet our friends,  and we would have an enjoyable evening.  all for a whopping "five bucks", or less. But, it would be misleading today compared to then, and now.     Today, they'd be lucky to get out under fifty.
"My, how times have changed!" Gasoline was $.25 a gallon, never to be seen again; at the grocery store, round steak was $.79 a pound, never to be seen again. That sounds like a pretty good deal.   
 However, salaries were also in ratio to the cost of living. As a
teenager with a part-time job, 50 cents an hour was an average rate, working as a carry-out or sacker in a grocery store. Finding a job making $1.00 an hour meant you were "coming up" in the world.
Today, making $10-$12 and hour would be like making $.50 an hour back then, with prices continuing to rise.  That's progress!!


copyright: richard riddle-August 31, 2015

"Leaving for work, I have no idea what events might lie ahead. Hours later, when I return home, I smile; knowing that once again, I had survived."


copyright: richard riddle September 02, 2015

Waiting in the winds.
Squinting in the sunlit hills a group of people wait for darkness to fall.
Against all the odds they have travelled land and sea to make it this far but not far enough for THAT better life.
What do they seek on the other side of that dark tunnel?
Health wealth happiness.
Could it be a dream too far?
Even the fittest fail to survive as night after night death grips the bravest to jump onto a moving train destined for Grand Bretagne.

Agatha Christie audiobook
drifts out across the dark room
all she can think of is of the one o' clock
shipping news, a swaying, seasick tune
calling to far off boats & sailors
adrift alone somewhere
thinking of their homes
a cold beer, she thinks will do
she would be writing
but no words come
she draws the duvet cover
closer round her shoulders
her lover's ghost
watches her silently

A reticent fox slinks by beneath
the trees

that still have leaves
conversing for now

the change in colors
sleeps still, unannounced

the rain smells of ploughed earth
& freshly hung-out clouds

& wellington boots
Autumn's child cries it's first word

& inside a low-lit pub
a crisp old cider's poured

September's dreams
fermenting

Why is there a little boy lying on the beach?
Washed up.
Lifeless.
All for a new life too far to reach?

Why is there a little boy lying on the beach?
Terrorists
Heartless.
What happened to the human rights we all preach?

Why is there a little boy lying on the beach?
Traffickers.
Gangs.
Displacing people no home and no speech.

Why is there a little boy lying on the beach?
A son.
No future.
We hang our heads and weep!