...............................................

Have you ever heard
Of the Ikinzoo Owl?
Or the Blue-Bellied,
Tozzle-Moffed Took?
Have you ever seen
Even one Pflittleflufly?
Or haven't you fancied
The look?

I doesn't take much
Just to sneak a quick peek
At that Flue-Feathered,
Bottle-Plumed, Katydid Beak.
And it won't mind it a bit,
If you take that quick look.
And will probably never remember
The look that you took.

Those Dopple-Doed Daw's
From North-Eastern, South-West,
Are as easy to find
As a Beezle-Bugs Nest.
They have no sense of direction,
They haven't yet found
If the up part is up,
Or if the up part is down.

And the Wickawhitz Thumb
From northeast Timbuktu
Does things even a
Tozzle-Moffed Took will not do!
It will shimmel its feathers.
It will pittle and twittle
Its toes and its nose
Quite a lot and a little.

It will twitchel and itch,
And pretend to count sheep.
It will scuddle its pib,
And then snore in its sleep.
It will build up a nest
Til' it's outright absurd,
And the Wickawhitz Thumb
Isn't even a bird!

Now, the odds are so odd,
And the chances so high,
You've yet to see a
Many-Eyed Itch wander by.
Many-Eyed Itches are
Quite a rare find.
To find one you'll need luck
Of the luckiest kind.

In fact, the odds are so odd,
And the chances so slim,
You'll never find more
Than a spot and a whim
Of half a half Itch
As it hides in the din
From the Monstrous You
As you come barging in.

I am not at all sure
If you've rationed a thought-
Or considered that Fuzzlenut Gnit
A whole lot, or not.
They are never a bother,
And they are always at play
A full twenty-three hours
Out of the day.

The Sap-Sucking Snizz
From the Coasts of Mahktall
Are not too hard to find.
Oh no, not at all.
They're everywhere, everyplace,
Sucking up sap,
Just before and right after
They've taken their nap.

And have you ever heard
Of a Twizzle-Toed Toff?
Who's toes twizzle so often
They cough and they cough,
Far into the morning
And then right before bed?
Hacking and hooting
Til they're red in the head?

No?
Why, I'd have guessed that
The answer was yes.
I'd have fashioned an awful big yes
As my guess.
Twizzle-Toed Toff's
Are not rare, not a bit.
All you do is look, and you'll see one
Lickety-split!

And the OggNogging Fitch,
From the Island of Soe
Who only nest in the shades
Where the Kurutta winds blow.
In places so high
They are covered in snow,
In places abandoned
So long ago.

Then have you ever heard
Of the Buggle-Nosed Snodd?
Or the Green-Eared,
Three-Headed G'Nute?
Have you ever seen but one
Popple-Topped Phfiss?
Or a Fugel-Flocked, Many-Horned,
Nevel-Winged Pflute?

Have you ever heard of
A BarBerry Duck?
It's a barmy, odd dabbler,
And with a wee bit of luck
You can find one, or three,
Near that old BarBerry Loam,
In an old box of tea
That they tend to call home.

Have you ever seen
A Greenbean Wildersnitt?
The kind with plumed feathers
And a bobble on it?
You haven't? Well, that is
A terrible shame, such a pity,
To have never seen even one
In our fair and fine city.

Have you ever heard
Of a Fuzzle-Eared Fligg?
The oddisly odd
Fuzzle-Eared Fligg from Zinnzaire?
This Fuzzle-Eared Fligg
Is the pick of the crop
If you ever plan a trip
To the way, way out there.

It seems rather selfish of me
Then to selfishly ask
If you've ever heard of
A Nozzle-Nosed Flask.
A little pest of a bird,
Should you ever find
One of those Nozzle-Nosed Flask's
Taking up all your time.

It seems hard to believe,
And I can believe quite a bit,
That you've yet to see
A Greenbean Wildersnitt.
Or a Tozzle-Moffed Took,
Or a Popple-Toffed Phfizz.
It is a little bit odd,
Yes it is. Yes, it is...

To have missed every Twozitt
That skittles the sky,
Or that Hippillopottomus Bear
That oft wanders by.
And the Pflittlefluefly that
Whispers by on the breeze,
Leaving their Pflittlefluefly-fingered nests
In all of these tree's.

And to have never seen
An Ikinzoo Owl hoot and howl,
Or a Webb-Footed
Gobbtrotter trott.
Seems you're missing much more
Than ever before,
For you've been missing
A respectable lot.

You must be walking about
With your Pog-Goggles on,
The ones that go Beep!
Whenever you yawn.
And I am ever so certain
You have yet to discover
Perhaps you!  Oh, yes, you!
Are not at all a bird lover!

Copyright © 2010 Richard D. Remler

...............................................
“From there to here, and here to there,
funny things are everywhere.”
-Dr. Seuss
...............................................

by Jonathan D Maraccini
Life intertwined swallows the smoke and mirrors of bitter thirst.
Thus terrible people produce monstrous dreams and have no remorse.
I see a million locked boxes full of paper faces,
any who walk among the wretched faces will endure a terrible curse.

One night, on Christmas Eve
My wounded hand was forced
The planets and the stars began to change their course
A course that was methodically endorsed
Then broke apart by the spell of divorce
And so I read

Heed this warning and learn,
she will come like a thief in the night,
and run your heart with a dagger.
She will poison the family with lies,
then leave you to burn,
leave you to die

The dark arts was stirring in my soul
Pulsating a cadence of revenge
Mumbling words I couldn't comprehend
Then a voice spoke, so now I understand
I do this not because I lack control
I do this because I can
So I turned the page and read from the book again

Lies through a mask of shame
break souls in any scenario

Shifting shadows I saw a ghost of a women in flight
So I raised my hands
Breathing these words in the night
Voco artibus tenebrosis
Goodbye home
Goodbye wife
Goodbye daughter
Goodbye life

With an echo in the house
Alone I cried
Then I heard a dark shadow speak from outside
It's going to be a nice night
Get dressed and be ready to fight
So be it, I thought
Black jacket, black gloves, black tie
Black pants, black boots
And a mask painted white
Then I grabbed the book and jumped in my ride
Drove for an hour until I finally arrived
Walked to the door then slipped out of site
Through a window I quietly slid inside
Sitting in the living room she's with some other guy
I danced in the room and yelled surprise!
He ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife
She sat there in shock, then began to cry
I reached in a bag that was strapped to my thigh
I brought C4 and a detonation device
Get face down or we're all gonna die
Then I sang a song while their hands were tied
I smiled at them with contemptuous delight
Then something happened I could not deny
My mathematical perception whether it be wrong or right
Good or bad
Surrender or fight
Was distorted when my daughter walked in and said hi
I stood up, smiled then hugged her tight
I looked up and saw a helicopter light
The cops rushed in
I waved at my daughter then closed my eye's

(A few months later - in court)
Maybe like Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde came back
The Judge said will let the jury decide that
My attorney turned like a great acrobat
The defendant was out of his mind!
He claims to hear voices from another time
He didn't mean to snap
He didn't mean to kidnap
Or strap that bomb to her back
This man speaks in riddles and ryhmes
He claims this old book helped him plan the attack
But the pages are empty
Can you imagine that
Maybe he's blind
He claims he saw a half women, half cat
The defendant is clearly troubled
Or even addicted to crack
Jury of the court, his train is clearly off track
Find it in your heart and give him some slack

That is when I stood up, cleared my throat
People of the jury, your honor, may I take the stand?
If you must he said
So I stepped up and began
Let me reiterate who I really am
I am a force that chose to stay dormant
I am the big boot that stomps the little ant
Now somebody wants to force my hand
So now the dark arts is about to expand
Ready to crawl into my cerebellum
Ready to reboot and take command
Let me read from the Book again
Written 10,000 years ago by the Mage Abraham

I stood up, opened the book, and summoned an hourglass with my pen
But I was never planning to surrender my friends
The doors to the courtroom clanked shut from within
Then I fluttered my fingers and called a great wind
It pulsated with thunder, the room began to spin
The hourglass shuttered with the last grain of sand
The floor split open and the jury fell in
The furniture grew teeth then everyone ran
I smiled at the judge poor little lamb
Then a pack of wolves devoured the man
Then the wind and the wolves and the shadows of the land
Heard me say goodbye
Goodbye wife
Goodbye daughter
Goodbye life
Voco artibus tenebrosis
Then I vanished into my world of pretend

The End

.......................................................

My mind has nothing in it today.
Not a lick of sense.
But that's the way
It is for me right now,
And that's probably OK.
For my mind has nothing in it today.

Empty, vacant spaces fill
The canyons of my mind.
I tried to fill them up once,
But I didn't have the time.
My mind is quite inept
When I've nothing good to say,
Like, erm, for instance, today.

When I look at you,
I'm in absolute awe.
You've got everything in control.
You have it all!
You can focus on a goal
And you're on your way.
But as for me,
My mind is rather empty today.

I had a thoughtful thought once,
If memory holds true.
It crept up from behind
With an onslaught or two
Of rather clever tweaks,
About time and space and such-
But I didn't give it too much thought.
No, not much.

My mind has nothing in it today.
Not a useful thought,
And that's okay.
For I am almost somewhat certain,
As Brilliance is sorted out and weighed,
That despite my lack of everything,
Mine has only been delayed.
I'm sure it's on a bus somewhere,
Between West 18th Street and Vine,
And I'll eventually run into it
Somewhere down the line.

But, I'm good,
As long as I can stay
Safely packed inside my little nook
Somewhere out of the way.
As long as my scattered psyche
Stays relatively still,
Remains deep within its strongbox
Under that aluminum will.
For the thought of running around,
And chasing it down
Half of the hillside
In the middle of town
On such a hot day
In the middle of fall
Simply doesn't sound like fun.
No, It sounds like
No fun at all.

So please forgive me
If I simply stare at the wall.
It keeps me out of trouble
And it doesn't mind me at all.
We seem to get along right well
Most of the time,
When I'm staring at the wall,
And its obtrusive design.
Or when I sing Kareoke,
And it corrects all my mistakes.
For some walls live vicariously
Through the ripples and wakes
We leave in this river
Called Life that we live.
We take what we want,
And we give when we give.
But, alas, I digress,
And have so little to say,
For, you see,
My mind has nothing in it
Today


Copyright © 2010 Richard D. Remler

......................................................
'Don't go around saying the world
owes you a living. The world owes
you nothing. It was here first.'
-Mark Twain
.......................................................

by Jonathan D Maraccini

They say
Dreams are not real in the world we live in
They say
Angels are fiction outside of religion
They say
A sinner is condemned unless forgiven
I say
Dream of angels who forgive our sins

When I was young I had a dream
It was the day I turned 14
I was a king who married a queen underneath a beautiful cedar tree
In this dream we had a beautiful baby then we lived happily ever after
What a perfect ending, everything was perfect it seemed
Then tragedy struck without warning
In this dream
I lost my home, my wife, my child
In this dream
I lost my wonderful family
With tears of sorrow underneath the cedar tree I screamed
Then I fell to the ground and said some horrible things in the darkness
But it was all just a dream I remind you
At least that is what I was told that night
The day I turned 14

They say
Dreams are not real in the world we live in
They say
Angels are fiction outside of religion
They say
A sinner is condemned unless forgiven
I say
Dream of angels who forgive our sins

I am not a little boy any longer
I grew up and became a man
Then I met a beautiful women
How she made me happy then
So we married and had a daughter
The happiest day of my life
Was the day I became a father
A bond had formed as I watched her eyes
I held her close to keep her warm
I knew I would never leave her
Life was a perfect delight
Or so I thought, or so I thought

In the end
We leave our mark
In the end someones the victim
A fool from the very start
Like lambs for the slaughter
As the truth is hidden

They say
Dreams are not real in the world we live in
They say
Angels are fiction outside of religion
They say
A sinner is condemned unless forgiven
I say
  Dream of angels who forgive our sins

Sitting on a bench in a redwood forest
I heard a bird sing a glorious song
This was not my imagination
So I began to sing along
Next to me a girl with black hair
We laughed together
We walked together
Love of the forest we both shared
Her eyes were black, her hair was long
Such a spectacle
Nothing on earth could ever go wrong
Or so I hoped, or so I hoped

Knock on wood
For I was blind
Evil was there the entire time
Sitting underneath a cedar tree
Whistling a haunting song

They say
Dreams are not real in the world we live in
They say
Angels are fiction outside of religion
They say
A sinner is condemned unless forgiven
I say
Dream of angels who forgive our sins

Eventually she left me
It was Christmas Eve
She took my daughter
She took the angel from me
She ran away
She spread her wings of deceit
She lied to everybody
But first she lied to me
Maybe she was the one whistling
Underneath the cedar tree
Underneath the cedar tree
Where evil withered the leaves

So now I hate her
The destroyer of beautiful dreams
The filthy liar
The wrecker of families
As I wither away behind her
I’m left with only my words
With the cedar tree on fire
I quench my angry thirst
And my pain becomes a curse

I do not care who see's these words
My anger festers for all
Two faced liars in a family herd
So stand in line as I fall
It is what it is
When it is understood
It is all it has been
For the bad and the good
As I hang on this cross
As I hang underneath the cedar tree
Crucified to this wood