I’m not sure if I ever believed
I do recall kneeling
At the side of my bed
Back then I also put
Teeth under my pillow
Next day there was a quarter
Proof, the Tooth Fairy was
real
Then of coarse there was the Bunny and The Fatman
Both leaving evidence
Of their existence...
In fact, I’m pretty sure there’s a connection here...
What? There’s no Tooth Fairy? No Bunny?
NO FATMAN!!??
I was told that guy knew when I was sleeping
Even knew how I was behaving
Could perform miraculous
Feats
Well...
If all that and all them were
made up
What of the other guy?
What of his powers?
Did he REALLY know
If I took his name in vain?
Did he even care?
Could he REALLY know everything, everywhere and all times?
In fact, he had a beard too, didn’t he?
I’m not sure if I ever believed
If I did
I didn’t anymore
Even while being forced to church
I hardly went
If I went
I wasn’t there
Believers believe I need to believe something I don’t
I can’t
It’s not in me
And never was
I’m not a fake it till I make it kind of guy
I respect those who do believe
I never question them why
I hope for the same in my disbelief
I’m just not a Godly guy

The Big Bloat

It’s Not as easy
As you know
Food is legal
And can get
It to go
I find myself
In the same
Bloat
We eat when
Hungry
Or in a
Deep mote
But...
As hard
As it is
To dig out
The rut
We all can
Do it
And have
A good
Gut

Sunny Side Up

Don’t despair
The rain’ll clear
The storm’ll
Change it’s coarse

Sunny days
Are on the way
So unstop  
All the corks

Drink up life
With all your might
And don’t look
Back at you

You’ll never know
When you must go
So do all
You can do

By: Bill MacEachern

I’m alone a lot
But, then again
I’m really not

I may only
Have you
But you’re more
Than will ever do

Some may
Have many
But for many
That’s none

Having only you
Makes their many
Seem so
Outdone

I really didn’t know my mother
I knew her moods
But, I didn’t know her
And I really don’t think she knew her children
She knew our names...mostly
But, she didn’t know us
I know my mother loved singing
I heard my mother sing
"How much is that doggie in the window”
And
One of my favorites
"Charming Billy"
I know she liked to cook
I know she read The Godfather and Valley Of The Dolls
I know she liked having a party
I know family holidays STRESSED her out
I know she had many friends
I know she drank a lot
I know she went out a lot
I know she drank and went out a lot with her many friends
I know she had many blackouts
I know she could go from very pleasant to wicked mean, instantly, especially when drinking
I know that she hated my father
I think she hated my father for not doing what needed to be done to make it all work out
I think maybe she resented her sons for being his sons
I know my mother was brutalized by her father
I know my mothers father followed my mother wherever she went as a teen because he didn’t trust her
I know my mothers father called her terrible names that a father should not call a daughter
I know that my mother married an alcoholic who gambled too much and beat her for his own sins
I wish I knew other things instead of these things about my mother
But...
I know my mother would have liked me to remember other things too...

Ezra Schwartz  
Oct 1, 1997 —  Nov 19, 2015

The dice of terror
Was cast that day
Young Ezra’s life  
Was taken away

He went to Israel
For his gap year
To study at yeshiva
And volunteer

During a Mitzvah
To feed some soldiers
The van was ambushed  
By Jew hating ogres  

It mattered not  
They knew not him
Or that his heart flowed
With Simchas Hachaim

To those you touched
You were a young Mensch
To all who knew you
Your loss is immense

Young Ezra Schwartz  
I’ll never know you
For they took you away
For being a Jew

But what they don’t realize
You’re still here with us
You’re everywhere you smiled
And in everyone you touched

It’s happened again
A message’s been sent
By using a gun
Instead of a pen

Again I awake
To the news of this hate
While rubbing my eyes
I learn of their fate

There’s something so wrong
When you rise for the sun
Yet all you see
Is hate, hate and guns

By: Bill MacEachern
11/08/2018