When he told his VA shrink (a nice lady)
about his chopper being shot down three times,
she asked him what he dreamed about.

Falling, he said.
                           No ****, she said.

She asked if he was afraid to fly.

He said wasn't cause he'd never,
ever get in an aircraft again.

She said these were perfectly sane responses:
If I were you, she said, I wouldn't ride elevators.

He didn't mention he avoided them when possible.

  ~mce

A normal being is living right
and reacts on the level of reality.
He works for subsistence and luxury,
and is contented with satisfaction.


A special being is living tight
and reacts on the level of complexity.
He dwells in his own world alone,
and is perplexed with the surrounding.

A poetic being is living bright
and reacts on the level of madness.
He discerns beyond the limit of reality,
and explore the depths of the human insanity.

Take a minute.

Click on my
portrait picture.

Forty-three years
since that was snapped.

Look how skinny,
how starched.

Look how hard I'm
trying not to show
my terror,
the absurdly
casual stance.

Look at a child
of twenty
sent to die
for old men.

Look at a picture
taken thousands
of times since.

Think of the pictures
of the lost who never
came home or in pieces
or mentally broken.

America
you demand
too much.

  ~mce

I admit, in writing,
I like my work read
Aloud.
So why do I cower
In dread,
When I hear it read
Before family and friends
At celebrations
For the living and dead.

Regress II (Heroes and other Things)


In those days of "yesteryear"-
those days my memory
holds so dear-
Days that filled my heart with joy-
all I wanted to be,was a ......

"Sing'n Cowboy."

Our hero was a special man,
to reach that level of acclaim
So, if you'll please allow me-
I'll explain.

Our hero, leading a wagon train,
three thousand miles from East to West-
Surviving the elements and indian raids-
his clothes were always freshly washed,
and his pants so neatly pressed.

Our hero always had a horse-
so smart it could pass a college course-
Our hero, *******, and in a terrible spot,
that horse, with his teeth,
Could untie the Gordian Knot.

All successful heros
had to have a friend-
A trusty, loyal, "sidekick"
that stayed with him to the end.

All the movie "sidekicks,"
as often as they could-
Had a very simple job,
to keep our hero "look'n good,"

They had to have a funny name-
"Fuzzy", "Gabby", and "Ukelele Ike",
names known from coast to coast,
and up and down the pike.

There was one that stood alone-
taller than the others
Often called "The Best of theWest",
none other, than "Lumpy Covers."

So, our hero, with his 'ol guitar-
just kept on a'ride'n, toward the horizon-
as far as the eye could see-
Sing'n, and strum'n,
all in the Key of G.

copyright: richard riddle 07-14-2014

Genesis 26:
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have "dominion" over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing, that creeps upon the earth."

Question: Does this apply to cats?
(cats let us think we do(have dominion), but we don't, really!)