Thomas W Case: Favorites

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

CJ Sutherland

A bevy of immigrants continually appear
Closer and closer they’re coming near
Now that they’re here;
Demanding rights as a citizen entitled to;
Housing jobs phone money
Stealing cars No ID Drivers license
No car insurance or recourse
They are becoming a problem, a force

The refugee flow are camping along bike trails in parks by streams
California life is not what it seems

Even in the front of peoples homes
Take steal No apologies refusal to atone.
Home invasions knowing people there
They stay for days they don’t care

I was rattled by a group of ragged men who didn’t even try to hide their face
Whatever it takes to create their space

Robbery demanding money, car keys.
Hands up get on your knees
Rain snow cold and wet
They take what they can get.

Every day more are coming
Apartments Full No room at the Inn
Bad to worse This situation is A NO win
Bureaucrats did not stop to contemplation
California State our cities in damnation

The food banks are empty
No longer a state of plenty
Pharmacy’s medications empty gone
Drug companies ran out what’s going on?

Hospitals, emergency room 24 hour wait
Immigrants use as urgent care
Rashes flu common cold
Aches and pains from being oldy
While real emergencies people dying
To treat an earache children crying

Giving from the heart, it’s a start
Eat a bit lighter so you can share part
Winter Elements are brutal
Tents, tarps boxes, shelters futile

Giving we learn to make due
Blankets, gloves, scarves sweaters, too
Most of us have an extra or a few
Snow Coats we never wear share

Become a target if you just help One
They swarm, grabbing tell you have none
Enough for few not for many
Shoestring budget life, pinching Penny

What would you do if you were starving?

Inspired song
Where have all the flowers gone?
ByPeter Paul and Mary

Webster’s Word of the Day
11-13 bevy
There is a large group of people, or things, baby is usually used in a singular form, accompanied by the word of
11-14-25 rattled
Rattled is as in confusion or befuddled state that are broken down or worn

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Elixir

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Crow

Elixir

she is light
I am shadow

the sun calls to her
and in return for her devotion
lives in her voice

gifts her
with his smile
allowing her the use of it

she invites his embrace
he marks her as his own
with tender bites across her shoulder

always she seeks him

in his radiant domain
is her joy

my shaded world
where I find comfort
chills her

the tenebrious realm
sings to me
in the key of solace

echoes in the darkened chambers
summon her fears

she shivers

I return her
to the warming luminance

our hands clasp
half in light
half in dark

connected across the boundary
we blend
into one

#light #dark #fear #comfort #love

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Em MacKenzie

Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?

She bruises easily,
she says “I don’t know why.”
“I’m like the monarchy,
they just won’t let me die.”
She pinches at her skin,
“do you see what I mean?”
It’s almost paper thin,
transparent and clean.

She comes up from the dirt,
born just ready to die.
Tugs and tears at her shirt,
fixes the cloth like a tie.
Changing each mask
within each new realm
and yet she still asks,
“Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?”

Wishing for the end
since around ‘96,
calling the reaper a friend,
“there’s no problem he can’t fix.”
“I had it all but at what cost?
I see no familiar face.”
“Every person I know is lost,
in life’s dreadful marathon race.”

She comes up from the dirt,
born just ready to die.
Grits teeth against the hurt
and keeps her eyes on the sky.
Still she juggles her tasks
and she steers at the helm,
and yet she still asks
“Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?”

Hagley, Worcestershire
1943

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Hawaii Kona

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Maddy

Hawaii Kona

Chickens
Pigs
Goats
Geese
Many trees
Beautuful orchids and flowers
Incredible tropical fruit
Asian and Hawaiian cuisine
Local delicacies
Pele is sacred deity
Pele-honua mea
Pele of the sacred land
Ka wahine’ beyond compare
She can be gentle and loving
She has a wicked side as well
Many other gods and godesses
Legends and mystery
Sacred homage
Stunning blue oceans and white waves
Volcanic landscapes and black sand beaches
Lovely green sea turtles(Honu)
Big Island laid back lifestyle
Hilo has many days of rain
Listen to the quiet and natural sounds of Kona
Seems unreal in the United States
She is very real and stunning
Wahiaka o ka maluha a me ka Maluku
Place of peace and tranquility
Always remember Kona
The youngest island
Aloha

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

No such thing as a good or bad person

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Liana

No such thing as a good or bad person

One of my friends asked me
"Do you think I'm a good person"
My first instinct was to tell her
"Yes, of course!"
But then I remembered
There's no such thing
I explained to her that I believed
In bad actions
Bad intentions
But not bad people
Because who knows who they would have been if raised even slightly differently
And if it's not because of that
And they're simply born that way
It isn't their fault they are like that
Just bad luck

I say that her intentions are usually good
And so because of that
She should feel that way too

And to my paragraphs she responded, "right..."

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Smooth Stones

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

South by Southwest

Smooth Stones

Their mouths
are drooping prophets

Who've left their
salad days

Now speak in smooth
stone words

that will never
come to be

For the days
of war , famine
and pestilence

leaves one sitting
on the fence

and death
Will surely fall
to the bereft

without a course
of recompence

You stand there
as astonished

You didn't believe
the speech

When out fell the
smooth stones

of ultimate defeat

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

We must move

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Jill

We must move

Sometimes we must move
Not shallow gym class work-mimicry
Empty choreography
Planned, timed, synchronised
Movement the purpose, fitness the goal
or health, or presentation
Important, worthy, needed
and yet, a slight, simplistic facsimile
of really moving

Sometimes we must move
Not gentle-stroll-incidental, ancillary activity
Perfect temperature
Sweat-less, shiver-less, comfortable
Sunshine the purpose, restoration the goal
or biophilia, or head-clearing
Cleansing, uplifting, lovely
and yet, orthogonal to the experience
of really moving

Sometimes we must move
For more than moving’s sake
Sincere reverberations
Changing, morphing, building
Action the purpose, elevation the goal
or processing, or releasing
Cathartic, detoxing, rejuvenating
in a way that leaves our world
different than before
we moved

When danger seems a looming steady state
Embrace the energy to scream and run
and channel into moving through the fear
Transmute to new found strength to persevere
To body-work at peak ‘til job is done

To push and pull, to dig, haul up, and scrub
Yield recompense for sweat and pulsing nerves
The world a little better than before
Clearer, cleaner, cared for, kept, and more
And you all terror-spent and panic-purged

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

a modern girl’s delay

Nov 18 Thomas W Case

Anais Vionet

a modern girl’s delay

(a disastrous morning Sonnet)

I am the very model of a girl who’s late for morning meal,
my charger failed, the printer jammed, the morning’s start has been surreal
I lost a scrunchy and a shoe, I had to use some dry shampoo
my Keurig had no k-cups too, I’m feeling like a total shrew!

Our pre-dawn jog went really well, but now the morning's gone to hell
I couldn’t find clean underwear, I’m desperate to charge my cell,
I got some soap in my left eye, I stubbed my toe and nearly cried
While brushing teeth and hair in haste, I wonder why I even try.

Anna’s got an attitude, she’s not someone who’s normally rude
her hookup so ‘experimental’ has an irregular sleep-in schedule
how’s she going to get to class if she’s babysitting sleeping-lass
I guess I’m not the only one, who’s schedules simply come undone.

I woke her with a gentle voice and soothed her out—we had no choice
My morning happened to sideways go—but it fueled this grandiloquent tale of woe!
.
.
A song for this:
Something Stupid by Michael Bublé and Reese Witherspoon

Merriam Webster word of the day challenge 11/17/24:
Grandiloquent = the use of extravagantly pompous language

#university #mornings #complications #schedules #humor