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"brogue" poems
Off the train I hit the streets and start laughing. This is ridiculous, incomprehensible. How can innumerable bipeds have individual inner lives. Why are they doing what they’re doing? I have no answer New York City but to also go about my business in this case prepare for surgery, survival. But why survive with so many exact replicas to replace me? A swarm of ants or hive of bees, social organisms they’re called, climbing over each other, avoiding bumping and amazingly making way, anticipating the sudden turns and straight paths of others, strangers but brothers, sisters incubating, the cells of a small ***** nodes of a single semi-conscious organism. The concept of a higher power that cares for me is also risible yet how else can I explain the surgeon and his team, robots and magnetic resonance imaging machines, all primed and trained to save my life. They are not particularly interested in what I do with my time. I am immediately in love with the Irish brogue of the head nurse, the Indian skin of the physician’s assistant. The long extraordinarily thin fingers of the famous surgeon. All mine to savor (and the other cancer patients). Despair, lose all hope that’s what the sign says at the gates of hell and at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center the sign says Be kind to our customers who are waiting and suffering. Yesterday’s suicidal thoughts: the mind is a clever servant, insufferable master. Therefore, meditate on this: absolute need, dependence on the Other. I still like Hombre, The Shootist and Ulzana’s Raid but realize those dead heroes were subordinate to society: the gun manufacturers who armed them. Thus, I go for cancer tests, accepting, not predicting results. Hero accepting help. A torrential rain following five days of flooding, tornadoes out west busting up wooden towns all because too many of us are hoarding plastic, herding electrons. None of us know how it will end, what the outcome will be (of our surgery). The best that can be said is Don’t forget to breathe. And you might as well believe in that higher power.
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Mar 5, 2019
Mar 5, 2019 at 6:00 AM UTC
Upper Manhattan Medical Group
Off the train I hit the streets and start laughing. This is ridiculous, incomprehensible. How can innumerable bipeds have individual inner lives. Why are they doing what they’re doing? I have no answer New York City but to also go about my business in this case prepare for surgery, survival. But why survive with so many exact replicas to replace me? A swarm of ants or hive of bees, social organisms they’re called, climbing over each other, avoiding bumping and amazingly making way, anticipating the sudden turns and straight paths of others, strangers but brothers, sisters incubating, the cells of a small ***** nodes of a single semi-conscious organism. The concept of a higher power that cares for me is also risible yet how else can I explain the surgeon and his team, robots and magnetic resonance imaging machines, all primed and trained to save my life. They are not particularly interested in what I do with my time. I am immediately in love with the Irish brogue of the head nurse, the Indian skin of the physician’s assistant. The long extraordinarily thin fingers of the famous surgeon. All mine to savor (and the other cancer patients). Despair, lose all hope that’s what the sign says at the gates of hell and at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center the sign says Be kind to our customers who are waiting and suffering. Yesterday’s suicidal thoughts: the mind is a clever servant, insufferable master. Therefore, meditate on this: absolute need, dependence on the Other. I still like Hombre, The Shootist and Ulzana’s Raid but realize those dead heroes were subordinate to society: the gun manufacturers who armed them. Thus, I go for cancer tests, accepting, not predicting results. Hero accepting help. A torrential rain following five days of flooding, tornadoes out west busting up wooden towns all because too many of us are hoarding plastic, herding electrons. None of us know how it will end, what the outcome will be (of our surgery). The best that can be said is Don’t forget to breathe. And you might as well believe in that higher power.
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46
god pity me whom(god distinctly has) the weightless svelte drifting ****** feather of your shall i say body?follows truly through a dribbling moan of jazz whose arched occasional stepped youth swallows curvingly the keeness of my hips; or,your first twitch of crisp boy flesh dips my height in a firm fragile stinging weather, (breathless with sharp necessary lips)kid female cracksman of the nifty,ruffian-rogue, laughing body with wise ******* half-grown, lisping flesh quick to thread the fattish drone of I Want a Doll, wispish-agile feet with slid steps parting the tousle of saxophonic brogue.
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8k
God Pity Me Whom(God Distinctly Has)
Fewer adults are laughing, It's not funny any more; We leaned on poles to direct our titter, Quite harmless in its day. And Engine 9's been derailed, We're catching tigers, But It's still okay. We rolled our eyes at Jewish jibes, And salesmen in the barn; Or the Newfie warning, *Don't slip on the ice, Don't ya know, bay, it's hard frozen*. We've pulled our collective heads out, We're sniffing old world air. I liked the self-effacing glibs, Affected with a brogue. Now there's a hard line on a country bridge, Across a brook, or penal school ditch. It's just not funny any more.
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Jan 23, 2019
Jan 23, 2019 at 10:32 AM UTC
Hedge Schools
He was taken into custody on Friday After he got off a bus in Marseille That had come from Amsterdam By way of Brussels, According to police. The manhunt began After he opened fire At the Jewish Museum In the center of Brussels, Killing at least 3 people, Obviously: an anti-Semitic attack. He was taken into custody “As soon as he set foot in France,” According to François Hollande, Congratulating himself For an efficient round up of The usual suspects, all Jihadi Round trippers from Syria. He was taken into custody in a mere 6 days-- A magnifique display of French efficiency, A sublime achievement by Our furry friends in Police-Protective Services. The swarthy perp was carrying a Kalashnikov-- That’s AK-47 for you NRA gun nuts-- A handgun, ammunition, a baseball cap, A small video recording device, and a Copy of The Koran, All items matching Descriptions of the gunman, And, even if not, a known-terrorist Named Mahdi bin Laden, Carrying an assault rifle Would have been enough To fit the profile, Justify the profiling, Sufficient to stop anyone Passing through Customs, Except, of course The French Corps Diplomatique, Wreaking most of the havoc in the EU these days. There was once a time when any Thom, Dieter or Heine Could get outta town on a ratline, Blessed by the Pope, Assisted by the OSS. A white linen suit and a Panama hat: Was all it took any Schutzstaffel To pull off another Argentine makeover, Melt into the landscape, Speaking Spanish with a thick German brogue. It’s nice to know Jew persecution is criminal, Socially frowned on these days.
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Jun 1, 2014
Jun 1, 2014 at 5:59 PM UTC
“Jihad”
He was taken into custody on Friday After he got off a bus in Marseille That had come from Amsterdam By way of Brussels, According to police. The manhunt began After he opened fire At the Jewish Museum In the center of Brussels, Killing at least 3 people, Obviously: an anti-Semitic attack. He was taken into custody “As soon as he set foot in France,” According to François Hollande, Congratulating himself For an efficient round up of The usual suspects, all Jihadi Round trippers from Syria. He was taken into custody in a mere 6 days-- A magnifique display of French efficiency, A sublime achievement by Our furry friends in Police-Protective Services. The swarthy perp was carrying a Kalashnikov-- That’s AK-47 for you NRA gun nuts-- A handgun, ammunition, a baseball cap, A small video recording device, and a Copy of The Koran, All items matching Descriptions of the gunman, And, even if not, a known-terrorist Named Mahdi bin Laden, Carrying an assault rifle Would have been enough To fit the profile, Justify the profiling, Sufficient to stop anyone Passing through Customs, Except, of course The French Corps Diplomatique, Wreaking most of the havoc in the EU these days. There was once a time when any Thom, Dieter or Heine Could get outta town on a ratline, Blessed by the Pope, Assisted by the OSS. A white linen suit and a Panama hat: Was all it took any Schutzstaffel To pull off another Argentine makeover, Melt into the landscape, Speaking Spanish with a thick German brogue. It’s nice to know Jew persecution is criminal, Socially frowned on these days.
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53
“I’ll see you later.” My Father said as they wheeled him off on the gurney. “Good Luck, Pops.” my heart in my throat, as he went on his last journey. He left us in that hot July, when the heat waves’ course had run. I wandered in shock and disbelief like a world without a Sun. For a long time after Pops had passed I struggled with depression. Life went on for others; at least that was my impression. Yet even in my darkest night I had my memories. Sometimes, in the deepest sleep, Pops would return to me. In his deep rich Irish Brogue he’d speak from beyond the vale. My Memories of unconditional Love can never fade or pale. To have been loved as we two loved; there is but one Love greater. As I woke and rejoined the work-day world I whispered “I’ll see You Later.”
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Nov 8, 2014
Nov 8, 2014 at 8:43 AM UTC
I’ll see you Later
And my nerves Are like useless hands At the edge of an Argument. My foot had a fight With a brown brogue And lost, And it pays for its defeat With nakedness. I carry a jaundiced bag On my hip, Like an oversized yellow blister, And I empty it With a tremored hand Against the cistern. Half of my face Went numb and I dumbly Stared into the bathroom mirror, Astounded that I Could still smile. My most meaningful relationship Is with laxatives! I romanticise my gut, Where the flora lives, Because you have to Love your body, Somehow - Don’t you?
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Sep 2, 2013
Sep 2, 2013 at 9:21 AM UTC
Multiple Sclerosis
Good day, constant friend, you Please me great; Belie your subtle pleasantries, Free yourself from blithe Mannerisms and speak freely. We are not amongst company, we Share no ill will nor rogue Dissent. You are a brother and a Sister to me, as I am to you, and We will not allow sallow weather to Defuse our brogue discourse. You are amongst friends.
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Jul 6, 2011
Jul 6, 2011 at 2:34 PM UTC
Good Day, Constant Friend
She sailed across in 1882, From a town in Cork called Skibbereen. To work and save was all she knew; Just a lass she was, only eighteen. She wed a fellow **** a charming sort, He sired three children, then he left. She had no lawyer had no resort; He left her broke, marooned, bereft. My mother told me stories of her Irish Gran; She said the woman had a brogue; When she got old her hair was white as sand; The no-good husband was a rogue. My mother asked her many times about her life; “What was your childhood like in Skibbereen?” “Ach, it was nothing but hardship and strife; The times were harsh, and meals were lean.” She never went back across the sea; Never set foot in her country again; Lost touch with the whole of her family; Was penniless at her life’s end. And now my mother too is gone; She died with one regret; She never got to see the place; The house where her grandmother slept. My mother, I did what you could not, I made this trip for you. I touch the stone in the very spot Where the root of our family grew. It’s nothing much to look at, a ruin in a field; But I take a moment and grieve; This is where our fate was sealed; When that girl decided to leave. She left her homeland, all she knew; Sailed off to the great beyond; The one thing she could never undo Was the rupturing of the family bond. My mother, you made us hold our family dear, To promise our love so strong; Was it because you saw so clear Your grandmother’s pain so long? I bow my head and say a prayer, And ask for a portion of grace; For you and her, travelers over there, In a foreign, mysterious place. I hope you’ve met her in that land, And maybe now you understand.
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Jul 22, 2013
Jul 22, 2013 at 7:14 PM UTC
Genealogy
She sailed across in 1882, From a town in Cork called Skibbereen. To work and save was all she knew; Just a lass she was, only eighteen. She wed a fellow **** a charming sort, He sired three children, then he left. She had no lawyer had no resort; He left her broke, marooned, bereft. My mother told me stories of her Irish Gran; She said the woman had a brogue; When she got old her hair was white as sand; The no-good husband was a rogue. My mother asked her many times about her life; “What was your childhood like in Skibbereen?” “Ach, it was nothing but hardship and strife; The times were harsh, and meals were lean.” She never went back across the sea; Never set foot in her country again; Lost touch with the whole of her family; Was penniless at her life’s end. And now my mother too is gone; She died with one regret; She never got to see the place; The house where her grandmother slept. My mother, I did what you could not, I made this trip for you. I touch the stone in the very spot Where the root of our family grew. It’s nothing much to look at, a ruin in a field; But I take a moment and grieve; This is where our fate was sealed; When that girl decided to leave. She left her homeland, all she knew; Sailed off to the great beyond; The one thing she could never undo Was the rupturing of the family bond. My mother, you made us hold our family dear, To promise our love so strong; Was it because you saw so clear Your grandmother’s pain so long? I bow my head and say a prayer, And ask for a portion of grace; For you and her, travelers over there, In a foreign, mysterious place. I hope you’ve met her in that land, And maybe now you understand.
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46
Which do you prefer, Haunted Girl- the city street sidewalk churned up by heel and brogue or, the sweet-talk waves of home? Settle in the sand while fingers meld and touch the palms of hands, let the hour glass beach pass time between our toes, have an appetite for shallow dives amongst wave-tip whites; whipped up by swell’s whisk, stare until we sing for the dead men, fire flares of affection in the form of kisses! use a tool to sketch our future floor plan, comment upon the Moroccan oil hair tan, watch that man trace the coast of France upon his wife’s thigh; hear her cry as he reaches Cherbourg, talk of Vienna flagship stores: forerunner fashion you make look lace, mention the trees and the shipwrecks, past relationship breakups and upcoming commitments, describe, in detail, what you hope to happen and what happens to that hope. Fly back home.
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Mar 10, 2013
Mar 10, 2013 at 3:04 PM UTC
HAUNTED GIRL
When she opened the door and saw him standing there Her first thought was Holy crap he's so obsessed that he swam the Atlantic! Well, his hair was dry So she realized this thought was not reasonable, But she couldn't formulate a second thought Because that's when the shock started to set in And all she could say was "You exist!" Awestruck, Reaching out to make sure he was solid. It was just like she'd imagined. His lithe, sniper-trained body stood less than an inch Above her own over-worked and over-fed frame, And his brogue-heavy voice tumbled out Without a type-face to give it cadence: "You exist, too…" Palm to palm they stood there, Staring wonderingly at the other, Unconsciously twining their fingers as though, If they didn't hold on, They'd flicker out like a computer shutting down. On her fifteenth birthday she'd told him "I'll be eighteen in three years. Then I'll come see you." And in those days The Atlantic Ocean didn't seem like such a big thing. It seemed that its breadth was just a story moms told to keep their kids from wandering off, From sneaking out and stone-skipping across its waves Until they splashed up on some foreign beach. Dimly, she thought she could flatten herself out And fling her body so that she'd bounce her way across the ocean Right to his door. In those days She was leashed by a modem, Bound by the words typed out in real-time; "I can't wait until I'm eighteen. We'll finally see each other." On her eighteenth birthday, She no longer wore her computer collar, And she wasn't thinking about him Or the Atlantic. But looking at him standing in her foyer, She couldn't quite remember When two screens and a modem Became too fragile to bridge two continents. Virtual hugs crumbled under real life kisses; LOL couldn't replace actual laughter; Emoticons couldn't replace ****** expressions. For all that she loved him, Something was missing, Lost in IP addresses and chat rooms, Only to be found again Dropping its luggage on her bedroom floor.
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Nov 27, 2010
Nov 27, 2010 at 6:42 PM UTC
Modem Connections
When she opened the door and saw him standing there Her first thought was Holy crap he's so obsessed that he swam the Atlantic! Well, his hair was dry So she realized this thought was not reasonable, But she couldn't formulate a second thought Because that's when the shock started to set in And all she could say was "You exist!" Awestruck, Reaching out to make sure he was solid. It was just like she'd imagined. His lithe, sniper-trained body stood less than an inch Above her own over-worked and over-fed frame, And his brogue-heavy voice tumbled out Without a type-face to give it cadence: "You exist, too…" Palm to palm they stood there, Staring wonderingly at the other, Unconsciously twining their fingers as though, If they didn't hold on, They'd flicker out like a computer shutting down. On her fifteenth birthday she'd told him "I'll be eighteen in three years. Then I'll come see you." And in those days The Atlantic Ocean didn't seem like such a big thing. It seemed that its breadth was just a story moms told to keep their kids from wandering off, From sneaking out and stone-skipping across its waves Until they splashed up on some foreign beach. Dimly, she thought she could flatten herself out And fling her body so that she'd bounce her way across the ocean Right to his door. In those days She was leashed by a modem, Bound by the words typed out in real-time; "I can't wait until I'm eighteen. We'll finally see each other." On her eighteenth birthday, She no longer wore her computer collar, And she wasn't thinking about him Or the Atlantic. But looking at him standing in her foyer, She couldn't quite remember When two screens and a modem Became too fragile to bridge two continents. Virtual hugs crumbled under real life kisses; LOL couldn't replace actual laughter; Emoticons couldn't replace ****** expressions. For all that she loved him, Something was missing, Lost in IP addresses and chat rooms, Only to be found again Dropping its luggage on her bedroom floor.
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52
(in a thick Scottish brogue) Reality bites, And so do I. This little worm on a hook, called "distraction" is wriggling wry... Let him fill my insides! Terrified, I now fly! Wired to a wizards whimsical wishes Flying fishes wondering why. Lost it, from snowballs to fishes; Did the point get diminished? Illustrating imagination, Illuminating our kingdom nation; To the darker side. That Joker cannot hide. S'come down to You & I. I'd die, to hear a reply; Wade through the ****** tears in Your eyes... please, hold me tight! Alone; I'll never defeat, "the other guy". God knows, my mother tried... But the warlocks worm... She swallowed a juicy lie. But, through repentance-true... She will turn around and choose to, Follow You. Lord God, I'm calling You. Please hear my cry, I am so blue. Know I'm not trying to impress anyone, Just looking for thee open Son. The snowflake it takes, to deliver an avalanche, must have a similar feel for that; Just how I feel in-fact. The ground from which I "fell upon" Lets loose, now I'm falling so fast and all my friends are falling too! Are we tumbling to our doom!? The air in the room, is vacuumed out; No doubt your mind is frozen solid now. With the Genjutsu shout; Your feast is ceased and now, Its only famine and drought. Why all this camotion, inside our souls? Who speaks it?  Who needs it? Distractions, just aren't enough, and they're starting to take thier toll! **** it.    I'm done.                       Guess I'll just let the dice roll!
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Nov 22, 2015
Nov 22, 2015 at 2:42 PM UTC
the fake fish named snowflake (the snowball-effect)
(in a thick Scottish brogue) Reality bites, And so do I. This little worm on a hook, called "distraction" is wriggling wry... Let him fill my insides! Terrified, I now fly! Wired to a wizards whimsical wishes Flying fishes wondering why. Lost it, from snowballs to fishes; Did the point get diminished? Illustrating imagination, Illuminating our kingdom nation; To the darker side. That Joker cannot hide. S'come down to You & I. I'd die, to hear a reply; Wade through the ****** tears in Your eyes... please, hold me tight! Alone; I'll never defeat, "the other guy". God knows, my mother tried... But the warlocks worm... She swallowed a juicy lie. But, through repentance-true... She will turn around and choose to, Follow You. Lord God, I'm calling You. Please hear my cry, I am so blue. Know I'm not trying to impress anyone, Just looking for thee open Son. The snowflake it takes, to deliver an avalanche, must have a similar feel for that; Just how I feel in-fact. The ground from which I "fell upon" Lets loose, now I'm falling so fast and all my friends are falling too! Are we tumbling to our doom!? The air in the room, is vacuumed out; No doubt your mind is frozen solid now. With the Genjutsu shout; Your feast is ceased and now, Its only famine and drought. Why all this camotion, inside our souls? Who speaks it?  Who needs it? Distractions, just aren't enough, and they're starting to take thier toll! **** it.    I'm done.                       Guess I'll just let the dice roll!
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43
There is a certain type that I am apt to like, a Galliano smirk, it's true, won't make me take a hike. A bourbon habit, one raised brow a slow-drawled "Well, hello" - call me a sucker, I don't care, I admire a brogue-shod fellow. Wrap him up in hairy tweed mixed with well-packed denim, the physicality of Welles and literaryness of Heming (way). Politics were not a factor, or nationality, he engaged my interest with his brand of flattery. Challenging in points of view debating through small hours, I'd much rather conversation than all the world of flowers. For I've no need of roses to get my fix of blush. His whispers in a crowded room will rise me to a flush. This man of perfect manners, I'm as Venus when I stand with my jazzophile Jupiter, conjuncted, hand-in-hand. Shooting stars if wished upon may bring one single wish. Thus I knew, the day I met him, I had found my bliss.
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Jul 26, 2013
Jul 26, 2013 at 7:00 PM UTC
Yet another ode to my husband
There are these moments all the time Where I think, "This is not the life I signed up for. This can't be my life. This Is Not My Life." But I am dizzy and hungover, Stumbling to the kitchen for water Wondering how I got home last night. 25 and tail-spinning-- How did I get here? Last night I had a glimpse of many could-have-beens. I found myself wistful for a life I never had, Risks I never took, Words I let fizzle out on my tongue, Courage that left me when I should have chased it. A boy with a brogue nearly brought me to tears Drunk and disoriented Inadvertently reminding me of a future that's No longer mine. After every margarita It feels like I'm falling further and further And I'm scrabbling without footing, Tired and dizzy, Losing my way, Wondering what all I've walked away from All these years Because I was always so scared.
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Aug 28, 2016
Aug 28, 2016 at 8:16 PM UTC
Sehnsucht
A friend asked if my mother had a brogue. She was forty when she landed here, She probably did. She must have. What does a child hear? I was accustomed to it. I only heard her voice. Others no doubt did. Liked the lilt. I heard the voice, Not the accent.
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Sep 14, 2017
Sep 14, 2017 at 9:50 PM UTC
My Mother's Brogue
At first I would have nothing to do with him. He waited outside my small flat everyday Soaked to the skin in the November rains. I asked him to go away But he flashed his beautiful Irish smile. And said no not until you go out with me. I will wait here forever. I thought a few more days He will leave. But that night I heard a commotion outside. He had a group of Irish musicians And was serenading me with I'll take you home again Kathleen And When Irish eyes are smiling. I don't know when I fell in love with him. It might of been then. All I know it was long ago And they were the happiest days of my life. He sang to me everyday And called me his American Colleen. He always made me feel so beautiful. I have lost my smiling Irish singer now. When the sickness came He just smiled and say it was a bit of a cold But I knew ...I knew…. Now on cold November nights. When the Seattle rain is endless. I look at the bloom of the old lamppost Outside my flat window. Where he waited and sang for me? And in my head I can hear his sweet Irish brogue Singing so sweetly his soft celtic voice. *I’ll take you home again Kathleen To where you heart will feel no pain*
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Sep 5, 2016
Sep 5, 2016 at 1:34 PM UTC
I'll take you home again Kathleen.. a love story
I slept in a red cot On the SS Columbia. In the middle of the cabin, Brothers and sisters Bunked vertically On either side. Seven in all. We disembarked at Montreal, Where my sister Unclenched my white-knuckled hold On the mahogany rails. That moment was synapsed And impermeable. My third love Taught me everything about love. Miss DeGurse, Grade One. She was taken by the dimples And the brogue, but smart me, I passed, we parted; She to her farmer fiance, Me to Grade Two And Sister Hildegarde. I learned valuable lessons, But love was already learned For a life-time outside family. The soutane didn't fit anymore, And the incense left me distracted. The flickering shadows over the folds Of Joseph's and Mary's statues Have fewer outlines Under the light of less candles. Books replaced Church, Then illuminated religion In gold-leafed pages. Women went well with books And still enrich my every day. Loss is all around. No eulogies or memorials, please. But remember me When you splash in July, Observe nature prepare for winter, Blink flakes off your lashes, Or bloom up and down your street; Then gather, Read something I wrote, And Remember I used to notice such things.
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May 22, 2015
May 22, 2015 at 8:53 AM UTC
The Anatomy of Loss
All alone In the middle of the floor Lies a leather brogue - Nothing less, nothing more. It's toes are battered, Ripped and weary - In fact the whole scene Is a little dreary. The deceased shoe's lodger Along with his feet, In sprawled horror, Lies broken and beat. A once great mind Here lays at rest. There's no doubt about it, It was one of the best. And just one thing From his hand, I pry - An empty bottle, ****** bone dry.
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Jun 3, 2013
Jun 3, 2013 at 2:03 PM UTC
A Once Great Mind
Moi Saint Paddy Fake Trump Petted Family Irish vignette At the tender age of fifteen years old, Aaron O’Harris boarded the Dublin gangplank and made a mental note to drop the “O” as this paternal grandson faintly recalls such anecdote told to me when just a wee itty bitty teensy weensy whipper snapper of a lad. His decisive gait echoed across the wooden walkway. Straight away (on that blustery march dawn – circa late twentieth century), he briskly boarded the ship that would shortly depart from the Emerald Isle and take him to America. My paternal grandfather quickly wiped away stray tears at the prospect of severing ties with a large brood of siblings. An abusive alcoholic father and passive mother would hardly notice the absence one son among a dozen plus offspring. Matter of fact, a voluntary choice to become an immigrant in the Matzoh land of milk and honey would translate as one less mouth to feed. The journey across the cold waters of the Atlantic began in earnest once the captain and crew pulled up anchor and instinctively oriented sights toward an invisible point thousands of miles distant. While on board the long journey, he (known in traditional Gaelic as Sainmhíniú) kept the tedium at bay and kept himself occupied with divers pursuits. An accidental trait eventually discerned in him from others to be a natural born leader by other passengers. A good many of these other fellow countrymen and women (many with small children in tow) shared the common goal of starting life anew in the United States, and discovered him to be adroit at not only playing such games as checkers, chess, cribbage, but adept with singing (in traditional Brogue), and performing fancy foot work. Improvisational songs (based on tunes from the home of Eire) evoked sadness at leaving the motherland (steeped in a rich history steeped in legend and lore), yet also excitement about beginning an adventure with countless opportunities to witness potential fortune or fame. Visions of streets paved with plenty of golden wealth brimmed and danced supposedly available and within easy reach for those who possessed pluck.
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May 27, 2017
May 27, 2017 at 10:24 PM UTC
Moi Saint Paddy Fake Trump Petted Family Irish vignette
Moi Saint Paddy Fake Trump Petted Family Irish vignette At the tender age of fifteen years old, Aaron O’Harris boarded the Dublin gangplank and made a mental note to drop the “O” as this paternal grandson faintly recalls such anecdote told to me when just a wee itty bitty teensy weensy whipper snapper of a lad. His decisive gait echoed across the wooden walkway. Straight away (on that blustery march dawn – circa late twentieth century), he briskly boarded the ship that would shortly depart from the Emerald Isle and take him to America. My paternal grandfather quickly wiped away stray tears at the prospect of severing ties with a large brood of siblings. An abusive alcoholic father and passive mother would hardly notice the absence one son among a dozen plus offspring. Matter of fact, a voluntary choice to become an immigrant in the Matzoh land of milk and honey would translate as one less mouth to feed. The journey across the cold waters of the Atlantic began in earnest once the captain and crew pulled up anchor and instinctively oriented sights toward an invisible point thousands of miles distant. While on board the long journey, he (known in traditional Gaelic as Sainmhíniú) kept the tedium at bay and kept himself occupied with divers pursuits. An accidental trait eventually discerned in him from others to be a natural born leader by other passengers. A good many of these other fellow countrymen and women (many with small children in tow) shared the common goal of starting life anew in the United States, and discovered him to be adroit at not only playing such games as checkers, chess, cribbage, but adept with singing (in traditional Brogue), and performing fancy foot work. Improvisational songs (based on tunes from the home of Eire) evoked sadness at leaving the motherland (steeped in a rich history steeped in legend and lore), yet also excitement about beginning an adventure with countless opportunities to witness potential fortune or fame. Visions of streets paved with plenty of golden wealth brimmed and danced supposedly available and within easy reach for those who possessed pluck.
Continue reading...
13
This place is a museum now; this great hall where my father stood. Here he waited on line with all the rest. He waited for admission. He was dressed in his best with a few dollars in his pocket, and the address of his sister and her husband in New York. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. My mother, Helen, was native, first generation born upon these shores. My father was a laborer; the quarries and mines had made him strong. His years in Scotland plus his native Irish brogue was baffling at first  to those Ellis Island clerks. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. My Dad found work building a bridge high above the waters reach. He started out a near illiterate but slowly learned to read From discarded copies of the New York Daily News. He met my mom at an Irish dance. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. My mother’s voice was all New York; a dialect of English speech. She loved her numbers, and clerked for Met Life, but she may have longed to teach. Instead she sat with me in our small kitchen Teaching me my numbers as our dinner was prepared. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. For those of you who have heard me speak And found my own accent hard to place. I am a little of old New York and a little of a fair green place. My American voice is but the echoed music of my race. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all.
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Mar 1, 2017
Mar 1, 2017 at 7:44 AM UTC
My American Voice
This place is a museum now; this great hall where my father stood. Here he waited on line with all the rest. He waited for admission. He was dressed in his best with a few dollars in his pocket, and the address of his sister and her husband in New York. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. My mother, Helen, was native, first generation born upon these shores. My father was a laborer; the quarries and mines had made him strong. His years in Scotland plus his native Irish brogue was baffling at first  to those Ellis Island clerks. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. My Dad found work building a bridge high above the waters reach. He started out a near illiterate but slowly learned to read From discarded copies of the New York Daily News. He met my mom at an Irish dance. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. My mother’s voice was all New York; a dialect of English speech. She loved her numbers, and clerked for Met Life, but she may have longed to teach. Instead she sat with me in our small kitchen Teaching me my numbers as our dinner was prepared. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all. For those of you who have heard me speak And found my own accent hard to place. I am a little of old New York and a little of a fair green place. My American voice is but the echoed music of my race. There’s a lady in the harbor here who holds her torch aloft for all.
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25
If you’re looking for yuletide cynicism here, you’re shopping in the wrong place. This is New York City’s time of year. It’s stood the test of time and it fairly sparkles, proving that the ordinary can be extraordinary. With the right lighting. Lisa’s (parent’s) apartment glitters like our promised heaven on high. When we left at Thanksgiving, Michael (Lisa’s dad) had the concierge service stressed, toting boxes of decorations up from their storage area. When I waved my goodbyes, he appeared to be wrestling an octopus of cool-white fairy lights into submission. Now everything glitters pyrite bright. Our holiday time is limited—and this is our chance to unwind—so we’re selective about what we decide to embrace. For instance, there was a sale at Michael Kors where, no big deal, I got a pair of brogue, black leather wingtips that’ll be straight fire with a little black dress. The bargains were so good that I decided the store must be a drug front. Not that I’m complaining. Do I ever complain? Nope, I’m stoic. Like Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, Lisa and I’ve been “testing the product” of Manhattan's club scene. We’re searching diligently for the new and unfamiliar. When it comes to picking which clubs we want to visit, Charles, our driver and escort (a retired NYPD cop), has gone as far as to suggest, we’re “out of our depth,” and refused to let us even try one or two DJ’d, pop-up clubs in Queens that were getting a lot of heat and likes. “Roosevelt Avenue is the new 42nd Street,” he’d said. What does that even mean?? Indignant silence Anyway, I hope Christmas finds you all merry and bright and that your holidays—whichever you celebrate— are carnivals of food, music, friendship and love—for those are the luxuries that count the most. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus! . . Songs for this: Absolutely Everybody by Vanessa Amorosi Rock With You by Traincha . . A Christmas Playlist—because there's 4 days til Christmas https://daweb.us/xmas/Christmas_28.mp3
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Dec 21, 2024
Dec 21, 2024 at 8:11 AM UTC
yuletide cynicism
If you’re looking for yuletide cynicism here, you’re shopping in the wrong place. This is New York City’s time of year. It’s stood the test of time and it fairly sparkles, proving that the ordinary can be extraordinary. With the right lighting. Lisa’s (parent’s) apartment glitters like our promised heaven on high. When we left at Thanksgiving, Michael (Lisa’s dad) had the concierge service stressed, toting boxes of decorations up from their storage area. When I waved my goodbyes, he appeared to be wrestling an octopus of cool-white fairy lights into submission. Now everything glitters pyrite bright. Our holiday time is limited—and this is our chance to unwind—so we’re selective about what we decide to embrace. For instance, there was a sale at Michael Kors where, no big deal, I got a pair of brogue, black leather wingtips that’ll be straight fire with a little black dress. The bargains were so good that I decided the store must be a drug front. Not that I’m complaining. Do I ever complain? Nope, I’m stoic. Like Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, Lisa and I’ve been “testing the product” of Manhattan's club scene. We’re searching diligently for the new and unfamiliar. When it comes to picking which clubs we want to visit, Charles, our driver and escort (a retired NYPD cop), has gone as far as to suggest, we’re “out of our depth,” and refused to let us even try one or two DJ’d, pop-up clubs in Queens that were getting a lot of heat and likes. “Roosevelt Avenue is the new 42nd Street,” he’d said. What does that even mean?? Indignant silence Anyway, I hope Christmas finds you all merry and bright and that your holidays—whichever you celebrate— are carnivals of food, music, friendship and love—for those are the luxuries that count the most. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus! . . Songs for this: Absolutely Everybody by Vanessa Amorosi Rock With You by Traincha . . A Christmas Playlist—because there's 4 days til Christmas https://daweb.us/xmas/Christmas_28.mp3
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40
I don't believe in soul mates but I will fall for the man who can read my poetry aloud translate it properly, from page to voice without compromising rhythm, or sound, or rhyme, With a gentle poet's brogue. The man who sees the notes of my soul I tucked between the lines, and finds he made the same notations in the margins of his own.
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Nov 24, 2013
Nov 24, 2013 at 9:08 PM UTC
I don't believe in soul mates
Family Tree They come from far and wide once a year to mingle and snack on catered shrimp and small talk in the long line that snakes around the room to the open bar besieged five deep, the beating heart of the party until the string band starts up and everyone hits the dance floor, limbs loose, knees high, hair down, skirts hiked generations of farmers and drifters, rail men and conscripts, schemers and failures, a cacophony of native brogue and broken English, long lazy vowels stretched to breaking. The men have my nose, the women your eyes, but neither you nor I claim the crazy cackle coming from a skinny gal with electric hair or the flat, vacant gaze of a fellow in coveralls, hands like hay rakes, yellow fingers balled into fists. The bar closes at twelve, they start to drift away, arms draped, propping each other up, telling the same old tearful tales, falls down wells, battle axes to the head, starvation in alarming numbers and many iterations of pox and croup, ague and catarrh, bilious fever, dropsy and the flux, melancholia, milk leg and screws, a miserable game of one-upmanship savored by all as they disappear into the night, fore-bearers eyeing us at the door, polite yet taciturn, playing things close to the vest mum on the matter of the higher branches of our family tree.
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Oct 10, 2016
Oct 10, 2016 at 7:40 AM UTC
Family Tree
this alteh kocker nostalgically reflects being ma late mama's boytchik (now, she long since deceased, whose cremated remains of day scattered to all points on compass) fondly referencing both sisters as dabchick incongruously sprinkled her Brooklyn brogue, especially when angry, she quickly segued from mild expletive fiddlestick the latter playfully aired, when kibitzing wit bubeleh reminiscing being dirt poor, nonetheless zee mother every now an again homesick regaling the whole mishpokhe (meaning us brood of kids) interrupting herself with frequent non sequiturs discombobulated anecdotes switching subjects as if external forcefield jimmying a joystick interleaving disparate threads with subsequent tangential linkedin snippets with feigned lovesick chatting 'bout cockamamie "Grandpa Moishe" and his chaim yankel posse (to escape hen pecking nudnik "grandma Rebecca"), a trenchant termagent bubba, not averse to incorporate dreck in the same sentence with zayda ostracized him scoring figurative placekick, whence upon his schlepping back home met with "silent treatment" dampening rollick king atmosphere choking tearfully "mother" recounted farblunget anger thick lee palpable extremely discomfiting, particularly when ("mom's") girlhood friends bore witness aye gavalt, where penury churned moribund thoughts viz empty cupboards devoid of bare necessities a figurative apropos yardstick.
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May 31, 2018
May 31, 2018 at 3:48 PM UTC
A Bissel Mashugga