Mattel gave us Barbie and Ken,
They never grew old, according to them,
But, can you handle reality?
Barbie and Ken are now over fifty!
Barbie is fat with varicose veins,
With hairy legs, not so vain,
And Ken shall never see his toes again,
His six pack has turned into a beer belly,
Walking makes Ken quiver like jelly,
But, hey, they're forever Mattel,
Barbie's too old to say, "Ken, go to hell!"
Sad, but true, our childhood friends,
Yet they did grow old, Barbie and Ken........

(alternately titled: idolizing childhood's end
today April 25th, 2021
generates elusive warm treasured memories).

Akin to significance my eldest sister
felt toward her “*******” –
(totally tubular fuzzy bendable contrivances
analogous to an outsize pipe cleaner)
until she became a tweener
my Matty Mattel Doll (circa mid 1960's)
meant the webbed wide world  
with promise of much greener pastures
on the Apollo space age horizon
where virtual Oculus virtual reality dwelt
amongst Carib ****** indigenous tribes.

No matter yours truly then
fast approaching his decade number seven  
of twentieth century tantalizing
figurative future promises held sway
(namely technologically
Luddite intimations spawned),
I zealously, fervently,
and desperately clung
to battered Matty Mattel doll.

Any child with creative artistic bents
(including this scribe),
whose innate sensibilities and cents
severely limited me drawing
stick figures, more so dense
macabre satisfactorily applying
beard or mustache as stylish elements
applying magic marker to picture printed
faces forged into fences
of famous people popular
within culture club, both gents
or gals, whose retouched photographs
beggared ****** pents
sieve looming hair of men and women,
while simultaneously rents
sing preoccupied to access
excel lent glue, which caricatured outlook
devoid of common sense
I held said goofy looking doll
appeared contrived of household padding material,
and short scraps from circus tents
of yarn for do whit yourself based artisans
into trash bin of history project went.

Even than orange ranked as the new black
charming plaything sophistication did lack
plus batteries not required
to hear voice activated track.

This (think) abhor ridge gin null snippets
red + yellow colored strands
atop kepi twas pseudo hair,
sans manufactured eunuchs
adorned head lands
with avast capita lone linkedin
fingerhut dishabille curls,
could easily construct trolling grandstands
a similar facsimile re: globular molded,
incorporated, glommed,
fragile Ostrich egg shape
contrived head (vis a vis Plaster of Paris
overcovering NON GMO gluten free
partially hydrogenated brands
inflated balloon) to affect trademark
globular fuzzy noggin dry as Acklands.

The simple plain plaything included
a fitbit lifesaver size plastic ring
said small circular loop perfect “O”pening
to get jammed below first knuckle the King
Kong of index finger affixed to a short string
(when pulled to extent tub buckle did bring
taut tether) activated
moon face fixed bug eyed ping
pong blank stare to utter garbled syllables
asper one who nipped viz suckle something.

Despite the drabness, homeliness,
lacquered painted trapped
xyst Yarmulke cheap flatness,
I loved ragged slapped
around, and still iconic schlepped treasure
(uber voiceless with rapt
zealous application bridging elementary
functioning gizmo), initiating mapped
jabbering lock lipped absolute zero prattling.

Sometimes well worn action hero lapped
exhilaration, (got tossed in the air, booted
as football, succor silently accepted flapped
sear sucker punches from robed buck
after favorite fictitious "brother" chapped
accompanied my scrawny body
at bath time) to adapt.

Nonetheless, this adored
billed idol kept me secure,
especially on rare occasions
that found this contemplative lad, a lore
ring dutiful, fun loving kid
under the weather, or hospitalized for
minor adenoids removal,
which entailed post surgical recovery
swallowing quite a chore.

Oh yes, this non gendered plaything
nondescript featureless
sewn seams showed zero differentiation,
no matter to tell this August, cherished, fondled
kiddie piece de resistance lacked ****** identity.

Absent reproductive organs
(eh, nada so significant omission)
cuz, this seemingly resistant
quirky plaything, who unfairly re
ceived punishing physical
indiscriminate treatment, yet still
connection omnipotent bond existed
as if goofy guise happened
to be extended part of mine kempf.

Upon reflection, asper
childhood memento (nary a clue
what triggered remembrance
of things past yesterday comprised
true value), an aha moment awoke
to attempt to cap cha vague
essence about pretend friend designed in 1955,
and based on a concept by Mattel co-founder
Elliot Handler.

The character “Matty”
derived from the name Mattel.

The nom de plume a concatenation of sorts
derived after founders,
Harold Mattson and Elliot Handler.

A brainstorm session
yielded concurrence viz the hybrid name
of Matt + El (short for Elliot).

Do we have any idea?
Have we even got a clue?
Can it be that we don't give a ****
what others are going through.

Are we so wrapped up in selfish mode?
So devoted to our own.
That we should sit back and watch
as others are gnawed down to the bone.

Should it be that our own offspring
if they were cast away so far?
Would we worry about that pipeline
bringing fuel to run our car?

Or would we stand aloft in horror
as they were thrown unto the ground?
Or for fuel thats cheap and plentiful,
is it ok to make no sound?

We hear about disasters.
Tsunami strikes upon Japan.
Earthquakes raging out in Haiti
Watch death befall our fellow man.

Throw donations in a bucket
at the supermarket doors,
then forget because of shopping.
but we have paid towards their cause.

Could you ever even fathom?
Your children crying as they play,
not for Barbies or Play-stations
but for the pain to go away.

Never asking for the latest
made by Hamleys or Mattel
rather just an handfull of food
to help beat the starvation battle.

Wash it down with poison water
from a river filled with ****
or collect in rusty tin cans
from a worn and stagnant pit.

If this was the plight of our children
things would surely be said.
We would try to move a mountain
rather than our young be dead.

Could you ever really imagine?
Could you ever really get,
that a million hits on You-Tube
turn endangered species into pets?

What if someone could ask on face-book
about your daughter or your son,
saying"It looks so cute and cuddly,
"go on e-bay and buy me one."

If only we could all be happy,
not feel a need to own the place.
If we could learn to be contented
by a childs smiling face.

Treat the world with awe and wonder.
Treat its creatures with respect.
Treat each other in this same way.
Treat nobody with neglect.

Then perhaps we may push together,
make our Governments do right.
Let's lead the World with people power,
no more starvation or blight.

Let's be less materialistic
let us have a life of worh
Not by owning all we see,
rather sharing this our earth.

Elliot Handler, late of Mattel,
has gone to his heavenly rest.
The designer of Hot Wheels
Made many great toys;
Barbie, the doll, is known best.

Barbie was shaped
Like a ******* recruit;
A miniature teenage *******.
Barbie wasn't  impressed
When she got Ken undressed;
Some equipment was lacking, it seems.

“You Can Tell It’s Mattel It’s Swell" (tm) 1

          -A toymaker’s slogan applied to (That Rifle) in the 1960s

(That Rifle) often fires when it should not
Its chosen function is usually to jam
But, da®n, it’s black and **** and hot -
Blows off testosterone when it goes Bam-Bam

And when it discharges, so does its owner
A little bullet from a little spout                              
With his stud piece, no longer a loner -
True love from each basement dweller and lout

Maybe it makes guys feel all hunky-hunk -
Well, they are welcome to that piece of junk

1 Mattel has never had any connection with the manufacture of weapons

Let me start by appreciating Austen Bukenya’s stand on the challenges that boggle young African writers. He recently published in the literature pages of Saturday Nation. In which he argued that before one can be declared a bad writer we must see his or her writings first. Good. I agree with Professor Bukenya.And I also argue yes, bad writers can also survive. In fact they can thrive alongside good and popular writers. Thus the way forward is to take a pen and write. But not to surrender to the torture by internal fear that you may write a bad book or a worthless script.
Charles Darwin also toyed with an idea of presenting his manuscript of Origin of species for a decade. He also feared that may be he had written a worthless book. But when he presented the book, it was suddenly published and became a spell binder in diverse respects. Same thing to Richard Wright, the Author of the Native Son. He similarly feared presenting the Manuscripts to the publishers on the basis of fear that he was only a ***** and not formally educated. But when he presented the manuscript, it was published and became the most influential book on race relations and civil rights movement in America of those days.
Thus, the first thing is to break fear of self doubt and begin writing. If whatever you write will be bad, just keep on as you may end up surviving as a bad writer. History of written literature has a lot of bad writers who have survived to extreme. And even succeed through persistent writing regardless of their sorry state of popularity. The glowing example can be seen in the case of Patrick Mondiano the winner of 2014 literature Nobel Prize. Mondiano was not popular and has been the least read writer until the time he won the prize. In fact by the time he won the prize he had less than fifty followers on his face book page. Meaning he was not known as a writer. But he emerged the winner of the Nobel Prize against titans of Literature like Phillip Rooth, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Salman Rushdie, Yarn Mattel and Haruki Murakami.The fact is that Mondiano’s books are not lively. But he has kept on writing alongside the discouragingly insignificant consumption of his literary workmanship.
Other writers that have persisted to write even if their works don’t excite readers are; Eric Ambler, Louis D’Amour, **** Francis and Alistair Maclean. They are all from America and they have persistently written for the past three decades. Thomas Mann also tastes to me as a very boring writer. I have read his short stories entitled Death in Venice. They proved so boring that I have gone back to read him again. But remember, this is the very book that earned him the Literature Nobel prize.
The African writers’ series has Nkem Nwanko the Author of Danda, Francis Salomey the author of the Narrow Path and Tayeb Saleh the Author of Wedding in Zayen.These are boring writers and as well their books are replete with technical mistakes of structure and grammar. But they have prospered to be known as African writers. Another supportive experience is evident in the writing career of Ayi Kwei Arma; Wole Soyinka dismissed Ayi Kwei Armah’s Beautiful Ones are Not Yet Born. Soyinka argued that Arma’s book is substandard inspite of author’s command of good English. He went a head to declare Arma as an incompetent writer. But to day every one knows that Ayi Kwei Arma is a saint of African literature.
So, writing is expression of individual ability but not excellence of education.And human ability varies from person to person. Therefore, there must be bad writers and good writers. Not every person can writer like Shakespeare. So don’t fear to write because you fear that you will not write like Shakespeare.

Alexander K Opicho
Eldoret, Kenya.

A passel of rascals;
The cause of the hassle,
Guilty of the catcalls,
Would normally have pratfalls.
Never suffer from blackballing;
Their ethics are appalling
But greed is calling the shots.
In the end what have we got?

We have a den of thieves
Rolling up their sleeves
To count the loot they stole
Fulfilling their roles of criminals;
Not the least subliminal,
But right out front to be seen
And pictured on magazine covers
With their blow-dried lovers.

Hair and ******* by Mattel
They perpetrate their hell
On all but their rich buddies
And fool the fuddy-duddies
With their rancid ballyhoo.
Yes, they rob some rich too,
But some never knew it;
Rich, not smart, they blew it.

Every generation, this nation
Sires a new batch of vermin
And we have to determine
If this is the new litter or a loner
But instead the fools get a *****
Over some new crook or other
That can afford jet planes to fly
But claims he is a regular guy.

Once the country is a toilet
They’ll keep trying to spoil it
By boiling the bones of the dead
And murdering us in our beds
Because they don’t need us
Except when they want to beat us.
They can just pay each other.
But the country won’t recover.

the intent, by accident,
a message in madness,
anger alone has no value and
uses energy in negative valence
to manifest,

that can't happen on accident,
only on purpose, okeh.

You gotta tip the balance
for anger to be used abs-

like,
totally un-fair abs,
such a gift, who gives…?  I meand abused, I'm confused…

absolute tip the balance to use anger,
never an accident, the intent

that's the message. All I got.
Now what?

Merry Christmas.

This is like VHS homemoviepoet try as he may he can't get away

Tinker-toys, oh Boy, a richochet peeiiing Mattel Itswell 30-30! WOW,

the kid across the street that got hit by a car last Christmas,
he got a go cart this year.

Everything is relative. me, as my old man, said to me.
Back then, late fifties, little desert town, middle'o'righthere
at the time.
My old man at Alamogordo, wit' Ferme 'n'them…

It's not history, I imagine it could be.

That kid did get a go-cart, it didn't help very long.

It's a thought. A message, I think, I thought it and now
you did, too. Sorta.

Cool, like olde times. Never real, always imaginable,
any way ya' wa'ah-ahn-em,
ya gotta ownownownem ommm

My God, it's Christmas time again, I can't remember
when it felt this way.

Did it? Ever? Frank Kapra, in the dark.
We held hands. You remember. Black and white. Right.

then, this is now, and much more joyous in a worldly joy
intended, I'm sure,
from the first

vibration of the chord twixt you and me,
we wish you amerry Chritmas, in deed.

Okeh, three ways, in the opening pitch,
the plan is novel, in itself. Okay, ok, si yes da ja.
We know, we do this part,
as words in mind, nada mas, a thought caught
as a poesy fallen star,
from Lawrence Kansas, not too far from
Shawnee Mission,
now that the meme and its meaning meet once
more, realizing a time kept hidden, for fear
of believing more than a Marvel Mind,
straight from first edition, Boom, era, of fully
Disneyfied American Mind, sponsored by
Mattel its swell
and Mars Candy Company and other child aimed ads,
though there was this unaffiliated

- channel, I was about to say, of course
- groove, rut, a grave - with its ends kicked out,
Can you
Imagine, he said that
amen?
and we all agreed at once, and what do you know,
there is a mind in the grand linkage system,
forged from ice by iron plows,
balance demands, optimum life on earth calls
the call to us all, be the thorny issue ye be
ye nanifestations of Romans 8, taken in minds
conjoining to attain, peace made
for temperature equilibrium,
just right…
think of it from an angelic anthro-myth-ledged being,
see the book of life talk to you, and say,
look, man, we made it, and we made it back.

But unless the temperature is going up, we failed.
Try again,
but no war this time. That's proven too self willed
a thing to give children premade.

My stick men were all Audie Murphy, when I was six.

As I stumble down a paved road
I fumble with my cell phone
Trying to read the screen info and
the daily paper's digital memos...

I wonder which superhero will save the box office this year
or if we'll hear the guns of home, the guns that we let go.

I wonder if a fidget spinner tournament will bring home dinner
or if we'll hear the chains of Guantanamo, the chains that we ignore.

I wonder if Mattel's new fat barbie will sell real well
or if we'll hear the guns of Aleppo, of US-made shells

I wonder if Christmas will win the holiday war,
or if we'll hear the chains on your grandchildren, profiting the CEO

Don't care to see if Trump is tweeting
Fight and hope that war stops trending
Gut feelin' goverment has dropped the big one on us
Uncaring, and never-ending.

Thankfully wife as helpmate available,
when yours truly feels unswell
her tender loving care can spell
relief afflicted which she can hopefully quell
but spouse of mine, he doth not aim to oversell
nevertheless counterpart valued
as once me Matty Mattel
prized boyhood toy unfailingly and unstintingly
reflected, mirrored and kickstarted mood to kvell
and encapsulate impossible mission,
thus now grown lad with sincerity does impel
to communicate how thoughts gel
regarding how the missus tries to expel
his physical displeasure
while sequestered within B44 prison cell
as dark shadows creep along the edge of night
surreal as ghosts made manifest
courtesy fratricidal brothers Cain and Abel.

The charming primary physician
at Patients Matter Always (Doctor York Yang)
prescribed Amoxicillin 500 MG Capsules
one capsule three times a day.

Two days since visit with
aforementioned medical practitioner I went
and thus far, no reduction
to swallow without great strain,
hence crafting reasonable rhyme I vent,
which lame endeavor
marginally alleviates torment
rendering swallowing painful
despite depending
on above pharmacological medicine
synthesized courtesy countless
top notch star students
upon landing dream job
able, ready and willing to pay rent
at pricey residences
with regal names such as Kent
Village Apartments, Kent Place Residences,
versus drab Highland Manor
which costs me one hundred ninety red cent
every month, no doubt a bargain
yet absent amenities
most every tenant here would assent.

Although prone to experiencing chills
still slight drawback extra frills
case in point on site medic clinic
would be grand for folks
long in the tooth
regarding being old, yet over the hills
and far away Teletubbies come to play
attempting to draw out child within
once garden variety Jacks and Jills
unfortunately many youngster
plucked by steel mills
decades later in their dotage
heavily rely on magic potions and pills
to facilitate basic ambulatory skills.

All of my Merry Men,
Robbed from Barbie and from Ken
Because of their seemingly immense wealth
As fair models of Mattel

But my good men of Sherwood,
Failed to comprehend
That Barbie and Ken spent mounds of money
And hills of cash on designer clothes
Designed chateaus, and designated drivers

In fact Barbie and Ken were in debt
In debt up to their plastic foreheads
If only I had consulted with my Lady Marian
For she understood well the materialistic ways
of these celebrities of American fame

And us Englanders have no need to
Plunder the goods from a doll
Whether in Willows or Wyoming
And thus I set my boys straight