Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Horace

 Horace


Horace went to glory last week

Blind in life he is now seeing clearly.


Horace continued to wear the derby hats

But in time he gave up the spats 

Induced spin


 Induced Vertigo

by John Clare Stokes


lately there has not been

enough spinning

once the rescue came

for me

thinking the spinning

was worthy of a trip

to get some Meclizine

to stop the spinning

Oh I played along

took the 25mg by mouth

as needed

so they discharged me

and all was fine for the time

but soon the spinning

I began to miss

so I let the Meclizine expire

and gave a good impression

of going straight.

Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Sirens


 Out of closet


The local rag let his

Secret out

Long hidden from

Public scrutiny

It was unnatural 

Attraction to rhyme

He kept from view

Composing in obscurity 

The metered lines

He wasn't exactly

Accomplished at it

More he

Persisted at it

Almost habit like

A fix addiction 

He couldn't cease

Now everyone knows

Now they cast eyes 

Down as he passes

Thinking he one of them

The son of Williston

What of these sirens

Howling

They never heard them

They never existed

Only in his sordid

Imagination

Rejection


 Rejection


He came home 

To find the lines

Strewn across 

The lawn

Down the street.

The garbage man,

Rejecting the rhymes

Refused to carry them

To the landfill.


He gathered them

Quickly,

Burning them in the

Old syrup kettle

The smoke taking them

Quickly

From the landscape 

Once again

Free of poetry

Deer god


 Deer god 


Late they showed for services

The scent of doe urine lingering

Sitting toward the rear to themselves

Mouthing along with the singing


The day they failed to attend

We chalked it up to opening season

Leading up with growing anticipation 

In their heart to the deer secretly bowing


When the season drew along

And word of kills came drifting in

It was clear they were finally open

In the worshipping of the venison.


So in their true to their desire

Their deer love somehow inspires

In our feigned love for our Lamb

 gun ho in our own blinds found.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Oceans Mary

Oceans Mary

With 

The prince of tides


Never told


 Never Told

by john cla55


they never told me

you were one of the

mean girls

it would have been

nice had i known

now it is perfectly

clear to me

why the rejection

and here I thought

it was just some

imperfection in me that

kept me trying by

scoring touchdowns

sinking baskets

knocking fly balls

all in vain

when all along 

your interest lay

in trailer courts

in melon fields

cheap dates in

sand hill backseats

 grinding all the way

singing sweetly

coming Sunday

tears streaming freely

repenting again

for mean girls sin

again and again

but they do not cheer

nor do they care

for the boy who

bought his Wilson ball

up the Devil's court.

Light house lady


 Light house lady


It was a palatable pathos

Bourne upon the living

Upon others dreams

Guiding them safely in

To lovers awaiting anxiously 

Of the ever gazing over the

Horizon for some imagined

Ship to arrive from distant seas

Bearing treasures to ease 

This life of misery

The light upon every revolution 

Piercing for a moment her

Darkness

Illuminating the limpid eyes

Tears long since dried

The dark moment a welcome

Soothing interlude

May day


 May Day

May Day 


Ever get into a May Day sort of way?

It starts out like any other day

Then at the full glass door they come

And you stare, then open 

Letting in the guests again

The ones you threw out

The night before

And they in the morning over coffee

Resume the tormenting

You can’t get a word in

A fly lands upon the rim and falls in

What the hell (is this)

You swallow him

Listening 

Buzzing all the way down

Jobs


 Jobs

Hayfield tractor operator

Summer 

Watermelons

Summer

Williston Memorial Hospital

Maintenance

Cleveland Heights Methodist 

Lakeland

Dishwasher

Williston Memorial Hospital

Maintenance

Powers Service

Lake City

Service advisor 

Warranty clerk

Parts

Fired

Lake City Reporter

Photographer

Darkroom tech

Laid off

Jones and Presnell

Traveling store photographer

Sylvia,NC

Quit

JCPenney

Display advertising

Merchandiser

Assistant Mgr

Fired

Sears

Commissioned sales

Store closed

Florida Power and Light

Meter reader

Temp one year 

Baya Medical

DME tech driver

Fired

Morgan Group

Photographer 

Outsourced 

Porter

Stroke

Probably no more jobs

Dreamscape


 Dreamscape


They said, what good was all this photography?

This obsession with image

He could not answer

He was too busy framing

Back focusing to that first time

In that Wacahoota field

With the camera along

Knowing that from now on

He and Nikon would not be alone.

Thursday, May 1, 2025

A turkey for a Rollei

 Tonight I'm stoked for the Rollei Steve Stafford gave me with light meter. Steve did all his early wildlife photography with this camera. He acquired it in 1964 from Dale Crider who at the time had purchased a Pentax SLR and was throwing it in the trash at the Game Commission.


Steve has two paintings by Sessions. This one of Ruffed Grouse hunt on which he did his wildlife biology thesis.




I had to offer something so I traded an 8x10 of Techno Turkey, the turkey I called in with a phone app.