Black Friday

 Black Friday

Why not?

All my working years

Black Friday was dreaded

Now for a change

I can half way 

enjoy it.

Homewood

 Returning home

It was the same drawing my father had

This inexplicable yearn for the returning

When they say you cannot I said  I shall

And I plant some zinnias for Lute and Ern.

By Degrees

By degrees

JohnClare Stokes

It was all decreed by degrees

Each man was given a set point

Some for the season of freezing

Some for the season of heating

We never determined the season

Her point of breaking came

Releasing mercury's deadly poison

Hot or cold results the same

Never applied ice in summer

Never offered blankets in winter 

By degrees we slowly blundered

To her breaking point we sent her.

Palette

 Palette of a Highway Man, RL Butler. 

Message in a bottle

 Do you ever wonder

What will be your last message

In your bottle?

Do you ever wonder

Who will ever find your message

In your bottle?

Turns

Turns

Johnclarestokes 

Life's turns are not

Always at the designated

Points of light and signs

Sometimes

For no apparent reason

We leave familiar paths

Follow hidden trails

Unmarked by blazes 

Dead ends some

Hidden hammocks others

Narrow the way

That pathway

To glorious life

In search of

In search of Mary Joyce

In the old boarded place

Among the milk and wine

I seek the familiar face

So precious in a bygone time.

SpaceX

 SpaceX

Years hence

Someone will ask

Where were you

When MJ launched 

Thriller

and I’ll look at them

and say

In a derelict old

car dealership

Once owned by

A Powerful man

But lately the

haunt of mullet heads

who hit on girls

with tyranny for a name.

Dashboard gospel

 Dashboard gospel

Lord protect us from the

virus as we make

Our way down ninety

Give us green lights 

All the way from the 

Lobster to FHP

so we can be first in line

at Popeyes with the

dead intercom

I know you can

We read it in the word.

Finger licking

 Finger licking

You see Colonel

You don’t understand 

We waited in line 

An indeterminate time

Before we gave up

And came to you

And you have the 

temerity 

to hurry us through

Our order

I did not want fries

Or your tepid tea

sans ice

But Popeyes line snaked

all the way around 

and we were hongry

Be a little patient

And get your hands 

where I can see where

They been.

Osprey inspiration

 Osprey Inspirations

At the end of evening

Long I came to the old dock

to watch perchance 

the Osprey enters a 

dive into the water blue

to pull out with talons sharp

some unsuspecting prey

then soar over me

with that piercing stare

that says

did you capture that?

Slow to shoals

 Big Shoals

There was no map

There wasn’t even anyone

to take there

along the way

many frequent pauses

for the way is not rapid

as once was

but slow and deliberate 

slow and deliberate 

it has its advantages 

it allows one to see

to see

what otherwise would

go on hidden