Standing outside Safeway
Blanket Guy aka
The Streetcar Prophet
Is asking customers
To take his money.
“Do you need money
To buy groceries?”
He asks as he gives
His money away.
Virginia Lake
Standing outside Safeway
Blanket Guy aka
The Streetcar Prophet
Is asking customers
To take his money.
“Do you need money
To buy groceries?”
He asks as he gives
His money away.
Virginia Lake
Oh how tiresome it is to be old
Targeted by slime balls
Trying to nail us
Pots of gold
How it hurts
To be on the alert
In the Age of Remote
Not forgetting
For one moment that emails
Come from
Sharks with no hearts
Virginia Lake
Oh how tiresome it is to be old
Targeted by slime balls
Trying to nail us
Pots of gold
How it hurts
To be on the alert
In the Age of Remote
Not forgetting
For one moment that emails
Come from
Sharks with no hearts
Virginia Lake
My phone kindly tells me
How to remove
Ten years of wrinkles
Reduce belly fat
But my phone Is
A tad confused
It believes I
Live in Portland, Maine
Not Portland, Oregon
Dutifully it sends
The weather forecast
Fifteen inches
Of snow
Tomorrow
My phone kindly tells me
How to remove
Ten years of wrinkles
Reduce belly fat
But my phone Is
A tad confused
It believes I
Live in Portland, Maine
Not Portland, Oregon
Dutifully it sends
The weather forecast
Fifteen inches
Of snow
Tomorrow
The elderly Chinese women
Who live as I do
In this Old People’s Building
Have started singing
One brave soul in the elevator
Began all alone
Sang a song so sad
I needed no knowledge
Of Mandarin
To understand it.
The elderly Chinese women
Who live as I do
In this Old People’s Building
Have started singing
One brave soul in the elevator
Began all alone
Sang a song so sad
I needed no knowledge
Of Mandarin
To understand it.
Panhandler sign
At the Portland Farmers Market:
Do You Have Compassion?
In the Harry Kemelman mystery series
A rabbi is the detective.
A member of the congregation
Wants to know,
“Do you believe in God, Rabbi?”
“Some days I do.
Some days I don’t.”
.
Panhandler sign
At the Portland Farmers Market:
Do You Have Compassion?
In the Harry Kemelman mystery series
A rabbi is the detective.
A member of the congregation
Wants to know,
“Do you believe in God, Rabbi?”
“Some days I do.
Some days I don’t.”
.
The sweet potato
sweetly misshapen,
Purple orange
scarlet brown
the soft flesh
a lump of deliciousness
Resembling the heart
the kidney, a lung
an egg
a gnome
The sweet potato
sweetly misshapen,
Purple orange
scarlet brown
the soft flesh
a lump of deliciousness
Resembling the heart
the kidney, a lung
an egg
a gnome
My grandmother often repeated
This redheaded story to me:
When I was three,
We were walking downtown together.
A man across the street
Hollered, “Hey Red!”
I replied,
“I’m not red
I’m Buhginya.”
My grandmother often repeated
This redheaded story to me:
When I was three,
We were walking downtown together.
A man across the street
Hollered, “Hey Red!”
I replied,
“I’m not red
I’m Buhginya.”
PINGING
A thief stole an iPad
The iPad
Was discovered by police
Because it was pinging
If some wretch
Stole my mini
iPad
I would
Want
My little
iPad
To ping
And ping
For me
PINGING
A thief stole an iPad
The iPad
Was discovered by police
Because it was pinging
If some wretch
Stole my mini
iPad
I would
Want
My little
iPad
To ping
And ping
For me
This is how Gloria negotiates the
Five block walk from her building to the
Slabtown New Seasons Grocery Store
If the homeless mentally ill walking
Towards her pushing grocery carts
Are screamers
She crosses the street.
This is how Gloria negotiates the
Five block walk from her building to the
Slabtown New Seasons Grocery Store
If the homeless mentally ill walking
Towards her pushing grocery carts
Are screamers
She crosses the street.
Louise was a little girl
Beginning school.
She remembered the day
Her Lincoln, Nebraska
Classmates jumped
Up and down
On the playground
Shouting
“The war is OVER.”
“The war is OVER.”
The date was November 11, 1918.
World War I had ended.
Louise was a little girl
Beginning school.
She remembered the day
Her Lincoln, Nebraska
Classmates jumped
Up and down
On the playground
Shouting
“The war is OVER.”
“The war is OVER.”
The date was November 11, 1918.
World War I had ended.