|
Cartoons of
Dan McConnell
featuring
Tiny the Worm
Cartoons of
David Logan
The People's Comic
Cartoons of
John Jonik
Inking Truth to Power
|
Support the WA Free Press. Community journalism needs your readership and support. Please subscribe and/or donate.
posted June 3, 2009, from March/April 2009 issue
poem by Gerald A. McBreen
I never forgave
my father for dying
his death a betrayal
leaving me alone
coward heart
drew a curtain over
memories
memories un-remembered
don’t have to be dealt with
demons become tolerable
I didn’t cry at my father’s
funeral
laugh in pain
was my father’s way
and
I am my father’s son
primal screams delayed
four poems by Bob Markey
Read The Fine Print
Lacking a Harvard law degree
or means to pay the precious fee
attorneys now require for hire,
I closed the deal with help from the
mortgage broker.
At times I paid in cash. Just brought
it to the salesman who I thought
was a friend (he advised me on
the sales contract’s fine print). But
he changed...
a lot.
“You’re late” snarled he “It’s 12:03!
You lost the house at noon when we
foreclosed. See Item Number 4,
Section 2.... signed by you, you
sub-prime slime-ball!”
I was summarily dismissed:
foreclosed, hosed, justifiably pissed.
Also exposed were CEOs.
We “sub-primates” propose that they
repose in prison
with their thieving,
sleazy cohorts...
if only we
could afford to
hire attorneys...
or buy us some
politiicans.
Maybe someday.
Let’s Get It On
To some, politics is a game.
Who won or lost is
immaterial...
leave that to the
idealogues.
It’s all over on election
night... a brief respite
then the fun begins
with a brand new
cast of players.
New candidates have been chosen...
guess who emerges?
Blago resettles
up north, gets a
new hairdo and
takes on the Tarantula!
Can it get any
better than this? Wow!
What a fun run that
one will be!
Come Spring
Come spring, one thing
I’ll not forget:
The winter of
‘08 slash 9’s
freezing snow and
thaw and raw hell
Satan’s snowman
brought down on us.
Crews ploughed main roads
allowing cars,
buses and trucks
to distribute
their occupants
and goods with ease.
Er... uh... except
for the semi
that overturned
on I-5... and
long lines at St.
Joe’s ER for
walkers who slipped
on frozen side
walks unshovelled
by residents
and merchants who
didn’t give a damn about folks
who crashed on their
icy Welcome
Mats buried ‘neath
ankle deep slush
and snow. Oh yes,
vengeful gods will
well remember
those citizens!
I wondered why,
(years ago), my
dad ordered me
to scrape our walks
to bare pavement.
Was he being
neighborly? Or
concerned about
legalities...
Who’s liable
for a broken
hip should someone
slip and crash on
your sidewalk?
Orting, WA, U.S.A.
Twenty years ago, an Orting
“thing” was that it didn’t attract
weekend tourists to town so much
as loggers who drank heavy on
Saturday nights,
had fights... frequently ended up
in the slammer.
A railroad ran through “O” and the
other small towns in the valley
many years ago, but the track
has been torn up and now it’s a
trail for joggers,
walkers and bikers all dressed up
in funny clothes.
Most of the space between towns is
now filled with look-alike houses
and cars creeping along the two
lane road. It better become four
soon, before a
road-rage-war erupts and they’ll have
to move elsewhere.
I stopped by Orting last Sunday.
Wow, epic changes! Traffic lights,
and a mall with shops like “Le Nail”.
No one in there wore long johns, jeans
and suspenders...
or took off their hob nailed boots for
a pedicure.
In McDonalds an old couple
were having breakfast, both in white
pants and shoes. She featured sequinned
shades, a hot pink blouse and cleavage.
His overhung
gut hid beneath a colorful
Hawaian shirt.
Oh yes, the “Orting Look” has changed.
Hovwever, I did walk through town,
past the crowded Catholic Church.
A couple with tow young girls parked
and disembarked.
He had on clean bibs, his wife and girls
wore dresses.
In the pick-up’s bed was a half
cord of alder. I noticed dirt
under his nails.