Popsicle on a Stick

Lancaster Municipal Stadium with F-18 on a Stick

I live in Antelope Valley, which is more than one city, but the Valley has one theme in common and that is Aerospace. The City of Lancaster has an Aerospace Walk of Honor, and for a monument, you can see an old F-4, mounted. The Air Force community calls this static display a Popsicle on a stick.

There are Popsicles on Sticks all over Antelope Valley, even in front of our farm team stadium. So that is what I decided to write this poem about. I threw in some imagry on baseball, food, smells, Popsicles and sticks.

Popsicle on a Stick

don’t drink
much at home
but at the
stadium
it’s delicious

first glance
cute
not-world class
but good enough
in any language

salon du chocolate
it is not
but someone got
taken out
for a dog or two

diesel overpower
rosin scent, over
ash, hickory, maple
and beer that smells
like stinky cheese

Popsicle
pop tail
wind tail
wind pipe
it’s on a stick

on a stick
with a bat
club on strike
whack a mole
thwack it back

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Hear this on Sound Cloud

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Written for:

City Songs for Poetics

Today, I wrote the poem for D’verse Poetry prompt by Gabriella to write about a city. But the City I live by is Lancaster, CA so I chose to write about the closest thing to a square, the display in front of the stadium.

Image credits: The Hangar, home of the Lancaster JetHawks Lancaster, California

Born to Strife and Contention

Hamas Hangs Children to Act as Human Shields

when will and passion are removed,
when resistance double-talk
is branded onto never-ending anxiety,
when determination and satisfaction
are as fundamental as food,
a mind-blowing similitude is imprinted
of one’s self crawling over pulverized concrete,
as the gnawing sound of military boots
carries out abductions for victims
headed toward open graves.

why make weapons of destruction,
if not to inaugurate a bloody war,
to spate abuse and death by genocide,
to create statistics of shelved body parts
and to encourage irrational ideology?

chilling to the teeth,
tranquil in scorching sun,
courage is to be remembered.
dogmas and –isms draw us
into the non-poetry of decomposition.
coexistence mutates into an abstract,
bipolar state of observance and malevolence.

when level-headed ethics never prevail,
and macho men rampage with sincerity,
madness undermines every rational practice
of benignity and simultaneity.

left untenanted, in our public world,
impotent diplomatic development
extorts us to applaud like a game show audience.

when the statistical death count,
and the itemizing of landing points,
and the remembrance of range
and the particularization of cultural transformations
is so unlimited that no one can distinguish
between the beginnings and the end of combat,
then puerile decapitation shall fail to enrage.

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Hear this on Sound Cloud

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Written for:

Poetics – War Poetry

Today, Gabriella prompts a war poem.

Image credits: HAMAS TERRORISTS USE CHILDREN AS HUMAN SHIELDS IN GAZA In Stand Up For The Truth

Hurricane and Jordan: White House Protectors

Hurricane and Jordan the Belgian Malanois security dogs that help stop White House intruders this week.

invitation to White House, never sent.
unknown suspect calls for attack:
an issue of trespasser versus master.

trained to highest degree,
their world is to bark an alert.
watchdog inclination; vigilance strong
sufficiently powerful to kill a bear
they might, to kill, as well as guard.

peaked species. barking in this case,
would not protect at word of command.
an act of whim, seen in expression.
lead removed, in existential wind.

were punched ‘til they cried,
but held on, with calcified canines
tearing flesh and bringing down
the gatecrasher.

praised with delight for
performance, outstanding
impressed by a touch.

though trained to pounce,
each would rather wave a tail, actively
through the wind, beckoning stray cats
to play in the garden.
life is not easy,
when always on alert.

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Hear this on Sound Cloud

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Written for:

Meeting the Bar ~ I’ve Got a Little List

Today, Tony Maude prompts a list poem.

Image credits: Meet White House guard dogs Hurricane and Jordan In USA Today

to enslave with domestication

dog by scavengercat808

it is always superficial, caused by humans without gumption.
their hearts are frozen. their dysfunctionality, contagious.
i am preoccupied with difficulties. the air is too cold.
with temerity i shiver. the communal sun radiates not on me.

a treasure from my mother might be a memory of times past.
it’s a species thing. natural. days of wretched misery.
hours of dolorous suffering. i am stabbed by unblunted thorns.
calluses form as if I were to transmute into an uncultivated cactus.

i question the distress in the experience of humanity:
to savor. to self-reflect. to engage in life with exactitude.
to appraise with attitude. to enslave with domestication.
i stare with solemnity, “is protection around the corner?”

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Hear this on Sound Cloud

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Written for:

Magpie Tales – Mag 190

Also posted on:

Open Link Night ~ 107

Image credits: Unknown, from Magpie tales page

Bichon Frise

Parko – My adorable Bichon Frise

Bichon Frise

bichon frise
je vous enchante
fourrure comme soufflée
tu un caricaturée
avec coulour de crème brûlée
toujours dance un pas de bourrée
jamais cajolée —
manger la malbouffe doublée
constante amusée
un chien dévouée
court essoufflée
c’est dedication maintenant cessée

English Translation

bichon frise
I am delighted to meet you
fur blown like a soufflée
you’re a caricature
couloured like crème brûlée
always dancing a pas de bourrée
never cajoled to
eating a double portion of junk food
constantly amused
devoted dog
short of breath
dedication is now discontinued

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Hear this on chirbit

(and you can make fun of my french pronunciation)

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Written for:

Poetics: Foreign Tongues

Also posted on:

B is for Brevity

Also posted on:

Photo credit:  Bat-Ami Gordin  © 2012 all rights reserved, credit if you use it, please.

Parko rescued by and adopted from Bichons and Buddies

Parko groomed by Stacy

four memorial day senryu

Memorializing

alone at his grave
none to memorialize
i represent all

Boston Common 2012

one flag for every
Massachusetts citizen
who died in battle

Loving Defenders

loving defender
milk of human kindness
the barking army

At Navy Seal Jon Tumilson’s funeral

ultimate devotion
Military Working Dogs
photo says it all

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Written for:

Memorial Day–Poetry Prompt

Also posted on:

Open Link Monday

Image credit: Euclid Public Library

Photos credits: All from facebook.

care for those age’d until the end

Sissy

Meet my new dog Sissy. She was dumped in the Van Nuys animal shelter, 12 years old, but still loving life. Jeanine of Bichons and Buddies pulled her for me, put a lot money into her Vet bills and I will take care of her for the rest of her life. I don’t understand how anyone can dump their dog, especially one that is old, they’ve had for a while, who has been a loyal friend. This is about dogs like Sissy, who are dumped by their owners for being old, sick, cancer ridden injured etc.

care for those age’d until the end

care for those age’d until the end
especially your lifetime friend
do not be one who walks away
let your giving spirit transcend

don’t let compassion fade away
acts of kindness should not decay
when friends get old and need some aid
send them a flowery bouquet

a good friend should never be betrayed
left for dead in a dark stockade
horrified, dazed and full of fear
suffering, ailing and decayed

her big sad eyes shedding a tear
never again to consider cheer
never having wished to offend
wishing your love had been sincere

care for those age’d until the end
especially your lifetime friend
do not be one who walks away
let your giving spirit transcend

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Written for:

FormForAll: Rubaiyat Quatrains

Also posted on:

Wordless Wednesday

We were supposed to write a  “rubaiyat quatrain” which has a AABA format and preferably written in iambic tetrameter. I managed the tetrameter, my iambs, as usual, have much to be desired, but I’m an American Engineer, and should be forgiven for these transgressions. Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening is the most famous one that I know.

Photo credit: Bat-Ami Gordin  © 2012 all rights reserved, credit if you use it, please.