“The Piles Of ‘Milty’*” Tanka 6690

(October 14, 2024)

the piles of ‘Milty’s’

debris give me back title

and use of front yar

“cheated” on stacking refuse

in gutter, with rain-drain space

*(Last time the city of Sanford, Seminole County, Florida, had such a storm debris pickup, the “claw” equipped six-by truck gougede out a foot deep furrow in my front yard getting to the debris which then filled the open field across from the former Sanford (then Seminole) high school athletic practice fields and now a parking lot across from Sanford Middle School – when I went there it was a 7-8-9th grade junior high – with paid crossing guards to protect the learner-tykes-no-more as their privileged parents chariotted their kids to prison – ooops, school – instead of filling up two and often more residential streets to t he school’s south with a collection of big wheel pickup trucks, wide-body style of course, pricy and also big SUVs based mostly on pickup truck chassis and all other manner of autos parking on both sides of a too-narrow street which used to have “no parking” on both sides of the street signs which found demise at the bumpers of said big rigs piloted by those who would not think of having their progeny walk any further than across busy 18th Street fronting the school’s southern side which also has cars and trucks lining up (some trying to use my driveway as a parking space) and often as not disrespecting private driveways and front-droor walkkways as perfectly fine places to park. The kiddies have to walk in t he streets at least part of the way. On my street there is no sidewalk nor crossing guard. Yet drivers’ convenience dictates when the devils drive cherubs to class, neh? So with almost all of my three lots’ worth od debris and the usual collection of recycle and garbage and the some of a neighbor or five, I get to feed my feral black neon-green eyed cat whilst I shade-sit and read, quaffing good ole Snaffurd allegedly tainted city water. At my parents’ house I drank from a shallow well pump’s hose end when outside and thirsty -just a slight minerally taste with a hint of sulpher I still miss. We all used to drain our used motor oil back in the yard near the alley and we all – okay, mostly boys and sometimes their dads – quenched a non-beery non-sweet tea-ey thirst and not a one of us had three eyes of horns hidinginthe hairline – leastways not recently revealed. Go back and park in the big lot once Sanfor4d has evicted softball, football and, yes, cricket players (once even kickball enthusiasts) to stage all the debris, though Hurricane Milton (of as I prefer Him-A-Cane “Milty”, finally has been hauled off to more appropriate dumpsites, Has none suggested using county prisoners to sort t he trash from the trees and feed the good stuff to incinerators to provide power and valuable potash for community gardens and thus while polluting pristine? air reduce by a large margin an overstressed state existing with our trash dumps? Naah. Nebber Hatchee Hank or Helene, some eco-freakin’ lawyer will put a stop to that!. I go now to get back to my front yard to watch t he trash and recycle trucks went their way trough a probably mostly deserted street, as God and I intended._

“Buddha Understands” Tanka 6300

*December 7, 2023)

mentor Bruce Jewett

faces long and lonely night

with friends, family

the quiet serene courage

hides in “lili Marlene’s” harp*

*(Juice, as I and a few others call the newest and lastingest U.S. Marine – before, then and since – poet, especially of haiku and some tanka as well as other forms and stories, used to serenade our Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station barracks (I was the newbie fresh from the 1s Battalion, 27the Marines – First Marine Brigade who delighted in the theme music on his harmonica I associated with the television series “Combat” featuring the late Vic Morrow) and later its mournful notes he’d play at my request when we held “night call” at the base’s public affairs office where he and I would gather to get away from all the green stuff. Bruce Jewett faces his latest nd hopefully not last battle with the calm grace which I’ve come to know is central to his life and faith. Never a more gentle soul walks through his life with wry joyfulness and sometimes too-spot-on imagery woven in the tight symmetry of his own invention, a 5-5-5 poetic form of haiku, a departure from the traditional 5-7-5 syllabic count. But then, noting gets him off-the-couch than a good or in my case adequate game of chess as he smokes his yearly cigarette in Artie Shaw “Laugh-In” Teutonic fashion, he irony and satire painted large behind his words. God Bess, you, Juice, and knowing you said Rosary for a dearly departed – Buddha, Bruce, wrote, “winks” and nods. And you, Lance Major General Jewett, Sir, get the same treatment when time to cast your lot on the ever-same, ever-changing wheel. Love you, man.)

“Neither Pat’s No Geno’s” Tanka 344

I never had Pat’s

nor Geno’s on Passyunk

but a truck on Broad

was all I needed to say:

Philly Chee’steak ‘proved by God!

“The Only Change Is The Caliber” Tanka 323

For two mute decades

pushers, prostitutes and cons

like tides, come and go

 

across an armed friendless street;

and the lights flicker at best!

“The Second-Floor Job” Tanka 294

helping an old man

realize now too late for

plywood on windows,

 

especially if he wants

a ladder on his van, too!*

 

*(the ‘codger’s’ grateful wife had smiling eyes when I said: “Lou, I’m plumb worn out walking downtown and back and now helping you drag all those former trees around back and then out to the front again to use you van to hoist up plywood to cover the second-floor windows.  This we needed to do with block and tackle setups back in June. I think he was relieved, too.  The van-ladder worked, but not the rest of our schemes.  And, of course HIm-A-Cane Matty missed us by dozens of miles, mostly.)

“Small Dog, Small Girl: The Cusp of October” Tanka 289

The small fluff white dog

doesn’t care it’s October:

he wants to play…now!

 

His young girl stands on the steps,

dad-in-hand, rubs her best bud!