1. Rover

    Rover,

    is the term “handy” personified.

    At a little less than a foot tall,

    he was built for pocket use,

    but he didn’t much care for those pockets.

     

    His owners were the Brick Tamblins of do-it-yourself,

    unable to tell the difference between a flathead and a Phillips,

    with a garage full of rusted tools

    recently replaced by his $59 QVC special,

    Rover was a five letter word for potential.

     

    His future prospects involved toilets

    and broken dryer doors.

    Bleak had never found such a deserving home

    as Rover’s 8”x3” cardboard cut out cubbyhole,

    where his dreams of authoring children’s books

    developed dry rot

    like a forgotten sailboat

    weathered by years of repressive rain.

     

    Although his job demands

    Lou Ferrigno’s type of strength,

    he sometimes finds it hard,

    to lift his ill repaired

    ambitions above accumulating salt water.

    Where choice was never an issue, because

    he didn’t choose to command drills,

    or punish nails with hammers,

    he was told.

     

    But he doesn’t repair what he can,

    in fact he breaks things.

    He doesn’t fix electricity,

    but burns out circuits.

    The same circuits that light up the sky,

    because yes, even stars break.

     

    Rover,

    is not synonymous for handy

    although he was built for convenience,

    he never found it to be convenient.

  2. Consider This…

    America is a practice in intentional ignorance. We tell ourselves that what we don’t perceive isn’t real. We tell ourselves that issues like racism have been resolved because that’s what the history books tell us. What do we really know that we haven’t been told? It’s pretty clear that we can’t put our faith in other people’s findings. While it might be easier to understand just one side of an issue, we can’t really comprehend it by ignoring the other sides. How sure are we? Do we ever really know the whole truth about something? Are there always some unforeseeable variables? How do our intentions figure in? 

                We have to give up this need for instant gratification. Patience might just be the biggest part of change, because change never comes instantly. We can’t just give up on something because it doesn’t turn out the way we planned immediately. A lot of plans may need tweaking once they’ve been started. Naturally, big plans are going to have big consequences. Are we willing to take that risk? All that we’ve seen suggests that smaller ideas that build upon each other might be the best solution. But there is danger in this as well. This kind of solution requires an enormous amount of follow through and effort. Someone brought up the idea of journeys starting with only a single step. That’s great and all, but I find that it is very easy to start something and then not finish. So shouldn’t the most important steps be the steps that follow? It all comes down to the fact that we can’t see into the future; we can’t very accurately depict what will transpire in the next five minutes yet alone the next ten years. My future is not unlike the humble beginning from which our journey originally began. To me the important thing about Star Wars is the fact that it is set in the past rather than the future. The idea that our past was more technologically advanced than our present lends me to believe that we are not headed to that pinnacle of knowledge depicted in the movie, but further from it. Technology will destroy us. But this is all just speculation, and the way I see it, the future is way less important than the way we see the present.

                We should be planning less for the future and more for the present that is of immediate concern. Doesn’t it make sense that if we resolve the problems in the present that in the future the problems will no longer present themselves? Or perhaps it is best to create a balance. We can’t very well ignore the future implications of our actions. There should be a balance in everything we do; between the work we do for ourselves and the work we do for others. Between our own personal feelings and those who have been ignored. We have to make a conscious effort to consider all of these things. This includes thinking in different scales. We continue to work in universal terms when so much differs on smaller scales. Size really does matter, especially when ideas of overhauling come in to play. 

  3. The False Promises of Rulers

    This 12 inch piece of plastic

    holds more power

    than a judge’s gavel in the courtroom.

    Justice

    as defined by every line

    it craftily creates

    kills childhood innocence

    and the idea that anything goes.

     

    Until the nameless tombstones

    rooted in the front lawn of

    Individuality

    are overtaken by

    weeds of conformity

    because no one comes to visit anymore.

     

    Sort of a graduation from kindergarten,

    when finger-paints colored the sky

    that perfect shade of pink,

    the one to match Little Susie’s hair ribbons

    which Bad News Bobby would

    sadistically rip at recess.

     

    Where old Crayolas

    ignore the pretentious lines.

    When Creativity is confined to

    appropriate ages and

    uniform thoughts;

    as if “between” is all that counts.

     

    A laugh at Geometry

    whose shapes still advertise false security;

    that anything is as straight

    as the false promises of rulers

    is criminal.


    But, these lines only become dangerous

    when they decide to play Red Rover,

    because they are the backyard champs.

    No one is breaking through. 

  4. Who said coloring books aren’t for “grown ups”?

    Who said coloring books aren’t for “grown ups”?

  5. DEFYING AGE IN THE HUNDRED ACRE WOOD

    The latest chapter in my attempts to remain a child found me in the Hundred Acre Wood. 

     Last Friday I went to see the charming revamp of the hunny loving bear. While the movie was only an hour long, it was definitely worth the movie fare. The story was predictable in that all the usual Pooh capers were featured, but the predictably was more comforting than disappointing. There was comfort in being thrust back into something so familiar, something so innocent. 

About me

Taking a look at what slips through.

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