Letter to Mom & Dad

Derek "Cheese" Keen in Afghanistan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter To Mom & Dad

Dear Mom and Dad,
Don’t cry for me.
Shed not a single tear,
For time to weep has passed.

I know it hurt you
Because you were not there
In my last fleeting moments.
But I was not alone.

An angel of light quietly
Slipped into my room,
And called out my name.
I answered, “Here am I.”

Jesus sent an angel band
To take me on to home
Think instead of the times
You both were there for me.

The times you took us all
To Little League and football games.
When I heard Mom’s voice from the stands
Shouting, “Go Cheese go!”

Dad, you gave your life to the highway
To put sneakers on my feet
And food on the table.
As I grew to be a man.

And man did I grow?
Knowing you were proud of your boys.
Knowing how much you loved us,
How much we loved you.

I remember Mom dressing us
In our little brown and grey suits
And driving us to Walmart
To get our pictures taken.

Mom you always had a camera,
Picture after picture of us
Grinning like possums,
And we knew you were so proud.

Dad taught me and my brothers,
How to fish and to hunt and
To love pickup trucks and music
In the living room on a Saturday night.

Dad, I heard you say,
“He was my soldier.”
But Daddy you were my hero.
And you will always be.

You two raised a soldier,
A poet and a fireman.
Not bad for ordinary people
Not ordinary but extraordinary.

Well done, you two, your hearts
Filled with love for each other.
You taught your sons to love and now
You’re teaching grandkids just the same.

The angel came and took my hand
“But Mama and Daddy will be sad,
That they were not here,” I said.
“Fear not,” the angel said as angels do.

“You’ve been so long in this bed.
Jesus has seen your suffering.”
“Enough,” He said, “It’s time to go.”
These angels here will bring them through the days ahead.”

“Come home, my boy.” He said as I drifted
Off to sleep and in the twinkling of an eye,
I'll wake whole and young again and
We'll be going straightway home.

Don’t be sad for me. I’ll be waiting,
Through birthdays, holidays and celebrations.
I’ll be in your hearts just where I’ve always been.
Cheese is signing off for now………

                                  But not forever.

Love,
Aunt Sheila & Uncle Tom

April 7: Old Bob - Grandpa's Story

Grandpa, Old Bob and one of the "kittens".

 When Grandpa told the story it sounded like music,
   His voice had a soft rhythm to it that soothed
Put babies and grandchildren in a drowsy condition.
   And comforted us in the repetition of sound and meaning.

           Old Bob

One time they had a cemetery workin’ down at our house.
   They cleaned the graves off and had a big dinner
Down at the cemetery
   Not far from where we lived.

So late that evenin' some people had brought
   A little collie pup to the cemetery
And they went off and forgot it.
   So the little pup come down to our house.

It had a little short tail, and so I named it Bob.
   So I’d feed old Bob some cornbread and milk,
Potatoes and things to eat n’ finally old Bob got about half growed
   And she got to catchin’ my mama’s chickens. 

So, I got me a switch and I give Old Bob a whippin’.
   Well, old Bob quit catchin’ chickens. 
She decided it didn’t pay to catch chickens;
   Cause I’d give her a whippin’.

So, my dad; his cows use to get in the fields,
   So we’d hold old Bob up and point down the field and say,
“Go get those cows outta the fields, Bob.”  So, Old Bob
   Would go a runnin’ down across the pasture, barkin’. 

So, directly those old cows would hear Old Bob barkin’
   And they’d raise their heads and see old Bob a runnin’ down across the pasture
And they’d say, “ Uh, oh, here comes old Bob! We’d better get back in the pasture.” 
   So, they’d make a run for the pasture.

Old Bob would get down there and
   She’d grab ‘em by the tail
And she’d bite their tail and make ‘em wish
   They’d never got in that corn patch.

One mornin’ real early; why, my daddy heard old Bob
   A barkin at somethin’ under the house. 
So, he got up and throwed some rocks under there
   And he run a skunk out from under the house.  

So, Old Bob... (he said, “Git that skunk, Bob!”)
   And Old Bob grabbed that skunk and shook him to pieces — and killed him! 
Old skunk he turned his scent aloose on Old Bob
    And made Old Bob mad. 

So, all day long every time she’d go by there
   And see that skunk~
She’d grab that old skunk
And just shake him good.

One time, there was a gin tank close to our house
    And ducks ‘d fly and light in that tank. 
So, we heard someone shoot their gun, “Bang, bang, bang!” 
   After a while the hunters come up to the back door.

And it was a rainin’ and cloudy.  It was wintertime. 
   They said, “Mr. King, we shot some ducks down at the tank
And we was a wonderin’ if you could get your dog to pull ‘em out for us. 
   So, we took our dog down there and the tank had a bunch of cattails in it. 

You couldn’t see the ducks, but the hunters knew where they fell at,
   So, they’d throw a rock in the cattails
And Old Bob’d go a swimmin’ out through the cattails. 
   Then, she’d come a swimmin’ back with another duck in her mouth. 

So, they shot another duck over in the cattails and they throwed another rock over there
   And Old Bob went a swimmin’ out there
And come back with another duck in her mouth. 
They got three ducks out of that tank before they finished.

Used to you’d hear Old Bob a barkin’ out in the pasture and you’d go out there
    And she’d have a snake treed.  And we’d say, “Git ‘im Old Bob!” 
Boy, you’d better get back out of the way,
   Cause she’d shake that snake all over the place.

One time Old Bob found her some little pups. 
   I’d never saw any little pups an’ I saw ‘em
And called to my mama and said,
   “Old Bob got some little kittens!”

One time I went up to my grandma’s
   And I took Old Bob and my little wagon. 
So my grandma made some harness out of twine string
   To put on Old Bob.  We hooked Old Bob to that wagon an’ Old Bob’d pull the wagon. 

So, I went home late that evenin’.  I got down close to the barn
   And I decided I’d like to ride in that wagon. 
I crawled in that wagon and I told Old Bob to ‘get up!’. 
   So, Old Bob started a runnin’ off with the wagon. 

She run around the corner of the barn and hung the wheels
   On the corner of the barn and turned the wagon over
‘N spilt me out on the ground. 
   So, I decided I didn’t want to ride in that wagon ‘n I got out

I got a hold of a rope and led Old Bob the rest of the ways to the house. 
   She pulled the wagon. 
I didn’t try to ride in that wagon no more,
Cause I didn’t want to get dumped out in that ground.


© circa 1959 as told by Thomas Adolph King to his adoring grandchildren

Grandpa had other colorful Old Bob stories including one that involved fishing, a large group of boys and a lighted stick of dynamite. I'll save that one for another time though.

Night Sky: Flash of Light

 

Night Sky; Flash of Light
by Sheila King

Night sky; flash of light
Ozone taints the air - rain comes
My nose is tingling

 

 

Explanation: I wrote this because Tom challenged me to. I was trying to take a bath and he told me about the haiku exercise he was doing on the Poet’s Round Table on the Internet. So.......

A Toast to Life

 

A Toast to Life

By Sheila King

"Here's to the child who still asleep

knows not, nor cares that angels weep.

Here's to the youth who stirs to wake, yet

drugged with pride falls back to dream.

Here's to the man who opens his eyes, sees

the time and sets his mind some good deed to do.

Then done, reaches out to catch the last warm bits of sun.

Here's to the old man though full awake, must

now slumber, must now take his place along with

those whose hearts did break to hear the Mocker’s stinging cry....

Wake up!  Wake up!  It's time to die"

Then in that moment in the twinkling of an eye,

Love pours out with all it has to give

“Wake up my child, it’s time to live!”

 

© 2012 by Sheila King

 

April 6: The Devil Came Down to Washington

The Devil Came Down to Washington

The Devil came down to Washington,
Looking for more souls to steal.
"Got that one," he grinned a wicked grin.
"Truth don't matter, it's all about the feel.

"Nope that guy's been in the tank since '73"
"Oh, real proud of that old bastard, there."
Real potential. Would have made him prez,
By now, but he's lost too much of his hair.

"Think I may have overworked this patch.
"Hard to find an uncorrupted soul these days
"Well, I might get him, but why bother?
"I've got my media team already on his case."

"When those guys are working their magic
"I've seen genuine heroes bow the knee
"Under the glare of that spotlight
"While claiming it's the land of the free.

"What about that one over there by the statue...."
"Hmm? Maybe we could pull it down on his head.
"Disgrace is almost as good as outright possession.
"It's all about how he can best serve alive or even dead."

"That idiot? "You kidding? Some of our best work I admit,
"But I think we broke him, maybe dropped him on his head.
"The old boy can't manage a coherent sentence anymore.
"Like the Witch of the East - he's really most sincerely dead."

"There's the law of diminishing returns that applies here.
"We should focus where there's uncaptured souls to roast.
"Maybe Texas or Florida. A lot of them are piling up there
"Trying to escape our most excellent work along the coast.

They Devil comes down to Washington to fish;
And finds the pond fished out; beginning to smell
And anything coming in is pretty much already hooked;
All of them joining the fight for the same throne in hell.

©2024 by Tom King

© 2024 by Tom King

April 5 - Ladies of the Gael

 

 The Song of the Ladies of the Gael

Out among us I hear them;
The Ladies of the Gael raising,
Their plaintive songs in the night
Flowing through America like blood,
They sing of home and hearth
Of love and the ache of losings,
Of the joy and pain only women know
Of living with the cost of their choosings.
From Erin, Britain, Caledonia,
They move from yesterday to tomorrow
Like sweet perfume the sound and scent
Of mothers, sweethearts, joy and sorrow.
The men who love them stand helpless
But to cherish the ladies of the Gael
And see the land changed and bettered
Their wistful airs flow o'er valley, hill and dale.

© 2024 by Tom King