Sunday, September 8, 2024

April 10 - Me and My Man Brain

 


Me and My Man Brain

I have but one best friend in the world
   And he is not actually a he.
It can be the loveliest thing in the world
  When your BFF and the love of your life is a she.

When your bestest friend in the whole wide world
   Is the other half of your soul,
You may not be hunting or fishing buds,
   Or hang out at y'all's fishin' hole.

But without her you're totally incomplete.
   No one to talk to; nobody to share,
Your latest tall tales and jokes with,
   Or to pat her upon her firm derriere.

Sadly for us I'm afflicted with man brain.
   It's a terminal condition I fear.
It means a brain not very good at networking,
   Or maintaining a circle of peers.

Man brains are goal-directed as are our
   Expressions of love and affection.
We'll climb mountains, swim rivers that rage.
   And cross deserts in unlikely directions.

Every man has the ability to think about nothing,
   Sometimes about nothing or double
So when asked, "Whatcha thinking?" we can truthfully say,
   Nothing that will get us in trouble.

But we suck at anticipating the needs of our women.
   We've never been any good at that.
We never quite know when to offer a foot rub,
   Or how to spontaneously say, "You're not fat!"

My poor sweet Baboo now that I am retired,
   Receives the brunt of all my man-splainings.
She needs women to talk with about relations and feelings,
   Other ears to share man complainings.

I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings it's just
   That my style's always been problem-solving.
When she wants me to listen I'm at total loss,
   Fidgeting when I'm supposed to be evolving.

I want to be helpful, be wise and very supportive.
   To provide like a man I know how to do.
But now in my dotage, what ought I provide?
   Most times I haven't a clue.

Women on average live longer than their men.
   Why? I can only venture some guesses.
It's a mercy though given the relief it must be
   For them not to have to put up with our messes.

© 2024 by Tom King



 


Thursday, September 5, 2024

April 9: A While With You

A While With You

It seems like only yesterday
   That I was just a boy.
I was chasing after what, I did not know.
   Maybe it was comfort
Or an easing of the pain,
   Or just anything to fill the empty place,
                                     ...inside my soul.

 And it seems like just this morning
   I was stumbling blind and lost,
Not knowing where to go or what to do
   But I guess God was watching me;
Heard me down upon my knees,
   For when my head was lifted up again the one
                                    .... standing there was you.

At long last you had found me lonely, lost.
   You picked me up and brushed me off,
And then you took me by the hand and whispered
   I am going, I am going, I am going this way too.
So, w
hatever dusty road or winding path that lies ahead,
  
Would you mind if just take your hand and tag along
                                            .... a while with you?
  
It seems like just an hour or so ago, we started out
   First hand in hand, then arm in arm up the long road
Toward unexpected tomorrows, not knowing when or where
    Or even how we'd go, but there's been an angel at our shoulders.
 And a light just down the road, and I know we'll be arm in arm,
                                                  .... in a million years or so!

© 3/30/2002 & revised 4/9/2024
         by Tom King
(It's more than 50 years & counting)

  

Thursday, August 29, 2024

April 8 - Old Horses, New Riders


 

Old Horses New Riders

I spent 2 years and a half, five hours a day
 In the saddle, twenty horses in my little remuda, introducing
Horses to children whose ride through life had been such,
That their hearts and their minds were in need of repair.
They told me I was crazy, I'd get a child killed
If I put them up on a horse, worse if I let them ride
Without a rope to keep them from riding away.
The kids were autistic, developmentally delayed, and abused
The scars on their bodies; the scars on their minds
Made it hard for us to go home and sleep every night.
Horses and dogs (there was a border collie hung 'round the barn)
Proved well able to heal wounded children. I'd saddle them up
And off along the woodland trail we'd go riding softly along,
Tiny children on giant horses, quarter horses, ponies, cutting horses, even a burro...
Retired from the rodeo and the ranch, in retirement befriending kids
Who needed a friend that would carry them places they were otherwise
Afraid to go alone. Like the little mute girl, so beaten down she wouldn't speak,
Who one day, while brushing down her horse, began to chatter like a magpie.
Then she began to talk to us since we were the friends of her big friend.
Patient teachers the horses were. Loyal friends. Therapists on the sly.
I miss their patient love, the deep soft eyes, the warm breath on a cool morning
The unexpected nose nuzzling your neck when they sneaked up on you
While you put out their feed, brushed them down and cleaned their hooves.
Best job I ever had. Most loyal friends I ever new. God's equine angels.

© 2024 by Tom King




Tuesday, August 20, 2024

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

Sunday, July 21, 2024

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.

Sunday, July 14, 2024

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.......