Father & Daughter

Happy Birthday Aragon!

Mother & Daughter

Kelly and Cat... Two of my favorite girls in the world!

Come Home Cat (November 2006)

A hospital stay
Over the holidays
Makes us all realize
How much you mean to us

Like a puzzle with a missing piece
The landscape
Is just not complete
When you’re not around

It’s like burgers with no fries
Pizza without pepperoni
Or
(Your favorite)
chocolate chip ice cream
without the mint

Your smile
warms a room
like a raging fire
Your laugh can energize
a city street
And you dance enchantingly

It’s like turning on a light
When the bulb blows out
No light
No brightness

It’s damn near impossible
To find anyone
Whose ever met you
That doesn’t think that you’re the best

That's because you are the best
And we love you very much

Get well quick and come back home
This place
Just isn’t the same
Without you!

Clouds (By Cat when she was 9)

Take a puffy shaped cloud
As puffy as cotton candy
Take a roaring cloud
And a twisting, twirling tornado
Add in the softest snow
And you have an angel’s bed!

Reflection

Vietnam Wall Memorial - Traveling through New England - Summer 2006

Tony, Frank and the Others (March 2002)

Tony would make his way to the dining hall at Langley Air Force Base
Just about every morning
At 3 a.m.
"Can't sleep, mind if I grab a cup?" he would ask
his wavy hair always looked uncombed
a cigarette was always hanging from his mouth
"Go ahead. It's fresh," I'd say.

He wouldn't say too much else to me
in 1975 I was just a 17-year-old kid to him
when I first met him I had only been in the service – the Air Force - for three months
he was "back to the world," as they would say
just back from Vietnam
I didn't know shit

Tony only had three years on me
but he semed so much older
when he was my age
he was training for his first tour of combat duty
but, after yet another sleeples night,
he'd sit and sip his coffee
and within a half hour
one by one
he be joined by about eight other Vietnam combat Vets

they couldn't sleep either
so they made their way to the dining hall
Sgt. Wireman and myself
we worked the overnight shift
we knew they would be coming
so we would put the coffee on
sometimes Wireman would make some pastries
or put out some fruit and cereal for them
"You have to respect what these guys did"
Wireman would say
"No one wanted to do what they did.
Not even them.
But they did it."

They'd grab their coffee
sit at the tables and talk
sometimes voices raised
sometimes in a whisper
sometimes through a tear
They were there for each other
sometimes I'd hear what they were saying
Man, I thought, that's nothing like the war I heard about

Tony was always the first one there
we'd strike up a light, meaningless conversation
I'd tell him about my day trips to Virginia Beach;
my constant searches for pot and pussy
and he'd smile and look distracted

once, while telling him about a concert I saw in Hampton
he asked, out of nowhere,
"Do you know what it's like to owe your life to someone else?"
"Well, no," I started to say.
"I am only alive,
I'm only here,
because someone else had the balls to save me," he said.
"Someone carried me to safety after I was shot.
What can you ever do to thank someone for that?"

He walked away before I could respond
which was good
because I had no response

Frank was a little older - probably in his early 30s
and he would come in every night as well
"How about a cup for a freedom fighter down on his luck?"
he would laugh, holding up an empty coffee cup
his red hair slicked back
“Help yourself,” I’d say.

during the course of their visits
if they neded more coffee, Frank would yell,
"Can we get another pot of coffee for the out-of-work peacekeepers?"
I didn't realize I was being set-up
but the first time I bit and yelled back
"Coffee's ready for the Peacekeepers"
he jumped at the chance:
"Peacekeepers? You say we were Peacekeepers?"
he didn't wait for an answer
(again, that was good because I never knew how to respond to these
guys).
"You know what they say, don't you?
Fighting for peace, is like fucking for virginity!
Peacekeepers my ass!," he'd howl

these were some good guys
and they each went through a Hell only a couple of them volunteered for

before I joined the service
I was opposed to the war
after meeting Tony, Frank and the others
I was still opposed to the war
especially after hearing some of their stories
and seeing how it affected them

one by one,
by the end of 1975
those guys were transfered to another base
or were dischargd
and as each left,
there were big hugs and tearful good-byes

I have no clue what happened to any of them
but I've been thinking about them a lot lately
because now I see another war
and I see the young faces of American "peacekeepers"
on the tv, in the newspaper and on the internet
and I wonder
after once seeing,
and listening to,
Tony, Frank and the others
how this country could possibly embrace a military action with such enthusiasm
because I'm convinced
another year or two from now
on military bases - and probably beyond
there will be groups of guys like
Tony and Frank
awake through the night
where they can be protected by the dark
talking with each other,
working through the shit they went through
and probably thinking
for various reasons
that they fought in the war to end them all
and standing nearby
on the sidelines
someone like me
who takes it all in
and, after hearing everything,
thinks there's no fucken way we would be sucked into military action
like that again
then does nothing
no small part
to oppose our government's military mindset

and
sure enough
it hapens
all over again

Traveling "Wall" Memorial

This site protected by Peboe!

Horns Up!!

Book Report (or how I wouldn't fuk ann coulter with your dik!)

A new weapon in the political battlefield is books
Books with divisive messages
Mean in their message
Loose in their facts
And over the top with their titles
Like:
“Necessary Idiots – How the Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First”
That’s not a title
That’s a talking point
(and speaking of getting it wrong – a couple of pages in the author states with authority that Sadaam Hussein “has weapons of mass destruction”… ooops!)
Another title:
“If it’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat – Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It.”
As the author alludes to in the under-stated title
You will die if Democrats win elections
“Shut Up and Sing” was written by an attorney who thinks being an artist should exclude you from voicing an opinion.
(so how about, “shut up and chase another ambulance”)
The authors of these stealth volumns
most who now have practically unwatchable cable trelevision shows-
end up providing the liner notes of each other’s booksall talking about how essential
each other’s boks are
But I doubt anyone – even the authors –
expect these books will be read
They just want people to read –
and remember –
the titles

These books line the shelves
Like well-trained
Red Army (or Red State) soldiers
Goose stepping to the Talking Point Rag
But, beware,
Sometimes the shelves are infiltrated
By such upstarts with titles like,
“Jimmy Carter – The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” or
“Ending Hunger Now” by George McGovern, Bob Dole and Donald Messer
But those books look more like hostages
Captive among the rest
My feeling that this is an unfortunate
misuse of books is tempered for my love of free speech
Still, I recently ventered into a bookstore
black magic marker in hand
looking for the Ann Coullter offering
“Godless – The Church of Liberalism.”
Her offense to me was not the outrageous content
But to outrageously attack people
- 9/11 families included –
just to get publicity to sell the book
My thinking was to graab the book
And write the letters B-I-T-C-H
Bold and black
Across the front cover
And then put the book back on display
And then move on to the next bookstore
A statement to be sure
But when I grabbed the first book
At a borders near New London
I backed off
Not because I was worried about the consequences
But because I didn’t want to be as negative as these people
Especially Ann Coulter (did I mention that she is a fuck'n skanky media whore bitch!)
And my actions would be compounding her misuse of books...
God bless free speech

Informed Voters -or how I discovered that all the political ads on television only made me realize that the candidates can't die fast enough!

welcome to the new
but not improved
amerikan politics
where civilized
but still testy
debate
has been replaced by name calling
labeling, lying, slandering
and generally treating
people like shit
belittleing them
just because they have
a different opinion

warning –
taking part in the new
but not improved
amerikan politics
may cause nausia
fear
ulsers
anal leakage
headaches
nose bleeds
and a loss of your decency
senses and
intelligence

do not take part in the new
but not improved
amerikan politics
if you are pregnant
or are prone to believe propoganda
(especially about yourself)
if you experience an erection for more than four hours
i.e. – you turn into a total prick
- a real dikhead -
congratulations – you’ve found your calling

open space

i am walking
lost
wandering
through a place
where ancient
Americans
Native Americans
lived with god
respected the land
and prayed for peace
but the land has shrunk
overrun by cars and people
you now hear in the distance
from the strip malls and
overgrown houses
which have staked claim to the land
and have driven god herself out

the cars and people
haunt the open land
that once stretched freely for miles
suffocate the spirit
too close and bullying
for anyone to make a meaningful connection
with nature

the small track of land
is now a token speck of open space
surrounded by a suffering civilization
hell bent on
self destruction
(and they don’t even know it)

Trip

Rory: What's this? Some sort of bad acid trip?
Kevin: No, actually it's a good one!