POEMS
Table of Contents
Viral Rap, by C. Trask
Another Year, by Ashley Karaman
My Nobel Prize, by J. Warley
Miss Information, by C. Trask
My Son, My Hero, by M. Capps
2 a.m., by C. Trask
Conspiracy Theory, by L. Meeks
Good Timber, by Douglas Mallach
Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
Viral Rap
I’m not advocating
Or abrogating
Just communicating
cause its fascinating
this ruination
sweeping our nation
a poison potion
from ocean to ocean
it’s a fractionation
never been so large
a five mile barge taken’ charge
there’s a manic panic
make you hide in the attic
gonna lock the door
cock the gun
sweep the floor
visit no-one
baby’s cryin’
mama’s sighin’
grandpa’s dyin’
and I ain’t buyin’
no farm today
gonna find a way
let the children play
like yesterday
so place this bet
it ain’t over yet
take your guitar fret
and sing a song
come along
it ain’t wrong
have some hope
discard the dope
grab the rope
and climb aboard
a new kind of horde
a chorus and a chord
get out of the hearse
sing this verse
it might get worse
but there will be a first
a crackle and a pop
make you stop
faster than a cop
look around
in the city and the town
what’s goin down
a brand new sound
a blood hound
in the lost and found
dig through the dirt
take off your shirt
make it hurt
first a trickle
then a squirt
a little gash
then a gush
what’s the rush
another er visit
tell it like it is or it isn’t
tip the table
turn the tide
yes you’re able
lose the pride
get rid of negativiT
shed the naiviT
look to diviniT
fill the cup with positiviT
use your creativiT
can’t measure infiniT
we can go on and on
never end this song
wouldn’t be wrong
might take too long
less you sing along
we can play ping pong
go back and forth
from the south to the north
take it east to west
it’s all the best
got a brand new nest
beat your drum and your chest
never take a rest
there’s work to do
enough for me and for you
get out the loo
put on your shoe
find the door
want some more
make you rich if you’re poor
stop the whinin’
see the sun is shinin’
it’s a brand new day
so just stop and say
thanks…
C. Trask
2 a.m.
two am
is not my friend
it picks on me
most every night
it won’t let me be
won’t let me get to three
without a struggle
or a fight
i try ignoring it
turn the other cheek
even turned on
the bedside light
i’ll toss and turn
but all i do is yearn
to make it
through the night
let me see six am
now there’s a friend
a true pleasure
and delight
C. Trask
Another Year
Another year has came and went
A year which has been poorly spent
With fervent prayers, fear, worry and dread
Misinformation so easily spread
A nation broken and full of strife
Such hatred and selfishness, no respect for life.
Each side swears the other is wrong
Dichotomy is the siren song
“wear your mask” the doctors plea
“infringement on my freedom, don’t tread on me”
Stay at home, slow the spread
Yet so many have ended up dead
If I hear cover or quarantine
In another year or seventeen
It will be too soon, I must confess
Ive heard too much, but I degree
I wish this year was only marred
By cover keeping us on guard
Wild fires, racial injustice, and police brutality
Shut downs damaging the economy
Protests burning down cities
I’ve never felt more ill at ease
The news and media are salivating
Sensationalizing and click baiting
So much stress and impaired mental health
Though it seems the rich just gain more wealth
It seems this year has been nothing but bad
Looking back on it all, its rathe sad
But necessity sparks innovation
People have come together acrid the nation
Finding ways to spread joy and light
Hope, it seems, is not so far out of sight
Though socially distanced and 6 feet apart
Distance, they say, makes fond the heart
I hope you join me in finding ways
To choose love over hate for all of our days
A. Karaman
Miss Information
Miss Information
Such a foxy face
As she spews her pearly whites
Misinformation
her drum does beat
Each and every night
To don a mask
Or stay at home
Decisions from above
What’s good today
Or gone tomorrow
She tells us with such love
Could it be
That I’ve gone mad
Unable to process
The words and wills
The greater good
I sit in sheer distress
Please don’t take my liberty
Don’t arrest me for this rhyme
I’ve shed some tears
But of all my fears
It’s that I’ve become the crime
My name be spewed upon the screen
My face there plastered too
The crime you ask, a simple task
I was caught outside my boat
I’ll take the stand, I’ll testify
Your facts I can deny
No contraband nor evidence
No crime occurred that day
The tide does turn
And all can see
The sandbar went away.
When will it end
What can I do
My cupboards all are bare
To venture out
They’d scream and shout
Small kids would stop and stare
I too was you
Just yesterday
A child with two balloons
A bike I had
A mom and dad
A house and my own bedroom
All history now
The world has changed
New rules, they do apply:
Keep your distance
Wear your mask
Could it ever be too much?
What lesson’s learned
We’ll have to wait and see
Hold hands, but please don’t touch!
C. Trask
Conspiracy Theory
First time I heard of Rona
Felt the old would not survive
The young could cluster on the beaches,
Feel great and stay alive.
Conspiracy I thought for sure.
GenXers would get their due:
I’d be six feet under
My friends would be there too.
Miscalculation GenX did make, of our will to stay
No hint, the sense, we would have, to simply hide away.
We’d wash our hands behind locked door
Eat bread and scraps and nothing more.
Alas when finally Covid has done its dastly due
We will have emptied out the cupboard, deep freezer, trashcans, too
But the emptying that will cause the greatest of despair
Is that our portfolios, once fat will now be bare.
So imagine then the boat we are in
One world, not two or three
Old folks survived, albeit broke, but intact evermore
Surely this was not the script GenX was looking for…
L. Meeks
My Nobel Prize
Those of us in Beaufort town,
Are used to many pests.
But now we’re told we have to add
Corona to the rest.
They tell us not to kiss and hug,
To stay six feet apart.
We need to isolate ourselves,
Be sensible and smart.
It does no good to bitch and moan,
To curse this awful bane.
Confined at home we search for things
In hopes of staying sane.
We read a book, we watch TV
We binge on favorite shows.
Sudoku, crosswords, solitaire
That’s just the way it goes.
But days ago I had a thought,
That might be heaven sent.
I need to put this time to use
For mankind’s betterment.
From Amazon I’ll get my needs,
A microscope for sure.
Some chemicals, a petri dish,
Test tubes clean and pure.
From my neighbor down the street
I’ll get a nasal swab.
I’m sure he’s got the virus
Or his name isn’t Bob.
Back at home, I’ll analyze
The world’s new enemy.
Once I know its DNA
I’m practically home free.
Like every virus ever known,
Ebola, AIDS and SARS,
It feasts upon a living thing
It wounds and kills and mars.
A mom, a dad, a newborn child,
A sister or a brother.
Which means that all I need to do
Is sic it on another.
Life in Beaufort is a dream,
A nearly perfect place,
With one exception we know well
A gnat that’s in our face.
No-seeums’ plague us every day,
A threat to Beaufort’s dream.
They fly and buzz and sting and bite
And make us want to scream.
My last experiment is done,
Results have been confirmed.
I found a way to make Corona
A deadly, lethal germ.
But not to humans, no not one,
Not people, dogs or cats.
The only thing the virus kills
Are pesky little gnats.
A Nobel Prize should come my way,
A mansion and a boat.
I’ll get them all if rules allow
Beaufort folks to vote.
J. Warley
My Son, My Hero
In the back of my mind is always a thought
About a boy, now a man, the battle fought
He takes in stride the day to day
As he passes you by nice things he'd say
His heart and soul I'm in awe of
My son, my gift from God above
To know him is to love that guy
He's kind and loving without even a try
In this life if you're lucky enough
To be blessed with his presence, just great stuff
He'll change your heart to see the beauty in life
Take away any trials and lose any strife
He changed me in ways that made me whole
Making me happy with life in my heart and soul
I loved him the minute my eyes did see
That God truly gave this gift to me
My child, my son, my hero it's true
God blessed me good when he gave me you
M. Capps
Good Timber
by Douglas Malloch
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
Invictus
By William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
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