Rabies
A boy of eight
Bitten savagely by the family Great Dane
The rabid animal passing the venomous toxin
Then a week of torture and pain
As leather straps bound wrists
And long needles were inserted into the stomach
Only relief
The sleep brought on by fever.
We were never allowed
A dog
Until my mother divorced my father
Then Mimi entered our lives
Wrapping her paws about our hearts.
Father would never return
Never return to feel the paws
Wrapping about his heart
Or the vicious growls
Of a fear sensing machine.
†
My father contracted rabies from his pet Great Dane and shared with me the suffering from the many needles inserted into his abdomen…
Accident Before Marriage
Two young adults
Traveling on an Indiana back farm road
A serious accident
Complete with glass impaling their faces.
Sometime after their recovery
Guards were let down and
From a passionate moment
A child was conceived.
A prompt and quiet marriage
A relocation to the Golden State
All new friends, opportunities and
A distancing from family.
The child carried the pain
Of the mistakes!
†
Warrior’s Calm
“Sometimes the horror of war is too great to share…
It becomes a burden encased carefully in layers of nacre…
The sharpness dulled as the weight masses, waiting.”
Where Red Dolphins Go, Robert Lanphar
He dragged on that Camel deeply
Those Turkish fine tobaccos
Called him from horrors of war
His caravan moved across
The wide sands
Camel swaying
Solitude deafening
Oasis, oasis, oasis ‘til Timbuktu
Then the romantic bazaar…
Backbeat of North African music
Babble of mixed tongues
Building to
Screaming level…
He exhales in perfectly formed rings
Cough calmed for now…
Another deep drag
To a crackling cherry red tip.
†