I paused by the river in the late afternoon—
how many years have passed!
The plane tree on the bank, towering,
the riverbed unchanged;
what, I wonder, will I find on the other side?
The hollow in the plane tree has widened,
memories stored within its hiding place—
time ferrets them out through nostalgia!
We used to play cops and robbers as children;
dry plane leaves, at the mercy of the wind!
The riverbed, an endless white snakeskin,
stones rolled round like scales—
how often I slipped into its freezing waters!...
my schoolbag a lifebuoy upon my back;
sunken pebbles held hostage in the sand!
On the opposite bank stands my childhood home;
its chimney smoked on a day like this,
the doorway held a sweet scent as Mother passed through,
the courtyard gate creaked at Father’s step;
a robin sang amidst the fresh snow!
Planting a seed
Blooming courage indeed
Looking up to the sky
Not considering, time to die
Knowing heavens are there
Protection from the crows who scare
Reading books filled with studies
Asking, how much money?
Trusting powers that be
Truth will see
Sun shining bright
An illuminating sight
When break time arrives
Reason to sigh
Showing a path
Towards the bath
Sweat well spent
Cultivating investment
Heat saying goodbye
Autumn leaves fly
Seasoned to perfection
Ready for collection
Harvest pay received
Graciously, I believe
Joyful thanks
Leaving the bank
No longer fearful and blue
Cash in hand is cool
Barreling pork
Work
Done
Time for fun
Spending
Since holiday season is pending
Intimidation threats are gone
Since courageous honesty is the new dawn
This old house is a mystery,
it is filled with lots of history.
It needs to be cleaned out,
now what are we going to talk about?
Let's go to the big closet,
mom made this her big bank deposit.
Look a very old dusty shoebox,
wow!!! is it Ralph our pet blue fox?
Have to find thirty minutes somewhere.
Else they start looking for my daughters.
Completely out of time coins.
Guard keeps turning his head every 2 minutes-ish.
If I time it right-
There's a Time Bank around the corner.
I know the vault code through a local time thief,
Friend of a friend.
If I can just time it right
With this guard's head panning,
Scanning, and...now!
I'm gone, no time to finish this p
The wind rustles through the roadside bushes
The spicy scent of the field tickles my nostrils
As far as the eye can see, there is greenery,
low hills, narrow roads,
with cars crawl along, going about their business.
I don't understand where the wind comes from
on such a calm day as today.
I look back at your house
It's exactly the same as in the photograph
Taken years ago, only the ivy
Has perhaps grown too much
on the panel next to the window facing the road.
I feel as if I'm inside that old photograph
Where AI imitates the moving
And the foreground suddenly recedes into the distance
The field and hills disappear beyond the horizon.
Cawing crows fly by
The day draws to a close, the light changes
And slowly fades, like in a theatre
But the curtain hangs motionless
No public enters inside
Today is a bank holiday.
stained glass heart blue sharp
soul sinking eyes haunting glare
food bank brings much joy
Every other Friday,
With my paycheck in my hand,
I headed to the savings bank,
Exactly like I’d planned.
I’d cash the check, depositing
A bit so it would grow,
Reflected in my passbook
Where the interest would show.
That Lincoln Savings Bank is now
An upscale toddler gym,
Survival rates for local banks
Now, sadly, kind of slim.
Direct deposit also changed
The way most folks get paid
And I’m not sure that passbooks,
Nowadays, are even made.
Yet I remember feeling
So grown-up with that fresh check,
Never thinking it would be replaced
By banking done by tech.
Bank notes
We, the children in the street
roaming about in an empty house
came across bundles of banknotes
German marks from the first
world war
I took a big bundle home
my mother
used them to light the fire in the morning
So, at last, the useless notes
got a good ending
Will the notes Elon Musk often
display on X, end up as kindling
for the winter fire
I have a piggy bank
That I started one
Month go
For my nephew
To go to university
The university is very expensive
I mean the fee
It will be cheaper to
Start a piggy bank
There I will have enough money
To pay for his university
No jack-of-all-trades
but master of one
it's safe to say
the combination spun
Jack was a safecracker
had it down pat
and a crackerjack
cracksman he was at that
not a people person
he'd sneak down halls
more a steeplejack
and shinny up walls
jimmy a window
then with stealth
jewels unload
remove the wealth
crack the code
find the fault
turn the tumblers
open the vault
locks he'd smash
break the bank
relieve the loot
of locked stashed cash
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Betty Jean,
a teacher’s daughter~
saved copper pennies
in glazed ceramic:
a piggy bank, fat-bellied,
painted with cornflowers.
Named her Pigtail
her ceramic ears, one forward, one back,
listened for pennies~
its snout chipped clean
where Aunt Betty dropped it.
Pigtail was magical,
filled with the
clink of childhood promise
and deferred desire
against porcelain walls.
Save your pennies, Betty Jean,
her mother chimed
when the Depression struck.
Through those years
Pigtail swallowed
copper pennies
and watched wallpaper
fossilize into sepia landscapes.
Decades later,
Pigtail sits on my shelf—
a hairline crack
running through one ear,
waiting for Aunt Betty
and for the coins that
never come.
No coins inside now~
just the hollow thunk
when I lift it,
heavy with Aunt Betty’s
absence.
The way I see it
~ AOC and Greta T ~
impish counterfeits
Count Olaf Von Farlow was a few quarts low
He followed the scent, he followed his nose
Gonna do a fly-by, wide-eyed, don't you know
Gotta do a fly-by low, to detect the flow
Now, Count Olaf's down, and he's blood bank bound
Incisors sharpened, with moldy, molded crown
That's "Olaf Von Farlow"...never hyphened
The Teller there, unaware...got siphoned
Carton Character Clerihew
12.8.25
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
wanted to buy a fancy estate house
went scurrying to a corporation bank
found it full of greedy glitzy hanks !
Nestled among the shining peaks
of flashing glass and girded steel,
gilded mansions enjoyed by sheiks;
who queue for nearby Ferris wheel;
near Parliament’s Gothic seat,
Shakespeare’s Elizabethan Globe,
It sits, grey, brutal, pure concrete
shameless without a cladded robe.
It’s naked beauty clads itself
around creativeness within.
I am it shouts, I am myself
without a falsifying skin.
With jutting angles, edges hard,
it’s beauty is more honest than
the Pickle, Telephone, or Shard
I will forever be a fan.
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