We used to celebrate the fourth of July with our cousins.
Barbecuing food, and attending the parade up town on the square.
Sometimes we decorated our bikes with streamers and rode in the parade.
My cousin’s cousin was in the parade, as a queen once; that was nice.
Our families got along well, and my Daddy liked being with his brother.
We kids would go back up town in the afternoon to attend the carnival.
Sometimes our Daddies would be there too trying to win teddy bears.
But our mothers usually stayed home to do something else.
I have fond memories of dressing like my cousin on the 4th of July.
I always dressed like my identical twin, but dressing like Lou was special.
Her little brother Jerry and my little brother Richard were much younger.
Nice they had someone to sit with during the fireworks at nine p.m.
Snatch it from the dragon's lair
while he's sleeping, shh, beware
(or you'll get caught in his stare)
eat some, share some, if you dare
(preserve rest in fridgidaire)
if he awakes -- say a prayer
--to avoid his roasty flare
barbecuing all the fare--
belchy flame-germs give a scare
must escape -- get outta there!!
("Untitled - The Eye of Jihad", 2019, original encaustic)
Love is Love - and other absurd truisms
“Love is love” is like “Follow your bliss”
a way to deflect the moral agency
and subsequent consequence of our desires
with vague equivalency.
It’s like all love and bliss is somehow equal,
which is absurd.
What if my bliss comes from destroying yours?
Or I love abducting, raping, slicing and dicing
then barbecuing
the infant you love…?
Where is the moral equivalence?
This is why the Golden Rule sounds great
up until you are up against a masochist.
And the world today is apparently filled with masochists.
But it’s all good…
At least it feels good,
to think we are all the same, all equal
in what we love and cherish.
The truth is we aren’t.
We may all be made of the same dust,
but that doesn’t make us equal.
Meanwhile the world turns,
a hit soap-opera
in its nth season
spinning relentlessly
a veritable Wall of Death
which in its shocking extreme
delivers some kind of perverse pleasure.
It may not be bliss,
or even what we love,
but it’s certainly captivating.
(11/1/23)
Friends have an open invitation, dusky sky, soft rock music~
It’s all part of the experience of barbecuing—I Am Anaya
Rustic charred mesquite fired up
Aromatic smoke
Sweet guavas, fish, steak, grilling
Blazed creamed artichoke
Decadent pastry
Black Velvet
Lime
They call it fear,
but I choose to dare
'cause too many hands
are washed in widows' tears
Now I'm here
barbecuing fear
with folk and spare.
To become firm,
I became fear
to scare my fear,
can fear fear
a...ny...thing?
Fear knows no fear
thus I wear no dread
to rear up fear.
Grand large
Banqueting, tailgating, barbecuing
It put hunger to rest
Gone
6/10/21
Written by James Edward Lee Sr © 2021
Ants and Picnics
Apples and oranges
Summer cookouts
Grandma’s homemade, lemonade
Daddy’s barbecuing
And when it’s all said and done the thunder and rain comes
Its summertime
Raining now
So we all grab our food and run…
7/2/19
Written by James Edward Lee Sr. 2018©
Written for project North Omaha Writer’s Group assignment 2019©
Copyright © James Edward Lee Sr. | Year Posted 2019
baby you light up my life
matches strike in light passes
combusting is a must thing
it's anything but passive
there's desire in the fire
lips licking 'round loves edges
consuming each to reacquire
burning true with embered pledges
yet it works...this glowing fire
as if in my own conflagration
a saucy barbecuing lustful ire
might burn lust's own inflammation
consume me now! down to ash!
there's nothing left to come
a bursting-bright red-hot flash
all passioned desires to succumb
cinders spark with blaze alight
lovely PyRomancer in slow motion
burn up and down, burn out and bright
burn inextinguishable with devotion
© Goode Guy 2012-01-31