Every day it just gets more and more embarrassing, smh. The sad part about it is, the grass was gray (dead and withered) the first time, yet somehow people still believed gray grass was gonna somehow turn green the second time around. Truth be told, it is far worst. We are in Total Disarray! Like for real, how many signs of stupidity can you ignore? Smh. We really are the Weakest Link and the Dumbest Link. Barnum & Bailey at its finest.
With that being said, keep your seat belt buckled, cause every day we going for a ride.
And every day is like a malfunctioned Waymo car, running wild and loose with no order, no structure and no sense of direction.
All I can say is wheww chile! When this circus show comes to an end, there’s going to be sooo much to do and undo… like literally, SO MUCH!
RoBo Calls
Miracle Man
4/25/2025
I’ve a strong dislike that now borders on hate,
toward those unwanted calls that won’t abate.
I get perhaps ten or so of these calls every day,
thinking I’m an “Old Codger” they can sway.
Its often about Medicare and always a scam,
her sweet voice has for me some new program.
I appreciate her having my interest at heart,
but I’m not a sucker that she can outsmart.
Calls interrupt my meals and also slumber,
once or twice they’ve came from my number.
These I always answer without undue delay,
for I’m always curious as to what I might say.
“There’s a sucker born every minute” Barnum said,
and many minds have chosen his quote to embed.
When I am old I shall be an acrobat Granny Fee said.
People will cheer and stomp their feet at me
The clapping will be thunderous
I may join Barnum and Bailey’s right now
I think they went out of business her grandson Joe said.
The rest of them almost laughed until they saw Granny Fee's face.
Don’t even think about eating one of my monster cookies she told Joe
His sister sneaked him two of them after supper
I am working on my sequined costume Granny Fee told her son.
“Not that again!” her doubtful son Biff said, rolling his left eye.
His children were silent.
Gram slapped Biff's left hand when it reached for a monster cookie.
In the summer the family went to the circus.
Granny Fee begged off at the last second.
“Hey! Isn’t that Granny Fee?
It sure was.
In costume, on the high wire, balancing her corpulence on a pink hippo.
The family clapped, cheered, hooted and whistled.
They loved Granny Fee's delicious chocolate chip monster cookies.
And they all knew that she had marvelous hearing.
Untrusting
Miracle Man
8-27-2023
A beautiful face or well known name,
will endorse a product using their fame.
Many assume that means it’s better made,
but the raw truth is they’re getting paid.
Most of the merchandise they’ve never tried,
and to the consumer they’ve flat out lied.
While they’re getting richer others get by,
but the spiel goes on, and it’s buy, buy, buy.
“There’s a sucker born every minute”
P.T.Barnum
What do I know of soul?
Nothing but its close conspiracy with death
As the soul disconnects and flies when we die.
The world's soul can be seen in the clouds,
And death looms and hovers high
Over this tumbling clod of earth.
I also see the wind in the clouds
And hear the floating truth the wind conveys.
The world is a Barnum and Bailey hoax,
An elaborate deception.
Does not the earth look flat?
Does not the sun appear to rise and set?
We are but a mere handful of dust
Thrown into the face of the wind.
That may or may not be soul,
But it sifts us along, anyway,
Like the silt of destinies.
No one is accountable for the accident of his birth,
Although he may be for the untimeliness of his death.
Life is a great chaotic secret,
And we are merely ignorant
Searching souls in constant cosmic disarray.
Author's note: We are all ordinary. What is extraordinary is that so many of us ignore what few strengths lie within us as we try to live with and around our flaws. "Soul" is an imprecise term, or so it seems to me. "Mystery", perhaps, has the advantage of a more precise application.
A ninety thousand dollar Jeep,
And that’s a standard one, no less!
The ‘23 Grand Wagoneer
Conquers the school lines best, I guess.
If Coleridge dreamt of Rubikahns
With pricing up among the stars,
I’d search for stash of heroin
And check his needle arm for scars.
A capital idea though
And P. T. Barnum comes to mind,
So climb up in that Wagoneer
And leave those school moms far behind.
Over in the meadowland the birds are singing
Warm weather portends the returning of spring
The bees have set about their pollen bringing.
Hopeful, bright spring days with excitement tingling
Cause our voices to shout out and lustily sing,
Over in the meadowland the birds are singing
While with glee my life’s breath is mingling
So happy I feel like life is gaudy glitter and bling
The bees have set about their pollen bringing.
Spring to me reminds of Barnum and Ringling
The colorful memories of childhood bring
Over in the meadowland the birds are singing.
I can reminisce about the high school flinging
The loss of my first love that brought a sting,
The bees have set about their pollen bringing.
The season of spring brings to me self-healing
More than anything else, a welcoming thing,
The bees have set about their pollen bringing
Over in the meadowland the birds are singing.
FIRST PLACE WINNER
edited April 7, 2022
written January 21, 2022
for "Springtime Villanelle" Poetry Contest
sponsored by Sotto Poet
barnum would have been proud
bulldogs in too twos
embraces for show
disks and dark booths
raw raws
scaffolding on saxophones
Scotland-yards of curtains
damp mermen
virginia sweet william
and dollar bills in
the greatest broken worth
I wonder how the luster of evening,
could hush despair amidst its glow, but,
its touch upon this skin escapes me
as the light reflects a child's face, gone:
Through nightfall's sail, eyes weep in private
while the rain flows intermittently,
it spills...like dying stars along the roadside
until this body is drenched in cold yearning.
Within gloss of dew, cotton candy days are recalled
enshrining laughter on Barnum Bailey fairs-
then, jelly-smudges circle her girlish mouth,
a wiggle on a red bike's new handle zigzagging away
where flavors of revelry linger, still...still.
And now, dusk creates another empty place
inside more holes in a pinpoint of ebon clouds,
that I am left alone
without a voice... choked by reality's pinch
when early dawn trickles in beats---
and singing myself to slumber
no one hears a Rockabye's wail, except...
Written 9/14/2018
------------------
Shush, Did You Hear That:
Anthony Slausen's Contest
Who is the Ringmaster?
Who is the pawn?
Who will decipher
When the patrons are gone?
Enter the Big Top spot the trapeze,
Allay all your fears, put them at ease.
Barnum, Ringling masters long past,
Legends of showmanship destined to last.
Performers who push human boundaries,
Whose skills outstrip all practicalities.
It's raw talent on view in center ring,
Unique marvels of practice really happening.
No single skill matters outside the ring,
Performance in life, that's the thing.
Suspend for a moment what you know to be real,
Fantasy is fostered, it's the circus appeal.
Listen to the Ringmaster's full vibrato
As he shows each act with flair.
Paces his rich voice staccato
Presenting, making you connect and care.
Never lets himself become the show,
Top hat in hand in center ring, beginning to the end.
Tells you all you need to know,
Master of all the fun, every patron's friend.
Barnum and Bailey has closed its tents
That circus is no more
The high wire act
and the elephant acts are no longer
thrilling the crowds
Some people say they were cruel to the elephants
Perhaps they were right
But I will miss the that circus
I even attended as an adult
with a date and liked it
Once I took my nephew on a
Workmans Circle trip to the circus
We ate pizza and I drove home
Later on - he grew rich
and I continued to write poety
about Barnum and Bailey's circus..... is gone... is gone.. is gone...
Something unfortunate will be happening in May.
The Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus is going away.
It has been the "Greatest Show on Earth" for 146 years.
A great number of fans very well may be shedding tears.
All the elephants, lions, tigers, and clowns,
along with acrobats, and trapeze artists will not be touring towns.
Costs have risen, and attendance figures have declined.
Profits apparently are harder to find.
They say all good things can never last.
The famous circus will become a thing of the past.
From the website of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Everything is Free
and I Don’t Want it
6-4-2016
They’re targeted at any seeking cheap or free,
Offers come by email, phone, TV or printed.
Somehow all offers always seem to include me,
It’s always gimmick, gadget, or misrepresented.
But I’m not interested in things without price,
Because the price is previously fixed to another;
Instructions and pertinence are always un-precise,
While in my individual space I well nigh smother.
If it’s something I’ve won or an offer near free,
They think, my information they might gather.
With offers come things with which I won’t agree,
And I’m growing tired of their constant blather.
I’ve won multiple lotto’s which I’ve not entered,
And people in Nigeria have checks in my name.
On shearing sheep these folk’s minds are centered,
Will we ever see termination to this doltish game.
Not as long as suckers exist.
And P T Barnum said “there’s a sucker born every minute”
Tom
P.T. Barnum
the greatest showman
P.T. where are the clowns?
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