The pens are capped, the ink is still,
A different world demands my will.
The rhythmic beat of a rhyming line
Must yield to codes and a strict design.
Between the pages of anatomy,
I'll miss the pull of poetry-
The way a stanza feels like home,
The freedom in a wandering poem.
But ICD-10 and billing guides
Are where my focus now resides.
Though Tampa's stage is far away,
The heart still marks this April day.
A quiet desk, a steady light,
Through every long and studious night,
I trade my metaphors for skill,
Climbing up this final hill.
So if my voice should drift away,
Know I'm counting down the days
Until the exam is passed and done,
And the battle for the cap is won.
The poems will wait, the ink will stay,
Until I've earned my April 26th.
central billing equal ceilings tapestry
of environmental surges
kaleidoscope of colors blurred mismatch
on its way it's a rehearsal
for dynasties tragedies
I am eloquent for the disasters,
that lies before me
man who am I to stand
in the way of clemencies-entrapmemt
1/10/26
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr 2026
You have view beyond the warning tongue mess,
You have perceived the sting of hearty touch.
What more can a lone feeble mind confess-
What tease has laid on playing cheek nonesuch.
What it is like lie;
A light that darkness untie
Behind, cum standby...
Until it turns out a beautiful crime,
It would never be unworthy to mime.
You have sold off your rights to billing deal,
You have bought secrets instead privacy.
What more can a fool afford to conceal-
What light fights with dark rage cum ecstasy.
What is it of mind?
Cheap sorry, your stories bind,
Yet torment can't find...
Until it reaches your pride, hope survives
It would have been like you made the best drives.
You never rock enough gut through your stake,
You barely lay down your worries at night.
What more can a burdened heart sleep off ache-
What peace can not cease near bright raging light.
What's the best way known
Within a withdrawn homegrown,
That fakes street unknown?
Terrified without been accused of court
Sort over time with blurred case cum report.
(Immediately after being found "guilty"
of denying that the earth was stationary
and the sun orbited around it, Galileo
said, "Eppur si muove!" [But it moves!])
It's hard to live in Lilliput, I find.
I have to cross my fingers, play their game.
Their billing, filling, drilling daily grind
sits ill with me. They all trot out the same
tired cliches. Passing a painting, never fail
to comment on the squareness of the frame.
Unprofitable, weary, flat and stale.
You can't earn prizes here. These fools prize earning.
No sweets to eat. It's one long dreary tale
of condemnation, disapproval, spurning.
The Sunday supplements determine taste,
all tearing down, forbidding, banning, burning.
They're sealed in heavy metal, concrete-cased
austerity. They put the "die" in "diet".
What will survive of them is nuclear waste.
Denounce, detract, dismiss it and deny it.
Don't look for clover - look for cloven hooves.
Excoriate it, flay it, vilify it.
They'd love to let life lurch along in grooves,
the gauche, perverse, unruly human mind
trapped tidily in aspic. But it moves.
Spine chilling velocity
Willing feverish ferocity
Pollution spilling atrocity
Pushes our buttons
Top billing forging
Fiendish drilling pomposity
Gluttons gorging in the isles of muttons
Coining the term “purloining”
Plunder even here down under
Cast asunder..can hear the thunder
In the proud land of
The long white cloud
Scold from the fold to heal
But won’t listen..do a deal
Gaudy gems appeal..glisten
History sold for pieces of gold
Cower to phoney crony power
Dour Parasites roll the dice
Show pony baloney hour
Off their heads...now divining
Mining our whining sea beds..
Palaver of scour..devour and sour
Splice our shining slice of paradise
Vice rather than stories of glories told
Voraciously gobbling veracity
Audaciously hobbling precocity
Generosity wobbling even in the home
Of lengthy Cumulus Curiosity…
Not being funny
In this Land of Milk & Honey
Won’t kowtow to the cash cow
Getting out of hand
Because the answer forever
Whatever will never ever
Be just money!
Under eighteen
hot tears spilling
nowhere near serene
at the end of your rope
cannot cope
need fulfilling
please don't mope
there's always hope
here's the dope
find someone thrilling
you can soft-soap
who is willing
and won't say 'Nope'
to a clandestine marriage
on the slippery slope
of the blacksmith's anvil
hire the carriage
you prefer
defer the billing
and elope
A rose as it grows has no cute little nose
Has no voice that can drive a man wild
Has no eyes to ensnare any man who looks there
Has no cheeks that might flush if he smiled
No saunter, no wiggle, no fun little giggle
No sharp and intelligent mind
No power to make any timid man wriggle
No humour, no shapely behind ;-)
No way to say yes to a white wedding dress
No way to agree to be mine
No way can a rose hold a candle to you
Though a rose can be rather divine
So a rose can coerce many men into verse
For a rose has its own beauty too
Yet a rose that you chose for your bouquet or hair
Shall take mere second billing to you
She was hired to be a Girl Friday
I refuse to answer to that, she said
Not during the hour-long interview
But her first five minutes on the job
Her demands and preferences were many
She wanted top billing if she helped him edit his books
She expected a substantial raise after two weeks
She threatened to sue him twice in the first ninety days
The boss was a bit smitten with the woman
He had finally met a woman who was a match for his mother
Overbearing, dominating, demanding,
He wanted to woo her and wed her
Marriage to her would have been his mother’s thorn
The former Girl Friday sued him for sexual harassment
She took half his company and a lot of his money
Forty years later he still thinks of her fondly
“The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind.”
— quote by Carly Simon
----------------------------------------------------
I see pair of red-whiskered bulbuls
with wrong-end rouge, spikes, eloquent note
gurgling - spinning love, singing the loop,
billing, bowing, chattering. I swoon
Answering Machine
RRRRRRING…………
Hello and welcome to Oliver’s Olive Oil
Press1 to track your order
Press 2 to place a new order
Press 3 to cancel your order
Press 4 to speak to customer service
Press 5 to find our ours of operation
Press 6 to repeat these options
Press 4 RRRRRRING…….
Hello and welcome to customer service
Press 1 to get our daily pricing
Press 2 to get order our catalog
Press 3 to find out the ingredients
Press 4 to speak to someone in billing
Press 5 to pay your bill automatically
Press 6 to repeat these options
Press 4 RRRRING……..
Hello and welcome to billing
Press 1 to register a billing complaint
Press 2 to find out why you received the wrong order
Press 3 to find out why you received someone else’s order
Press 4 to speak to the billing office manager
Press 5 to speak to the managers manager
Press 6 to repeat these options
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Never be swayed by a woman in need,
For "billing" is her constant creed.
"I'm hungry," "my gas is dry,"
Her words, a drain, a constant sigh.
Rescue not a woman from poverty's grasp,
For she'll seek escape, and leave at last.
Her heart, a calculator, cold and grey,
Values measured in economic way.
Survival tops feelings in her book,
A lady's love, a financial hook.
She seeks a man with deeper pockets still,
A richer partner, her heart's thrill.
No motherly love to nurture and mend,
Her regard for men, their financial trend.
Multiple suitors, a comparative game,
Her independence, a treasure to claim.
Few claim to help, but seek gain,
Interest and advantage, their aim.
Commanders, helpers, or so they say,
But men, beware, for you'll pay.
Men, work harder, be determined too,
Never look to a woman for help, 'tis true.
For in the end, it will go awry,
And leave you drained, with a heavy sigh.
Just Clouds
They seem just ordinary fill
for a background, a fuzzy white
or gray that doesn't grab the eye
and distract from the more deserving
stuff like trees, sweeping ocean views
and mountain lakes. Clouds lack
a clean line.
They seldom get prime billing
unless infused with anger and about
to burst, or wear the outrageous
colors of a rising or setting sun.
Many exclude them altogether
with a preference for a blue,
totally cloudless sky.
Frankly, total blue is boring to me.
Give me tufts of purest white
drifting soundlessly across
an otherwise featureless sky,
big bellied storm clouds, dark
and sagging with weight,
rumbling with thunder,
letting their load of water go.
And wrap me
in the soft, filtered light
of low, misty clouds that have learnt
how to weep, keep me safe
from the big towering giants
that grow with menace on a distant
horizon and bless me
with the unseen ones
that send down a gentle rain at night
to lull me off to sleep.
We’ve all heard warnings about the idea of
‘following your passion’
to such an extent that, frankly, it’s
gone out of fashion
So, I’m here to suggest -
No, I’m not from ‘Reader’s Digest’ –
that before you get antsy
Why not follow your fantasy
It’s ok if it’s sexual
as long as the story’s ‘contextual’
And as for ‘too much killing’
in today's violent world
your fantasy probably rates ‘second billing’
So, yes, by all means, follow your fantasy ~
Just makes sure no one dresses too scantily
When the evening sun
is slanting just so,
let us take a picture
of us both reflected,
heads tilted together
in a shaded body of water.
Maybe we will, by chance,
capture a lone eagle circling above us,
or perhaps two mourning doves.
billing and cooing
mirrored there
in a chilly Ohio lake.
In the paling
contrails of amity,
will that likeness
remain as a depiction
of unbroken love,
or will it slip away
in spans and spells,
but an image
of an unmasked memory,
one to be swiftly swiped
left or right
inside a cellphone gallery?
Betty Grable and June Havner
Brought the Dolly Sisters to Life on the big screen
It was 1945
They should have both had top billing
Somehow John Payne sneaked into the middle of them
in every single promotional advertisement
I think this is a reflection of how women are treated
as second class citizens
Dolly sisters, studio, not Dolly end caps!
I loved the movie, every bit of it
but do not like the way the producers
decided to write up the billing
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