Hey! Let’s go see the bats!
At first I am thinking baseball bats.
But this is late evening, so the black ones come into my head.
What bats? Why would I want to?
My brother says ‘It is amazing! They come out all at once.
Where?
Carlsbad Cavern. Come on!
How many bats come out? I ask.
Five thousand a minute is what the old timer said.
I yell “hell no!”
and I mean it.
A bratty six-year-old down in Carlsbad
makes his poor, haggard mother so mad!
He'll be good for a buck
but his mom shouts: Good luck!
Just be good for nothing like your dad!
Written 5/12/22
A flower in paradise
There’s a lack of nostalgic golden bell,
Garden flowers in Carlsbad*, and
Even cherry blossoms in Descanso**.
In a neighbor's mini-garden
Resting is an unknown flower.
It seldom dates bees and butterflies.
The stem bows respectably.
The petals wrinkle gracefully.
Full of comfort and peace,
Filled with beauty of recollection,
Bare flower mutters to itself,
Solely embraces the glorious sunrise,
Rolls the shadow at dusk,
Then, she falls asleep in the moonlight
Out of the vicissitude of life
Modest is the flower in paradise.
*Carlsbad: a coastal city, San Diego County, California
** Descanso: botanical garden in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles County,
Antibacchic Meter
Deep cave, stalactites, stalagmites adorn thy black hollows where
flowstone with cave made gems lie like pearls placed by far sea oysters.
White colored calcite runs grace thy walls, limestone tubes yea show here.
You seem sphere alone having wetsome ever present old moistures.
See thy huge chambers lie draped in a velvet lined darkness.
Bright lights are wired high to show way down steep climbs, stairs made by man.
Daylight has no place in thy cold depths' seen utter bleak darkness.
I try to paint awesome sight; neither nice speech nor fine lines can.
Freetail bats use cave as home hanging most high from domes' ceilings.
Seen by all they leave their lone sanctum late seeking live insects.
Aye, piles of guano sell, so many make wise astute dealings.
These sage men make countless guano treks; they mine, not one objects.
Strange twisted shapes made of calcite, helicite reflect thy will.
A quiet deep darkness, guano and Freetail bats show eyes still.
In spite of enjoying a very happy life
There are things I wish I had done
Like running naked through the Trevi Fountain
Or climbing the pyramids with a Nun
Walking the length of The Great Wall of China
While playing the Scottish bagpipes
Or exploring the famous Carlsbad Caverns
Dodging stalactites and stalagmites
The Colosseum in Rome is another site
That I've yet to see first hand
Remember the Beatles played a concert there
Now that was an amazing band
354 stairs in the Statue Of Liberty
Could climb them without a problem
Might need to have some oxygen handy
When I get back down to the bottom
Big Ben is an absolute must for my list
Like to hang from its giant minute hand
And straighten up the Leaning Tower is Pisa
While holding a pizza in one hand!
Then there's St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow
An amazingly colourful structure
Commissioned long ago by Ivan the Terrible
Ivan's name sure makes me shudder
So now you know why I gotta stick around
To see all these very famous landmarks
So I can accurately construct every one
At the home when I play in my sandbox
© Jack Ellison 2015
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