(“Enemy of the State Merit Badge”, 2011, original oil)
In The Morning
In the morning the house smells
Of the sandalwood scented candle
I burned all night
In honor of a slain patriot.
I wake heart still heavy
And it just gets heavier
When the news keeps coming in
Of how much his enemies despised him
And how they gleefully celebrate now.
It’s odd to think of sane people celebrating
The murder of a kind and just and righteous,
And may I say, pure soul.
It just goes to show where their hearts are
And where they are not.
Morning dawns on a new day
As hundreds of millions of Americans wake up
To what is now an openly declared war
Between good and evil, liberty and tyranny.
And somehow it feels like 1775
All over again.
(9/11/25)
If we're constantly learning
The knowledge we're yearning
It just goes to show
How much we really know
We all have our own field
Experts in what we yield
Knowledge of everything
is impossibly being
Philosopher's and Bofins
With great minds within
Know not all
The mind is too small
We know what we're told
And your never too old
For more info to sink in
Always constantly thinking
But the mind isn't big enough
To take in all that stuff
To inform you I regret
What we learn we forget
The Time Machine is built and ready to try
Final preparations complete ready to say goodbye
I would travel back to the day I was born
The machine fires up sending me airborne
The next thing I know I am transporting my mom and myself from the birthing room
Looking at myself flashes great memories of days gone by
Now that I am seventy looking at me as a newborn I start to cry
I wonder what it would be like to start life over again
How would I change things from what it was like back then
Suddenly an alarm goes off it was just a dream
It just goes to show things are never like they seem.
Was just a young'un in the big band era
But it seems just like yesterday
Listening to Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey
Still love it right to this day
Miller's Modernaires, and Dorsey's Pied Pipers
With their smooth harmonic blend
Chattanooga Choo-Choo and The Trolley Song
Brought me so much pleasure no end
Guess I was influenced by my older sisters
Was not even ten at the time
It just goes to show the impact they had made
For those long ago days I still pine
It wasn't until Elvis debuted in fifty-six
When Rock'n Roll took over
The Big Band era came quickly to a halt
And ended it's popular exposure
Don't even know what is popular today
Or even if they've given it a name
Guess I'm just an old guy living in the past
Progress is the name of the game
I spent this morning walking around my old, small town.
Very little has changed in the last twenty-five years.
I was flooded with memories of both smiles and frowns.
Vivid childhood thoughts of both happiness and tears.
Whenever I feel like a piece of me is missing,
I try to remember others from throughout my life.
Someone like Bob, who knows his life was a true blessing
Having been married for sixty-six years to his wife.
She passed away a little over a year ago
And he misses their long conversations at night.
Some were good and some were bad, so it just goes to show
A life spent communicating must be what is right.
So, as I sit here on the same bench I used back then,
With the same one board as its only missing piece,
I realize that the value of family and friends
Is what one should use to measure a life of peace.
There’s a guy in a church wearing three pairs of socks
Kneeling by the candles stealing coins from a box.
There’s a guy on TV wearing three diamond rings
Stealing from the faithful while a gospel group sings.
You can label a man, but I swear it just goes to show you,
Don’t care how far you fall, someone’s always a step below you.
So let’s sing through the lonely time,
Sing the chorus to a nursery rhyme,
Let’s sing while the church bells chime
All the way, all the way home.
There’s a hush running deep through the wintertime woods;
Gotta cup your ear to hear the oughts and the shoulds.
There’s a nail through a board and it’s covered in snow
Lying on the trail between the stop and the go.
It’s the same song and dance, for I swear there’s a strong connection,
You can follow the signs and be led in the wrong direction.
But let’s sing when we feel distress
As we wander through the wilderness.
Let’s sing more and grumble less,
All the way, all the way home.
Lets sing of little joys that bring us happiness
All the way, all the way home.
Jenny Crow sobbed so hard, it really wasn’t fair,
Her new best friend Julie Thistle told her ‘you have rotten hair’.
Julie’s hair was blonde you see, Jenny’s was bright red,
So, Jenny told her mother good, ‘I want mine blonde instead’.
‘Don’t be silly’ her mum replied, ‘your hair looks fine to me,
I’ll have a word with Julie’s mum, sometime after tea’.
‘Hello, it’s me’ said Jenny’s mum ‘now what’s this all about?
Your daughter’s upset mine, of that there is no doubt!’
She listened really hard saying yes and no and oh!
Then turned around to Jenny saying, ‘well it just goes to show!’
It seems that Julie’s hair was never ever blonde,
She’d dyed it blonde, simply because, of red she wasn’t fond.
In Time Of Cancer
It was a mark on the screen
That came as a letter
That no one asked to be delivered
It came as room service.
It just goes to show
How lethal the news can be.
How many more sick mornings?
How many more sick afternoons?
How many more sick late nights?
Hey pal if the disease don’t kill you
Then the cure most surely will.
Why must I wear this disease
Like a hairshirt
For a sin whose name I will
Never know
And whose fibres I spit out in a tissue?
2
And what of the yellow sick mornings?
Yellowed like old news papers
On the floor,
Only less easy to ignore.
I knew I was a live
When I sat in the bathroom down the hall
From our room
Sometimes waiting for rude knock at the door.
But we are not there anymore.
Should I wait at Potter’s Field for another rude knock?
A nail being hammered into cheap pine
For a box marked with a nameless social security number?
But I wanted to be cremated.
The die have been cast
The cards have been played
I can't reconcile
Decisions I've made
Made out of love
And not out of spite
I won't say I'm sorry
Though I'm feeling contrite
When you were young
I was a god
As you grew older
I was just odd
It just goes to show
What a difference time makes
Your perspective on life
And the wisdom it takes
Just be objective
When considering the facts
Don't judge me too harshly
While grinding your axe
an original poem By "poemdog" Daniel Turner
for all of those times I said" No" and you didn't understand
Poem or Prose
Is it poetry or is it prose
which is which do you supose
for that i do not never know
but it just goes to show
that if its prose or poetry
or whatever, we have got
i am told that one doth rhyme
and the other dost not
all we know is what we like
whether it rhymes or not
and we just dont give a jot
irony
Poem or Prose
Is it poetry or is it prose
which is which do you supose
for that i do not never know
but it just goes to show
that if its prose or poetry
or whatever, we have got
i am told that one doth rhyme
and the other dost not
all we know is what we like
whether it rhymes or not
and we just dont give a jot
irony
Always thought I was in pretty good shape
For a dude of seventy-nine
Until I met up with the basement stairs
Challenged them 9 or 10 times
They won the battle, oh they surely did win
Lifting stuff was damn well easy
But lifting this bod up and down the stairs
Made me a whole lot wheezy
At seventy-nine, guess I still can be proud
That I'm still quite able to bring it
In my younger years, thought I'd be all alone
Drooling and loosing it bit by bit
It just goes to show you if you've lived a good life
And you're healthy, no need to stop
Wake up with a dirty big grin on your kisser
Riding bucking broncos till you drop
© Jack Ellison 2015
Was just a young'un in the big band era
But it seems just like yesterday
Remember listening to Miller and Dorsey
Still love it right to this day
Miller's Modernaires, and Dorsey's Pied Pipers
With their smooth harmonic blend
Chattanooga Choo-Choo and The Trolley Song
Brought me so much pleasure no end
Guess I was influenced by my older sisters
Was not even ten at the time
It just goes to show the impact they had made
For those long ago days I still pine
It wasn't until Elvis debuted in fifty-six
When Rock'n Roll took over
The Big Band era came quickly to a halt
And ended it's popular exposure
Don't even know what is popular today
Or even if they've given it a name
Guess I'm just an old guy living in the past
Progress is the name of the game
© Jack Ellison 2014
The Rat
The rat sat on the ledge eating some cheese
I said to him " is it Camembert or Lancashire tell me please"
The rat replied "It is creamy and delightful and hits the right keys"
I said "do you play the piano" he said "with consummate ease"
He then had finished his meal and preened himself with his feet and his knees
Then he said "I am a master of the black and white notes passed down from the great Italian rat Vincenzo of Napoli's"
"Shall you play raindrops by Chopin it's my favourite" I said as I laughed and to tease
He said "Of course I will as I can see you are of virtue and I like you to certain degrees"
So I showed him the old piano as he composed himself to play Chopin in the key of C's
The rat was unbelievable and successful in completing the piece so I went to the fridge to find him some cheese
On my return he had gone and left a note saying "It just goes to show that not everything you think is true and you are now one of us who believes"
Everyone seems happy
Everyone loves to entertain
Everyone wants to be famous
But will you make it in this world
Pick Me Pick Me yea
im the best shot youve got
pick me pick me yea
Im nothing but a snob
A little entertainment on tv
Where you watch your kids die
The commercial reads
Need more volunteers to get shot
Pick Me Pick Me yea
Im the best shot youve got
pick me pick me yea
please select me im hot
"It just goes to show
that all we care about
is getting famous
nomatter what we have to do
we will do it
just to get noticed"
Pick Me Pick Me yea
Im the best shot youve got
pick me pick me yea
im being someone im not
Die die die die with me
because im famous now
Die die die die with me
because i want to be noticed
Pick Me Pick Me yea
Im the best shot youve got
pick me pick me yea
everyone is hollow
Pick me Pick me Yea
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