Long Busses Poems

Note: This is the 2nd half of one of my MANY long story works, and the 1st half can be accessed, of course, at "poems by Mark Stellinga" on the soup.
My wife and I were...

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The summer is over but things are getting hotter
The summer is over and people are getting viler
The sky is overcast and the birds are flying around
It feels like a stranger has just entered the town.

Grey...

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Sitting on a rusted blue bench the sun blew down on me a cool 
     green and yellow as the afternoon tucked me into 
     bed, ...

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I struggle to recall at a ragged bus stop
Writing memories down on a brown paper bag.
The discarded pen I picked off of the weed grass serves
As a key to my past, the paper bag the...

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Oh captcha squares, oh captcha squares
What are these objects in your frames?
Oh captcha squares, oh captcha squares
Why must they gotta be the same?

    Cars and busses, traffic lights
    Bicycles...

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It was the morning of the 27th of March 1985.
Me a 14 year old girl, with hopes, dreams feeling so alive.
The day was as any school day would be to me and you.
Home time quarter...

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I count on angels. They speak to me.
Not in voices, but telepathically.
They do not leave me alone until I do certain things.
I know it is an angel due to their persistent tenacity.

Call Toni. I think...

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Incessant motion and constant innovation, 
Are the defining features of our modern generation,
The hustle and bustle that drives our economy,
Also help us avoid the ghost of monotony.

But even the great God of all the nations,
After...

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No Primus Inter Pares

Germans at the Costa Brava they just cannot yield
‘Brava’ the fight and they are conquering once more

Always the first on the beach or the striped deck chair but
The towel goes right up...

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Once, 
About ten minutes ago in the year 
2006 or 
2549, depending upon which avatar or
 Messiah is consulted, I  
 Tumbled out of my bed to the 
Untranslatable 
Predawn
 Cackle of 
Frantic voices
Descending.
...

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What If I fall today off the edge of life,
My blood too cold to flow,
My ears deaf to the sounds made by you who are alive,
My mind shut from knowing,
Frozen by deaths icey hands from...

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More than a vacation, a vocation
In the field of tranquility you
Search the Caribbean blue
Sensation or mental refuge

White sandy beaches wet
Peaches in drinks collect
Making the experience perfectly
Sweet, worthy as a bodily

Treat. Club nights, escapes
In lantern light...

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I walked past the shadow at midnight wondering if it is morning or day light, I look out the window to see what I could find but darkness rises above the hill and everything was...

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Busses, cars, and airplanes, time flies so fast
minutes accelerates through the dial, small things lost to the past.
The world’s fragile treasures beg to be seen in a slower light, 
simple things are fleeting indeed, when...

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I REMEMBER THE LITTLE GIRL

BMWs shine on the lot, row after row,
reflecting the blinding summer sun of Pinedale, California.
Their windows blink back stories of 4,792 Japanese Americans
interned on this same lot seventy-eight years ago.

I remember...

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There’s still a  Church and Chapel
A pub,  but no longer a school 
For there  on the council 
Childless incomers rule.
There are houses on  allotments,
Pastures where cows would graze
Have asphalt and concrete...

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Arggh me hearties! We're takin' a long-awaited vacation!
Th' enchantin' isles uv th' Caribbean is ar final destination!
Hoist th' Jolly Roger an' them billowin' sails an' let's git 'er underway!
Th' Spanish Main is ripe fer pillagin'...

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HEY, IT WAS ONLY A SEIZURE, THE GUY LIVED DIDN’T HE?

I understand those people who say “this is a wonderful land”
“oh my, it’s simply gracious, graceful and grand”
Those are usually the ones whose house is...

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People's eyes are not what they proclaim,  
if only they reflected their truest selves by being fair....
they certainly would offer charming smiles when they wink,
and nobody would keep from them or resist them...


On the...

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Getting Everybody on Board,
Is not always possible,
When boats need to cast off their moorings,
Planes need to clear the runway,
Trains need to stay on track,
Busses need to please more than one passenger,
And cars need to avoid...

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"Whoever in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth" Walter Raleigh's preface to his 1614 'History of the World'



We had all been told via...

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To the windows the students all go.
To get a closer look at the snow.
The teachers began shouting although
Santa fell down from the sky down below…

The school was in a frenzy from head to toe.
Santa was...

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There's a hole in the bucket dear Liza, dear Liza,
theres a hole in the bucket dear Liza, a hole,

then drive to Wal-mart dear Henry, dear Henry,
then drive to Wal-mart dear Henry, drive to Wal-mart,

misplaced our...

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The Beach

There was one spot upon the hill
where when the sun was just right,
and you got up real early, you could
see the ocean.  Just a glimpse of it
as the sun bounced its morning yawn
across...

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The morning sound of horror calls out to me
As my hand pushes all the buttons except the right one
Making the urgency to get up even stronger
The light of the new snow cast a glow on...

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