Long Eighth grade Poems

“Son”...”say goodnight to grandpa”

Spurred by mother dearest 
as well as other politesse
drummed into her second born
fobbing blandishments as incentive
tumbled off fingers of prodigal son
tripped wordsmith to splutter forth
forthwith the following lines.

Back in the day 
quaint...

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Where art thou anonymous benefactor...to offer me succor?

Ah... methinks legal tender 
could be a boon to help me bolster 
mein kampf with necessary material equipage,
which prospect to acquire essential 
commodities sabotaged 
at the altar of...

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Back in Eighth Graded Class
of StraightWhiteMale English privilege
I learned all healthy narratives
must have at least one
of three tension intentions

Unlike sacred mythic prayer and fable 
multicultures invoking poetry 
flowing soulfully 
provoking gospel primal anthems

Of StraightWhite Man...

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In 1920, my father, 16, was a guest of the British government. He was a prisoner of their forces occupying Ireland at the time, a group called the Black and Tans.

One day he and seven...

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_____Daddy Saved These______

It has been many moons since my 
Father passed.
Then came that day, I unearthed 
these lovely treasures Daddy had 
saved.

My very first pair of knitted
pink and white booties.
Add a first pair of soft,white
high...

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Her name was Sharon

                               ...

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Life is a beauty
From the day a baby starts
Everyone who knows about them 
Keeps them in their hearts
And when a baby’s born
There are tears of joy,
From the mother and the father,
And their little girls and...

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Where art thou anonymous benefactor...to offer me succor?

Castaway stranded on figurative 
deserted island pitted with absolute 
zero salvation, sole recourse 
finds scant consolation with prayer 
lifetime atheist draws futile faith 
within himself grudgingly accepting

feeble accomplishments...

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They say that advertisers when advertising should keep the advertisement
at an eighth grade level. Without out sounding cruel I will try to do this for 
those of us that are still sleeping, that are not...

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My Seasons of Change 

1. All the world’s a sky of faded virtue, 

2. Though major events have shaped my life,  

3. they are constantly replaced with new memories, most soon to be forgotten....

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What are some things you learned
along life's way
better before you went to school
as compared to after?

Oh, you mean like love
of cooperative natural-spiritual learning
rather than
mistrusting ego's essential competitive nature,
divorced from cooperative spirit,
required to out-perform my siblings
and...

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Paternal grandmother's headstone - Beth David, Elmont, Long Island

Shaindel (Sadie), variant of Shana Harris
died May 13th, 1959 exquisitely chiseled
alphanumeric characters legibly engraved
sepulchral casket entombing lovely bones
deoxyribonucleic acid repurposed into me
Matthew Scott Harris patronymic protector,
when I...

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Employed by Boeing before I retired
An engineer, then into management
I had good writing skills, as were required
When I wrote, you could tell what was meant

Poetry wasn’t of interest to me
For the first seventy five years...

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It was kind of nice having money all the
		Time.
	Looking back when I was seventeen,
		I looked forward to going to work.
	It is unlike what I feel about work now.
		I did a lot of reading as a...

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I was 13 and in love,in eighth grade and so very lost.
My family saw a prodigy a girl,whom they didn't want
In hopes they wanted a boy
The scars I made ran deep inside.
Through my thinning blood...

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"You showed me the courage and strength
      to achieve all things- I hope you are proud."
              ...

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My soul has been cut by a spiritual blade.
Out of control and I only finished the eighth grade.
I've walked the dark path and so many mistakes made.
I heard the devil's wicked laugh but I wasn't...

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I hear once more the lyrics of this song I'm listening to-
a gentle blast from my very youthful past,
and I am back in middle school,
an attractive skinny girl 
despite the horn rimmed glasses
which have gotten...

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I met a man the other day
I think he thought he knew me
He heard me speaking with a friend
He said "Hey, are you from Kentucky?"
Well, I'm from West Virginia
He obviously doesn't know me

He grinned and...

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1960 and the world was changing
A time for living and rearranging
Baseball in the school yard with a sponge ball and a fist
Donnie Brooks sang Mission Bell and Chubby did The Twist
Bobbie sox and ponytails, school...

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I Wonder if He Wore a Fedora

He passed a few months ago.
I looked through a few pics
of him when he was young.

He grew up in the depression,
so there weren’t many.
Black and whites, no dates.
None of...

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Dedicated to my teacher, who has helped me more than she'll ever 
know

When the world denies your hard work 
Refusing your wisdom in years,
Please, just remember what I’m saying,
Please don’t cry any tears. 
People will...

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I remember in kindergarten,
I and a few friends were put on the yellow light,
the light of shame, for playing tic-tac-toe on the Spanish room tables.
oh shame, shame, shame...
In first grade, I miss that teacher, Zoellner...

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I've been going back
in time for just a bit
Thinking back on my life
those times I had no wit
Being in the eighth grade
I remember all so well
The time I was given a dare
ten minutes before the...

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FRUIT FOR DAD’S LABOR

He did not get through school, I’m told, before he left eighth grade,
And yet there were some people he on life’s impression made.
I never thought I’d meet just one who made announcement...

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