Long Recruits Poems

Three cousins played a “game’ of war
A map of Europe spread across the floor
No adults there to keep the score
As each of them wanted more and more

Three of four empires lay upon that map
As they...

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Fifty years, boy and man, I’ve been a Sooners fan;
And watched thousands of recruits try to make my Sooners Team.
Often, I’ve enviously wondered what it must be like
To be a touted Sooners recruit, living out...

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So I was feeling badly,
sad,
because I share our mutually complicit status
for my compatriot's difficult terrorizing
chronic stress disordering
time.
I too have been there,
lost there,
to a more moderate extent.
I just walked away.

I wish I had done more at...

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THE GREATEST GENERATION
by

JOHN M. ARRIBAS



Many Have Called Them the Greatest Generation
They Had Struggled and Survived, an Ugly Depression
It Was an Era of Hard Times and Simple Diversions
Like Bank Night, Singalongs  and Picnic Excursions
Band Concerts...

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Night one on the new river, the campfire is spirited
and the future appears hospitable,
everyone has their rations, everybody is resting their pride
for on an expedition epic to each man and for a republic as well
souls...

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The sky was never the 
limit for those who sook 
to defy the norm. They 
soar to the highest 
heavens like eagles and 
become one with the 
storm. The staffless 
Moses of the black 
parliament...

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Do not be deceived, Hamas:  God cannot be mocked. Galatians 6:7.
The one who sows according to his sinful nature, from that nature will
reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit will reap
eternal...

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"Cry Ugly"

My deepest private searing pain manifests as "Cry Ugly.”

Guttural moans race like a runaway train. The wail crescendos and peaks as a Banshee scream.

Tears race down my face… my nose leaks... snot and tears...

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Peaceful are the water lilies in flower
The ripples of contentment belong to the fish
and quiet is the grass that has healed this scene.
Lone tree crater is a ghost from the past
and it is here where...

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A Dragon Squirrel Brigade

Dragon got home from the Army, wanting to be totally, in control.
He wanted to be a Drill Sergeant, to teach the recruits, to be bold.
He gave them all a blankie, and a...

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From sagging huts up in the hills, 
We watched the tourists flash their bills. 
They piled our harvest on their plates, 
While soup and scraps were all we ate. 

The flames lick up from garbage...

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Players So Short

Even if my players are still so short,
Can count on God when on the court;
Defend and depend,
Until very end;
Trough trials and tribulations did support.

Jim Horn

Will Believe and Receive
.
Remember when in God we always...

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Cast Down



I am a young girl with a delicate mind

to be molded,

Sitting in the front row with a pressed sundress 

and hands in dainty white gloves gently folded.  



My society is a cast system...

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I don't remember when I looked up and heard a seagull's cries
I don't remember the line of gold of my first sunrise
I don't remember the time at Fire Island when Mom carried me to the...

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Clearing Out Old Growth
 
Last week I cleared some old growth, ‘parting’ (1) planted in my yard,
An Avocado tree you’d grown from ‘pit’ of eaten fruit.
Tree’s color for your living space! But pots do limit...

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H-E-L-P!!!     N-e-e-d     s-o-m-e      b-o-d-y!!!...
Spouse booby trapped husband!!!

Homicide courtesy munch
house zen by proxy
immediately suspected hunch
police, K9 corps, and ambulance
nearly lost their lunch crossing...

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When I was a little girl
My grandfather had a tin
With a sailor smoking a cigarette on the lid
It was what he kept his medals in

He called them Pip, Squeak and Wilfred
And I asked him what...

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We had breakfast on the Champs-Élysées this morning at Café Joyeux. Their croquet monsieur (a breakfast sandwich) was to die for - one bite can cure a hangover. They also serve a deep, rich Yirgacheffee...

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He once stood at the top of the line
Watching  the sun creeping out from behind
Hew wals with courage in his boot, and he just
Know how to shoot, he did everything
Perfectly well and he was...

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In 1914 Billy Sing heard the rallying bugle's call 
Our last man and shilling it will be our country's all
They needed more recruits and wanted them all true blue
But he had a Chinese father's blood...

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TROPICAL  SUMMER 
                               ...

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The thrust of salvation's revelation;
Straight from the buckle of the Bible Belt -
Crusading on a plan of what they felt:
"The World for Christ in One Generation."

Their causes - all so specious and remote:
Ban dance and...

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He had a way with words,
An avuncular style,
A throaty little laugh, 
A world embracing smile.
He didn’t suffer fools gladly,
He thought that I was thick 
But not too bad really for
A Yorkshire country hick.
He came into...

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Sergeant Major O'Malley, Seventh Cavalry, had served nigh on three decades.
He rose through the ranks havin' served in squads, companies and brigades.
Second lieutenants were nuisances and he treated them as if they didn't exist!
He took...

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The trainings and drills were rigorous,
Most of the recruits came out victorious.
The khaki, boot, helmet and rifle were given,
Soldiers. Ready to defend the country for a reason,
With their fists and guns - they believe to...

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