The Higgins Boat
gray-green heaving seas
men retching and gagging
oh Lord don’t let me die
Jesus let me live to go home
rancid smell of sweat and urine
putrid scent of soiled pants
could I make it
could I survive
will I do my duty
salt spray crashing into the boat
sobs for mother
muffled explosions like thunder
coxsun counting down
destination Omaha
the steel ramp opens
Categories:
omaha, war,
Form: Free verse
The world keeps turning,
The sun keeps rising,
Cold wind blows from over the horizon,
Blows across the planet to smite me.
Getting dressed this a.m. in the boreal dark
I heard an AM station from Chicago---
Driving to work in the arctic morning
I listened to a song about Brooklyn---
After another fight with her last night,
A fight whose icy silent echoes shadow me yet,
I look out a half blinded window
At a sky whose shade of blue there is no word for
And despair
Categories:
omaha, sorrow,
Form: Free verse
Saturday I was invited to Ellie’s Omaha game
Even though I lost I’m glad I came!
The group of 10 were lots of fun
Especially when Jerry’s yarns were spun!
“Big O” it’s called and it can drive you nuts!
In order to win you’ve gotta have guts!
I’ll play again cause I’m “sick” like the rest
For every time we play we’re put to the test!
Categories:
omaha, fun, games, people,
Form: Rhyme
Lost in a card game
that others would pass
I feel the time slowing
while covering fast
A dim all-night roadhouse
blue plate of regret
whose neon but flickers
my hunger to bet
A pot full of memory
has come unannounced
with bare knuckled waging
I raise every doubt
But the road’s calling silent
its direction unclear
my thumb pointing inward
to ante the fear
The odds long but taken
to gamble and run
my fortune extended
and past rebegun
A graveyard sits lonely
on the side of a hill
awaiting those fated
last dealer to kill
A light in the distance…
the ‘Omaha Gate’
it’s twelve minutes early
tomorrow is late
Asleep in the boxcar
alone with myself
the questions keep playing
—one ace left undealt
(Sinking Springs Diner: December, 2021)
Categories:
omaha, faith, fear,
Form: Rhyme
Oh! Omaha what with your Woodman Tower
Not covered what it's higher First National Bank
As the mighty Mo!
Missouri River separates Nebraska and Iowa
Two strong mighty buildings that towers
That touch just below the clouds floor
Oh! Nebraska's biggest metropolitan City
12/13/21
Written by James Edward Lee Sr © 2021
Categories:
omaha, analogy, city, community,
Form: Light Verse
November 20th 2021st
Walgreen’s parking lot, Omaha Nebraska
7:30 p.m.
Police in cars have stopped pursuing Gang Member A aka GMA.
A young woman’s car door gets pulled open.
GMA yells “Get the F……. out!”
She thinks he is joking.
He grabs her and throws her out of the car.
It is HER car.
Her purse.
Her stuff.
She is young, and upset.
She jumps back in, on his lap, trying to get her keys.
He tosses her back out and runs over her driving foot.
Breaking it in sixteen places.
She is barely eighteen.
A senior in high school.
Young and helplessly naïve.
A police helicopter which had continued pursuit of GMA captured this on video.
The entire episode recorded for the watching.
I would have not run across this tale if it had not been my granddaughter.
But it was.
She had a two hour surgery today.
Morphine is the only thing that gives her relief.
I did not think it was possible to hate a person I have never met.
But at this moment
I despise Gang Member A.
Categories:
omaha, granddaughter,
Form: Narrative
OMAHA
Peaceful solitude, stoic patriots share.
Pure white rows atop lush lawns of virgin green.
Guards of Omaha at Colleville sur Mer
Young souls bartered when feckless old minds convene.
Wresting just liberty for lifetimes to be
Brave hearts manned the boats for fate destined to share.
Glory would leap from tales when all were set free.
Six miles of Hell awaited those who would dare.
Such calm from peace so horrifically won.
Tranquil sands refined with purifying blood.
These lifeless life stories laid low now as one
Ne'er again to campaign through fields or a flood.
Questions remain to concede all that was lost
What truly was gained for a Star or a Cross?
05/15/2021
Categories:
omaha, courage, fate, war,
Form: Sonnet
V I V E R E N T strip malls
Morphing into
T O M O R R O W ' S
V A C A N T parking lots.
Silent and neglected
F O R E V E R
protected,
By a weeping
S K Y-D A N C E R-J E S U S
who's shadow E V A P O R A T E S
on cracked asphalt,
Littered with faded H E A D L I N E S
from the forgotten
Omaha S U N.
Categories:
omaha, cool, culture, deep, eulogy,
Form: Free verse