PIECE BY PIECE
All the pieces
Will come forth
Piece by piece
Gradually will come to force
According to plan.
First sit down
Lay down the plan
Set the time for motion
Time to end also imagined
And the test of time
Is synchronization with foundation.
The structure reinforce
Cost estimate is indispensable
Budget accounted for
Operation and manpower disposed
As schedule and in full blast.
Outcome…
Beauty and stability
Appreciated and loved
Owner/proprietor satisfied
And customers will come invest.
All the pieces
Will come to play again
Even in matters of the heart
Affection interweave with sincerity
Of both, the couple as one
Playing together a single music attuned.
We worked our fingers to the bone.
From dawn to dusk till the day is done.
Work on the farm it never ends.
There's never time to play with friends.
When we'd come home from school each day.
Off to the barn no time to play.
Cows wait for us to give them feed.
Dad's in the field he's planting seeds.
After their fed it's milking time.
The cows are in their milking prime.
Once their milked and ready for bed.
Then we can go in and now get fed.
Then it's time for us to sleep.
That's only part of the life we keep.
I have a few minutes and no more
To read some poems right now.
I grab some coffee and peruse
As many as I can allow.
I’ve had my fix and so I’m off
For the duties of the day.
I dare not sign in and comment.
Too much time will get away.
Some times there is a poem
Of which I can’t make sense.
I cannot write about it,
Because I am too dense.
Once in a while, one makes me blush.
My mama would be shocked.
It surely is not so bad to others
Or else it would be blocked.
So I don’t comment on it
And am swiftly on my way.
I take time to answer others
And always mean what I say.
I never rate less than seven.
So if you hear from me.
You can be sure that I enjoyed it
And will want some more to see.
So this is my entry, Hgarvey Esquire,
I hope it catches your eye.
But if it’s not what you desire,
It’s okay…. just pass it by.
For Commments vs View contest Won No. 2
(My thoughts about doing the project without getting the credit)
Without grandiosely postulating
I will offer my opinion.
I don't know whom you're quoting,
I presume he's not a minion.
For he's not the one, I'm thinking
who is doing all the work
just for the love of working
while the credit seeker shirks.
Do the work because you're proud of
doing such a peerless job.
The irony in those cunning words
would make a lawyer sob.
The Lords and Earls took all the gain
while the serfs and vassals strove.
They were thrown a larger slice of bread
and told they worked for love.
Slave labor built the pyramids
and so many things since then.
All of the credit for their work
was assigned to lesser men.
The sneaks have used that line before
up past the time of rockets.
They gladly take the backslaps while
they're filling up their pocets.
It's time we had a turn around
and recongize the shirks.
Any credit that is given
should go to the man who works.
6th place
Once upon a time ago
Lived a man named Vincent Van Gogh.
His style of painting vexed a few
With importunities anew:
His long broad strokes and use of light
Bright yellows, mauve were his delight
Blues and oranges caught the eye
Contrasting when placed side by side
For all the beauty he expressed
It left him poor and dispossessed.
Life seems to fault the advent man
It’s been that way since time began.
Deceased his work has now become
Treasures in Louvre museum.
The Girls in Steno, 1970
When it’s break time
the girls all walk together,
cigarette-protector cases
clasped between their index
tapers and their thumbs.
On each girl’s fingers glow
iridescent lacquers.
When break time nears,
they peek at each other,
twinkle, giggle, nod.
When break time comes,
a bell rings and the girls rise
like Lazarus. High on heels
they click in couples down the hall
to fill an elevator.
They get off at One. There
they float across the cafeteria,
men everywhere,
eyes everywhere.
(Is he the one?)
When a new girl’s hired
the old girls
put her to the test:
Will she join them
for the coffee break?
If she does, she joins them forever,
even after she marries,
retires or expires.
Donal Mahoney