after the rain, wildflowers bend like
wilted men wrapped in age and bliss
fragments of longing and belonging
in wet that sustains a warming world
to bring elation with green fields
in a mission of beauty
daisies poke through tall grasses
picketing the field with star shaped heads
and yellow centre discs
that make the world manageable to hold
gadflies of growth
with white petals plucked by
wooing hands to know
the alignment of love
greenery with life within
overstuffed
drenched hazy
a tangle of vegetation
all of it deflecting woe like voices in a chorus
finding one's self in the mix
June 2023
Categories:
picketing, beauty, earth, environment, flower,
Form: Free verse
A PATHWAY TO THE ROAD
My neighbor made his own shovel and let me borrow it. My driveway looks like the precipice from which the Grinch sleighed down into Whoville! Perhaps an exaggeration, but I haven’t shoveled this much snow ever. I heard we usually get an average of two inches a year. The ruler measured eight from this one storm.
a homemade shovel
digs through snow and ice
picketing hard work
12/11/2017
Categories:
picketing, weather,
Form: Haibun
The Pastor’s Epiphany
By Elton Camp
(A note of explanation for readers outside the USA:
The Westboro Baptist Church is a single, tiny group
known for picketing funerals and carrying signs that
are offensive even to those who may also feel that
gay practices are contrary to the Divine will. This
write is against in-your-face religious fanaticism,
not a defense of gay practices.)
The WBC pastor to dire reality awoke
Looking in a mirror, he nearly did choke
For it was old and gray he had grown
Only for extreme hatred was he known
“God is love” the Scriptures say
But he forgot to behave that way
For the way his ministry went
No sinner would likely repent
His hateful doctrine wasn’t right
His “god” is filled with all spite
It was always Rev’s delight to tell
Gays will go to his version of hell
In torture he took fiendish delight
Rejoicing in the sinner’s plight
The pastor’s remaining days are few
His hateful ministry will he rue?
When on his death bed he lies
Who will hear his fearful cries?
Will angry pickets at his funeral appear
With signs, “Beware what happened here”
Categories:
picketing, angst,
Form: Rhyme
Westboro Baptist Church Honored
By Elton Camp
National Unity Today Society awarded a prize
For the greatest service in refuting public lies
“Westboro Baptist has pulled the veil away,
The cause of all mankind’s ills to betray.”
Or so that worthy Society has decreed
As it issued a trophy & wished godspeed
Engraved on it, “So Will It Now Endure”
Meaning picketing funerals is the cure
The reverend, on the church altar placed
As his glowering congregation he faced
“This fine award will go very far
In showing the public what we are.”
“Amen, amen!” the flock did yell
“All but us are going right to hell.”
Categories:
picketing, satire,
Form: Rhyme
Do you vote your mind
Or court your heart
Acquitting party faithful
Whose lies never grow apart
Do you vote for choice
Or for political extortion
Condemning any candidate
Who decries abortion
Do you vote for jobs
Or rally against illegitimate wars
Picketing the freedoms
Of meat-eating, capitalist stores
Do you vote for education
Or for your ideological slant
Burning a child’s future
For an author’s utopian rant
Do you vote for tolerance
Or against an intangible God
Eschewing the zealotry
Of the Marquis de Sade
Do you vote for security
Or against the rule of law
Extolling revolution
Because government has flaws
Do you vote for independence
Or draw your party’s line
Gerrymandering objectivity
For rancor’s incestuous design
Do you vote for healthcare
Or how much you make
Insuring the suffering of patients
Whom doctors won’t take
Do you love America
Or simply love to hate
Voting for the integrity
Of our democratic state
Categories:
picketing, introspection, life, philosophy, social,
Form: Dramatic Monologue