Short Chutes Poems

As the year was ending
A rain came washing through,
From opened chutes it poured
      and flowed
And from the wetness new
A different sameness starts....

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Red, orange and ochre…spill over into waterfalls of color

Sable, tan and umber…tumble into a silky symphony

Purple, wine, aubergine…cascade in chutes of amethyst fantasies

Russet, copper and rust…flood in flowing reveries of nature’s tears...

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Akerman spun to the left, then right,
His fighter spewing fire into the flight.
Headlong the bounding dash he flew
Face to face with bomber and her crew.
Out of control with blasted plastic, steel
The bomber fell, no chutes aglow
Against the phosphoresent night....

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Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly
   Candyland and Bingo
       One-two-three!

Risk and Careers and
   How about Charades?
Scrabble and Password
   Venerable Word Parades!

The youthful pursuits of
   An Innocent Age 
Eating Hostess Twinkies
   And drinking Kool-Aid!...

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The last time someone dropped into our pool,

it broke our concentration for crock school.

I didn’t join the food frenzy,

prefer Scots called Mackenzie.

So take this one mates, silk chutes bind my stool!


* For the “To Die for Limerick” contest. Hard to tell crock or gator from this magnification....

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Depression is like a game of Chutes and Ladders.
We climb and climb until our arms and legs are so numb and weak we can barely move. We want to give up but keep moving on. Until eventually we land on a chute falling all the way back to the bottom just to start over again and never quite make it to the finish line....

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Chicago, the South Side,
	    long before Barack Obama


those I'd love see live
anywhere they like
are those so black
they up long planks
in the heat of summer
wheelbarrow coal
so bright it pours
in a silver seiche
down chutes
through windows
of bungalow basements
crashing in coal bins 
of new masters


Donal Mahoney...

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Coal Bins

	Chicago, the South Side,
	long before Barak Obama

those I'd love see live
anywhere they like
are those so black
they up long planks
in the heat of summer
wheelbarrow coal
so bright it pours
in a silver seiche
down chutes
through windows
of bungalow basements
crashing in coal bins 
of new masters


Donal Mahoney...

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The outpour
spouts gently. My lone thoughts
drain bitterly as pearly chutes ebb

Soft patter 
of rapids flushes night
from angst. Though barren stream dives endless

And pierced rocks
lash at my lost chances.
The twirl of water eases love's blow

While I dive
into an evening's pool
like a rapid swollen by gray spills.


For nette onclaud
Manny Paras dated 10 30 2014...

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Ivy-covered sheepskin, firmly in hand
    the confident graduate, square-jawed and tan

  Pulled offers from prestigious start-ups all over the land
    a year later he played lead guitar, hat in hand

  He, ever-grateful to his folks for those music lessons
    They, bleary-eyed from all the therapy sessions

  Yet Patience will out, and Time always tells
    Perhaps by thirty-five he'll own an oil well...

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Though you slipped
from this earth 
so long ago
nigh on twenty years
 
I still feel you
here beside me
Hear your voice 
within my soul 

As I walk 
behind the back chutes
at the Sonoita Rodeo
your ghost elusive
follows me 

I guess it's true
what the old ones say
about gone but 
not forgotten 

For You're still here
in heart & spirit
every melody & tune
I dance in memory
with you

(c) September 2002...

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Au cœur de l’Afrique
Parlent les chutes d’eau
Comme les paroles de nos ancêtres.

Aux rythmes de nos tam-tam
T'els sont  les rythmes du songs,
Qui font chanter et danser la nature,

Aux pas de nos danses,
T'els sont les pas de danse de la nature
Qui font pousser les grains de chez nous,

Aux  goûts de ces grains
T'el est le goût du couscous
Qui fait notre joie et bonheur,

Ainsi parle la nature
Ainsi va la vie
Ainsi chante la nature....

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Children compromise easily and quickly
You swing first, I will push.
You get a drink, I’ll get a drink.
We’ll play Monopoly, then we’ll play Chutes and Ladders.
Adults have a more difficult time.

Is it because we pushed but never got pushed?
Our teacher made us go to recess before we got our drink?
After Monopoly, we did not feel like playing another board game?
Our experiences may have made compromise more difficult.
Still, it is not impossible, right?...

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Paratroopers stealthily slide unnoticed,
chutes deployed, small blazes of white obscured by
fog that lingers lazily, til their numbers
    cover the meadow…

Faster, faster, not just content to cover,
reinforcements filling in, words unspoken,
synchronized with perfect precision, ever
    picking up tempo…

Occupation utterly overwhelming,
swamped defenses, raising a flag, surrender.
Long, the arm of conquering winter, brings a
    lengthening shadow…...

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The pandemic has changed how we think.
We cannot touch hands without consequences.
We cannot do hand up, pair up, share up at school.
We cannot play duck duck goose or ring around the rosie
Or London Bridge or any of the normal games.
We cannot play chess or Chinese checkers or Chutes and Ladders
We would be so busy sanitizing the pieces, we would not get a turn.
I am tired of our kids “not getting a turn”. 
Why can’t people do what they need to do
So we can safely return to normal?...

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