"There's a river meandering through the mind,"
older than the Englishmen who raised a bridge
over its Constitution, a nude Indian sped away
from a warring Englishman behind
absconding by canoe to an adjacent isle
but smallpox caught the indie afore ammunition
"There's a river meandering through the mind,"
that witnessed the grapes of wrath in '37
and suffered its wine, the black potential rebelled
against the clear minority who had signed
emancipation letters without intent
ergo, cars with bodies went flying upon the riparian spine
"There's a river meandering through the mind,"
leaning on treasonous city hearts, wrinkling under the trebled
degrees of island sun, chuffing at progressiveness
and how the colour schemes lightly redesigned
black power free, it seems, walks unfettered to its banks
carrying tackle, tiki-torches, tourists, a picnic, and gun
I live in every man's struggles.
I lose myself in the crowd;
Everyone has a story of loss,
Of a childhood that ended abruptly,
Transmogrified into juvenile gods,
Worshipping, genuflecting, reacting,
Pale with the anguish of bent backs.
And every man lives in me,
As I in him, today and yesterday;
Ancestors and inheritors, possessors,
Crossing oceans, discovering realms,
Absorbing losses, sensing kinship
In the spurting blood of the enemy,
Enemy men, who say goodbye forever
To the children and mothers left behind.
I see myself in every man, even the enemy;
In the war cry, the final guttural effort
To resist the pale-faced smallpox carrier.
Oliver Goldsmith wrote plays&verse when he could
though disfigured with smallpox in childhood
Best known for'Deserted Village'
a discursive poem for that age
Tables are Covid-full.
Some have had it. Some have it.
Some are carrying it.
Some are vaccinated. Others are not.
Masks are down because this is the cafeteria.
All are eating, conversing, putting droplets onto tables.
My mask is up. I am a lot older. I am trying not to get this.
Covid is up five hundred percent in two weeks where I live.
Some students have been quarantined.
A few have been quarantined twice.
Parents are phoning us, irritated their children have been sent home.
School nurses are depressed, ready to quit.
I watch it all in awe and amazement.
We eradicated the smallpox, measles and mumps.
Everybody got vaccinated.
People were more concerned about others than their “rights”.
New York City workers
Must be vaccinated or
If they show up for work, they will
Be firmly shown the door.
I’m heartened by this mandate
And especially in schools.
It’s time to bid farewell to all
The anti-vaxxer fools.
We’ve all been pricked for smallpox,
For measles and the mumps
And whooping cough and polio
(And sometimes on our rumps!)
So suck it up and take the shot,
Those missing jabs and swabs,
For you’ll be safer and, of course,
You’ll get to keep your jobs.
Smallpox and polio
Were they as intensely feared
As Covid and Delta?
SARS, ebola, and swine flu
What happened to them?
Are they still lurking around corners?
Remember when everyone was terrified of AIDS?
Remember when people took vaccines without balking?
Remember when we watched out for each other?
Covid 19 on the run now.
We're gonna have tons of fun now.
So long we've had to cope.
Now,finally there's hope.
So, let's not act like dopes.
VACCINATE!
The progress that has been happening.
It is because of the vaccine.
The vaccine is the way.
To see a brighter day.
Don't let it slip away.
VACCINATE!
Diphtheria-Smallpox-Measles-Pertussis.
Vaccines made them hardly exist.
Polio-Mumps-Rubella-Tetanus.
Let's put Covid on that list.
So,people let's be wise.
Yes,vaccines do save lives.
Do not believe the lies.
Please don't wait.
Don't hesitate.
VACCINATE!!
Why ? Is it I'm behind and when you're in debt
You're in the rears ?
When you're late you pay a fine,
it costs you patience monies and time
Credit deteriorating fathom gross abundance
Payments lost you are shot in the back
In the rear behind buttocks with penicillin
In the buttocks medicine can't stop smallpox
In the rears payment and debt
Your crimes your financial debts ends when you're Dead?
12/4/20
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2020
Fort Pueblo 1854, retaliation swift, no one was toying.
We rebels thought the British Empire annoying
Nonchalant agents ignored the plan with noncaring eyes.
It is a misnomer that the Europeans are the good guys.
We were the bad guys during the Indian Wars, totally unfair.
Giving smallpox laden blankets to the natives without care.
Making our friends our enemies, a move that was dire.
Making us less than people, a mean kind of fire.
In retaliation for the small pox deaths, White Earth led a raid.
He brought Apache and Utes in, to slay as if it were a parade.
They came to many a dwelling, and killed quite a few.
Dire displace of a woman and her sons, count of two.
Soldiers strengthen the fence of iron wires.
Border looks like a fair face, disfigured by
smallpox. Virus is still active. Infiltrators
crawl through the mist into India’s heart.
They are brave, but brainless.
A myriad of men waste their sweat in the
nearby militant camps, while wheat farms
lie locked with weeds. They harvest tears.
Machine-guns and mines can never sooth
stomachs. Both sides spend millions on
missiles, when many starve and struggle.
It’s midnight, yet guns roar again, sparks
of pain fall down.
This side loathes green, and the other side,
saffron. These are everybody’s colors. Alas!
Soldiers and citizens are conditioned.
I say, ‘I’m Indian.’ You say, ‘I’m Pakistani.’
When’ll we say, ‘We’re men?’
Stop production of widows and orphans;
invest in the infrastructure.
Remember, once we’re one. We’ve to share
and care again. We’ve to barter the unwanted
with the wanted. Life rusts in revenge and rivalry.
Pendle War Poetry Contest Winner (Overseas Category)
With head resembling a p-e-n-i-s
This mutant has its own genus
Just how it evolved
Has not yet been solved
But it’s named T-rumpus meanus
Author’s note: This monster is suitable for study and might be kept in a secure supercooled freezer. If it ever were released on civilization, the effect would be like that of smallpox. (The software removes certain words so dashes were required).
Do you ever think of getting into your RV and heading west and never looking back? I ask my friend.
Her life is a series of woes, and misbegottens, have-tos, and never-wases. Drama, at full tilt.
Every time I see her she has a flat tire, her mother is in the hospital, and someone in her family just died.
Yesterday her car broke down, and none of her free-loading relatives would bring her to work.
Which was okay as she had smallpox anyway.
This morning she showed me that she is missing her face, and her hair fell off.
High drama indeed for 7 a.m.
Do you ever think of getting into your RV and heading west? I ask her.
She smiled.
Every day, she said, and I would leave my phone here.
To vaccinate or not?
What about diseases we forgot?
Like polio, T.B and Smallpox?
Kids can't take peanuts to school, or not,
But they can bring Measles and Whooping Cough.
What other diseases have we forgot?
To vaccinate or not?
Silver Strands
Platinum it was, not a hint of gold
Silver tiara was grandma’s crown
Brushed over her head, to a bun rolled
She always refused to wear it down
It shone in the sun silvery bright
Her bun boasted a badge of honor
Holocaust survivor fled at night
Now in the free world as a senior
Nazi tattoos, numbers on her arm
Smallpox scars were evident too
But they never filled her with alarm
A lucky lass, she had made it through
A dark-haired teen had boarded a boat
Marrying a man she met at sea
Just their clothes, nothing else to tote
Seeking the Statue of Liberty
Each silver strand was born of worry
For family in Poland left behind
Her escape had been made in a hurry
In a brave quest for freedom to find
*Written for Susan and Andrea’s “Silver Strands” contest and inspired by my maternal grandmother’s escape to freedom
Although I was born and raised among German aristocracy,
I feel I have blended rather well with Russian nobility.
My name changed when I converted to Russian Orthodoxy.
I am now called Catherine. I was once known as Sophie.
Despite my mother being banished from the country,
Tsarina Elizabeth looks quite favorably upon me.
However, one major item exists where I must disagree.
Duke Peter of Holstein-Gottorp is matched up with me.
Since his aunt Tsarina Elizabeth called him to court,
he has been consistent with each unwitting retort.
This buffoon has alienated many as we have few friends.
Unfortunately, he will become tsar when Elizabeth’s life ends.
He is obnoxious, overbearing, and possesses the dullest mind.
Peter can only become a tsar of the worst kind.
Besides, he is ugly with all those scars from smallpox.
He has them on his face, arms, legs, and even his buttocks.
Peter is supposed to be the sovereign of the Russians.
However, he surrounds himself with Holsteins and Prussians.
I should dispose of this menace. There has to be a way.
I must rule Russia alone as a tsarina one day.
Catherine II (aka Catherine the Great) ruled Russia from 1762 to 1796.
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