Who would videotape themselves on U-tube?
I felt they must be conceited, pompous, or arrogant.
But then the Pandemic hit, and she hit our area hard.
The Kansas City schools shut down from March 12th to March 11th.
For one whole year we were online.
We teachers learned to be flexible and willing to learn new apps.
I taught myself Google, Zoom and U-tube.
Today I have my own U-tube channel with my lessons.
I never thought that would happen.
Never ever.
Suddenly I opened up to the idea of U-tube.
It is more interesting than I had ever guessed.
I now know how to draw a Star Wars Storm Trooper
And my granddaughter knows how to crochet a strawberry.
We can both thank U-tube.
Here is my first spoonful of banana for the day.
Oh, no!
Sherry is posting videos of her daily antics again.
Here is my spoon, heading toward my mouth.
She drops mashed banana out of the spoon and laughs.
Here is Tom, my orderly, heading toward MEEEEEE!
There is a scream.
The live stream video shows her feet
They are kicking, and she is yelling.
The video stops.
I wish now I had not taught her how to videotape
Two days before she was committed.
In money we believe.
In superstition we trust.
Fill the offering basket
And present yourself for duty.
Preach fire to your Facebook choir
And get your social media fix
With sacramental podcasts and tweets
From the pantheon of agitprop.
Videotape your obsessions
For anonymous voyeurs’ delight.
Let Tik Tok compel your attention
As your mind fills the void it deserves.
Arouse your conspiracy’s fervor
On the way to gaining likes and shares,
While the women and the children
Fall in on the refugee trail.
Soon your ego’s grown bloated
Like those dead army mules
Lying by the side of the road
In a war correspondent’s photo.
If your house gets egged
On the first day of war,
You can expect that escalation
Is just a hand grenade away.
A rabbit an elk and a snowman walked into a bar.
I stared at this neonate.
Did eight month olds talk?
No wait. He is nine months old right?
I check the calendar.
Nine months going on ten.
My first time at babysitting him.
The bartender says.
I run to get a pencil to write this down.
He gurgles at me.
Loud gas bubble pops
I get out my phone to videotape him.
Go ahead, I say.
The door opens. His parents have returned.
His mouth slams shut.
Loud giggle.
You are diabolical I say.
A bad baby.
He laughs himself silly.
My love affair began - as I recall -
when mother read to me. What golden times!
Enchanting fairy tales and nursery rhymes
had planted fancy’s seeds when I was small.
Then through my youth, I’d almost daily spend
the time, my nose inside a fiction book.
To find me, someone only had to look
inside my room. I’d be there with a friend.. .
Yes, every book I’ve loved, a friend -the best!
Yet others came along to steal my heart -
Romantic “West Side Story” was the start.
And after “Spartacus,” I was obsessed!
Movies on TV, then videotape
Then DVR - to feed my passion’s sin.
I do not tire of films time and again.
And now there's Netflix for each great escape!
It’s in great stories that my passion lies -
in novels and in movies on a screen;
My hobby's getting lost inside a scene
read in a book or played before my eyes!
Feb. 10, 2019 for Julie Leigh Rodeheaver's Hobbies Poetry Contest
everyone is so afraid
and they hold it in like a broken music box
like a damaged videotape
and a telescope that sees beyond skin
is lost in the garbage pile at the end of the
Bermuda triangle wormhole
like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
like a diamond in the rough
chase me like i'm just bent light
like i'm a complex assemblage of colors
created by some unknown material;
mind-bent and deranged and unsound
but you can try to find the screams
that only echo within sound-proof walls
and bounce around erratically in a graphically patterned place
covert and masked by shadows
you don't need your collection of lighters anymore
from all the states you've been
'cause i've been everywhere
i'm everything that you are
and everything you aren't
i'm a cracked kaleidospoe
and you're a telescope that sees beyond skin
that won't see the crack
just the face broken into many in order to deceive
but there's really just one
so don't get lost
Zillion youths x-rayed when videotape unravel
the security risk, questioning people’s obligation ,
not many leaders know juvenile involvement
hoist great fellows ,excluding dangerous criminals
being adjudged .
"You know the saying what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I got stronger spiritually when the spirit called me to the altar, then I closed my eyes and saw how God rolled his eyes when he looked down at this place called earth, life is as precious as a diamond but many don't know it's worth, in a world where many would record and videotape a helpless woman or man, than give either of them a helping hand, we must take a stand, ya see I view the brain as a weapon and....the ammunition comes from the freedom of speech most refuse to use, and misuse it too, the opposition will always remains resolute, but we as a people must tweak the loop and speak the truth, be thankful for what you got now.....and make your enemies sick with that God smile, searching for an abundance of love no such thing is too soon, but that very idea is more rare than every blue moon!"
The Pirates
Pirates were around in the 16th century, they flew the
Jolly Roger/Scull & Crossbones and would loot and pillage
Ships at sea, for their rich cargo and gold doubloons
Over the years they have moved to land in guises as
Highwaymen and bushrangers, outlaws that steal money
As well as gold and defy the law. In modern times the
Pirate has become an even bigger threat to the film and
Music industry by bootlegging copies on videotape and
Disks, robbing performers and actors of their rightful
Royalties. Now in the days of the Internet, the pirate or
Modern day version known as a scammer, creates
All sorts of evil ways to attain money on hoax activities
Dating sites and social networking even through networks
With items for sale. Yes hoaxes and scams make up about
Seventy percent of Internet activities, which goes
Unpoliced, with people losing large ammounts of money
To these unscroupulous people every day. Can they be
Stopped? The answer is a mystery, as the world is losing
It's innocence to unstoppable theives we call pirates.
It’s in great stories that my passion lies -
in novels and in movies on a screen;
a tantalizing tale, a thrilling scene
read in a book or played before my eyes!
My love affair began - as I recall -
when mother read to me. What golden times!
Enchanting fairy tales and nursery rhymes
had planted fancy’s seeds when I was small.
Then through my youth, I’d almost daily spend
hours, my nose inside a fiction book.
To find me, someone only had to look
inside my room. I’d be there with a friend.. .
Yes, every book I’ve loved, a friend -the best!
Yet others came along to steal my heart -
Romantic “West Side Story” was the start.
And after “Spartacus,” I was obsessed!
First, films and TV shows; then videotape.
Now DVR - to feed my passion’s sin.
I lose myself in them time and again.
Great stories are my marvelous escape!
For Linda-Marie's "Passion Pit"
Surrounding myself with a wall of silence
Breathing seems pointless when having
A heart
Torn apart
That is punctured
Dreams fill my head but
Crushed
By a sudden force of sadness
Keeps me from success
It came from nowhere
A life filled with tears
A nonexistent happiness
Smacks me
I can’t break free
Help seems hopeless for me
Everything I do
Seems like a disappointment
No escape
A videotape
That can’t rewind
I just want to end it now
Hiding from reality
Dodging the factuality
That not speaking up doesn't make the situation go away
The mind knows well what the lips won't say
I'm running from the truth
Forbidden secrets, Forbidden Fruit
My past has become a wound that I can't mend
Just like I rember that time when...
Shhhsh. I'm not supposed to tell, no one is supposed to know
What goes on in the dark is never supposed to show
But it keeps playing over and over in my mind like a broken videotape
Everytime I press fast forward, someone else presses replay
I'm trying to hide from the truth
Forbidden secrets, Forbidden fruit
I don't chase the past the past chases me
I don't hold it in my grasp It holds on to me
And it eats away at the very thing that my lips won't say
The images, the actions, the words, the smell
The faint shalolow voice whispering don't tell
And I don't tell
Because
I'm hiding from reality
Dodging the factuality
That not speaking up doesn't make the situation go away
The mind knows well what the lips won't say
And that's forbidden secrets
-Lyric-