There's another man my age
On the other side of town.
He's got my face, my exact face.
Our back accounts are different.
For all I can tell, his car is nice.
Married, big happy family.
His jokes are the same as my jokes.
I saw him at a cafe yesterday.
I was sitting with my daughter.
He was sitting with his son.
For a moment we made eye contact.
He laughed through it
Pitching his head back,
Sustaining the contact with me,
His doppelganger.
Then back to his son,
Then me back to my daughter.
Yesterday I watched him get on a plane to Wichita,
Hugging good-bye to his wife and kids at the gate.
There goes my face, I thought, off to Kansas.
Doors closed as the plane taxied away
And his sad family meandered.
"Daddy!" yelled his youngest
Spotting me behind the fern
50 ft away in front of
Fern Gully's Gastropub.
Glenn Campbell sang of Wichita
Trini Lopez of Kansas City
Otis Redding crooned of Sausalito, CA
Sittin’ on the dock of a bay
Chicago was Sinatra’s kind of town
He belted out the refrain
Guthrie’s ‘City of New Orleans’
Turned out be an Illinois train
So why don’t they sing of Annapolis!
It rhymes with Minneapolis and Indianapolis
And fifty-four astronauts graduated the Naval Academy
~ Updating ‘Anchors Aweigh’ would gladden me
Seabull baste the coup de faste
Infectudo goncerotia gonzo
Ron done wrong and was corrected for it
Foresca fiesta frescoe fiskars deshthroes kiskstar
By Start Up bark slarm no harm done to a cherry tree
Wood freeze it ASAP keep it the cooler like Texas does
Drip Diamonds in flex fuel beef it up
Life ex[pands its expectancy
Drims sound cool up pull up pull off a coup or live miserable
Defective decendant A Bravis son
Don't Davis me saveth her ass for special occasion
Dip set throuh the Tip saw
The e·lic·it replenished diceptiva
Trek or ball inflate streamed in time
Coup de FeD Framas Grace fluent in the gruesome scene of a Frogman
Resital dial it quick Sentry's kept of dialpads
Weapons weekly I used my deceptive mind zone
Introspective friers as WASAP
Wichita sounds like Wise county
Gileads crosspath
I have written over 9,000 poems and am in the Top 10.
Obviously, I enjoy writting poetry. Was born in Portsmouth
Naval Hospital on June 26, 1941. Am the oldest of six
children. Was in the USAF Stationed at McConnell AFB,
Wichita, KS. Was a Labor Economist State of Kansas
October, 1970 to August 1976. Moved to Redmond, WA
and was a Unit Administrator for Washington Army
National Guard. Wife was a Certified NICU Nurse at
Evergreen Hospital and Medical Center and graduated
from Wesley School of Nursing, Wichita, KS. We both
retired and currently live in RiverSea Plantation,
Bolivia, NC. Moved here on May 8, 2006. Been here
longer than anyone else. Graduated from Wichita
State University. MA in Urban Affairs and BA in Sociology.
Find Father Farrell and Terrell
when over barrel
while incredible church is imperil
find (call) Father Farrell (Terrell)
Parish which we cherish would scream
when scalded with steam so it did see
when either having been suspectable to sterile
or fond of finding a pleasant parishioner
who has happened to ferociously find
that his friend was feral
which we knew would be infuriating
while humiliatingly absurd we have heard
Interesting. Old
priest in Wichita, KS
was Father Bob Terrell.
It’s a windy day in Kansas, much windier than most.
I was holding on to my pet as hard as I grab my toast.
I was frankly afraid that Mitzy my lion might blow away.
It was an incredible tornado-like Wichita, Kansas day!
I think he’s from Kansas the interested cat said.
Just because he’s dressed like a scarecrow? I guessed.
And didn’t you notice that his nose seems a tiny bit red?
Also, he told me he is from Wichita, my cousin confessed.
We hung a horse thief in Wichita
Meanest man anyone ever saw
He laughed just before we did the chore
Said from his grave he'd moan ever more
He said that he'd sit there on his stone
And the town could watch him turn to bone
And as they watched him turn slow to dust
He would watch them pay as pay they must
Well he was dead as the sun went down
On his way out of our little town
We drove all night in a hearse machine
Buried his carcass in Abilene
We hear that town has moaning at night
A ghost can be seen before daylight
They hear "You'll pay" in an eerie song
But they just shrug and move on along
9-23-19
Contest: Haunted
Sponsor: Tania Kitchin
Dedicated to a fine poet on soup Gershon Wolf.
In an old cowboy town in Wichita
Staying alive meant being quick on the draw
The Straws and Jones shoot out
Was bloody without doubt
All killed except one he was' The Last Straw'.
Written 18th July 2019.
Way back, we had a bicycle club
We put cards in the spokes for noise
In a town named Independence
But started by "Wichita" boys
Pat and Mike, the Adams brothers
Named after Irish born humor
Were thought to be influenced by that
Or at least, that was the rumor
Timmy was the first to marry
His wife could be sis to his ma
I don't know what to make of that
But I guess Freud would say, "Ah hah!"
Chris could hit anything with a rock
Amazing at such a long ways
We never ever, saw Chris miss
Not even on the holidays!
Our route always started the same
But one day there was a new view
Of a pretty nurse we called "Legs"
Going to work, I guess, who knew?
We told a new guy about "Legs"
We said, "No one can resist her!"
Well I guess, the joke was on us
It turned out to be his sister!
Later I had a very weird wreck
That would cause all my buddies to scoff
I was stung on the back of my neck
At the same time, my front wheel fell off!
Though my pride took quite a pounding
The bee sting only hurt a bit
I jumped up and dusted off quick
Just glad "Legs" wasn't there to see it!
Honeymoon At Dodge City
Our honeymoon were on first day;
Overnight in Dodge City did stay;
Supper digested;
Then we rested;
Headed to Colorado without delay.
Jim Horn
That was on Augusy 27th, 1966.
We started out in Wichita, KS.
Garden City is on other side of
Dodge City. They both ar on the
Arkansas River. Dodge City is
having voting problems.
Visitors came to Wichita
I was eight, my brother Mike five
Way across Kansas from Liberal
Mike later, was glad to survive!
I was surprised by Aunt Helen
She was quite heavy, I recall
Mike ended up sleeping with her
Or have nowhere to sleep at all!
In the morning he looked real tired
I asked, "Why are your eyes so red?"
He said, "Because I was fighting,"
"Rolling to her side of the bed!"
Across from Roosevelt Junior High
In Wichita circa 66
No Dairy Queen it was Peter Pan
Where the teenagers loved to mix
It was a "Hang out" or "Soda Shop"
The older kids would be "swappin spit"
I might get lucky and "bum a smoke"
But the dry ice was really it!
The man would give me the dry ice
I would "brown bag" it to the "big ditch",
(What the floodway was known by back then)
Then to the water, give it a pitch!
It was only a foot or so deep
I would hop rocks to the other side
Looking back at the smoke filled bubbles
Smiling at my handy work applied!
Took Favorite Flame To Flame
Flame was name of dance place
in Wichita, Kansas I took my
wife to be to. Of course, a flame
was a woman who was burning
a place in your heart. Sometimes
it may flicker. Flicker was name of
another dance place. Should I call
it a sicker flicker or fury and fame
are part of his game.
My wife was quite a delicate dame
Until I took her dancing in the Flame;
Had to mention;
Got my attention,
And all her good looks I had to blame.
Jim Horn
A young teacher in Wichita
Excused her class with a strange phrase,
"Don't stick any beans up your nose!"
It just never ceased to amaze!
She told them when she was quite young
She stuck a small bean up her nose
She told no one that it was stuck
Just too embarrassed I suppose
It had been there a couple of months
Before a doctor took it out
But when they saw it, what a shock
The little bean had begun to sprout!
So each day when the class bell rang
You always heard that teacher say,
"Don't stick any beans up your nose,"
And have a nice rest of the day!
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