Caught

In tapered lights trees and poles
Crumbling asphalt, filled holes
Thin arched sliver reflecting back
The color of a fire's dying ember low
Gone in sight, knowing you're there
But when I arrive I see the view
And realize you found me
I did not follow you.

It's Your Nickel Buddy

"I'll be back; I've got to see a man about a dog."
"What's wrong with Sandy?!"
“Jesus wept and kitties crept for
god’s sake Charles I’m going to use the bathroom!”
This was an actual conversation that took place between my father and I in his car outside of Sears when I was an innocent child of 10 or 11.
When he left the car I looked at my brother John and we both started laughing hysterically. We both remember that incident to this day and still laugh.
Our father actually talked like that. He was always using sayings that ,while we never heard before, he would attest to their being a long honored piece Americana.
As I got older, I heard a lot of those saying repeated by others, so I figured he was correct about them.
Sayings such as "They have more money than Doan’s has pills" (This was used in describing anything or body that had large amounts of things, not always money, it could also be used for contempt of a slacker as "He's got more excuses than Doan’s has pills", later it was turned into Kellogg’s having flakes as the Doan’s Pill company lost the monopoly on back aches.)
Other sayings include:
"Use your head for something other than a totem pole",
"It's you nickel buddy" (Whenever one of us would call our father we would always know when the conversation was at an end, "Well, it's your nickel buddy, I don't want you to run up a bill. Next time I'll call." He seldom did.)
Should we ever get sassy in our youth we were reminded that "you get wise with me I'll snap you back into reality so fast it'll make your head spin!"
The threat was always enough even though the mental vision of a head spinning was amusing in a 3 Stooges or Daffy Duck kind of way.
Yep Ford had dozens of sayings. But the one that had the least amount of dust on it was used as an expression of Amazement. If a news item or local event ever shocked our father or something immediate caught him off guard he had only one thing to say about it and that was "Jesus Wept and Kitties Crept!"
This saying has to be so old that whatever its origin has been lost in time and translation. When asked about it all dad would say was that he had grown up hearing it and that it was an expression His father had used. Hmmmm.
An "Expression". Some families inherit wealth, others property. Some receive keepsakes to remember their parents, rings, old pottery or paintings or books and things of that sort.
Thirteen years since his passing and all we are left is a handful of sayings and the conundrum of "Jesus Wept..."
This is our legacy. Pass it on guys, it's all we got.

Our Product Works

I'm sick of toilet paper commercials.
I don't want to see anymore stupid cartoon bears with little patches of paper littering their behind trying to make me worry that inferior toilet paper will stick to my asshole thus making me the butt of some joke.
If I was selling toilet paper I would state it's virtues simply.
"Use our toilet paper to wipe your ass, It cleans your anus and keeps the shit off your fingers!"

This could also be transformed into a into a politicians campaign slogan.
("I'll clean your ass so you don't have to get dirty!")

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

"The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
they shot you Joe" they filled you full of lead.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"

"In Salt Lake City, Joe," says I,
Him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a murder charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."

And standing there as big as life
and smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never kill
went on to organize,
went on to organize"

From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
Where working men defend their rights,
it's there you'll find Joe Hill,
it's there you'll find Joe Hill!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

MAD DOG'S GLORY

Mad dog, wooo! Mad dog
Owww, owww! Mad dog, yes mad dog
Mad dog, mad dog coming down the way

I'm foamin' at the mouth baby can't you see
I feel like rocking, won't you jump with me
I got a 20 dollar bill, a dime in change
The bad mad dog baby is my name

Mad dog, mad dog coming down the way

I'm two-ton Tillie, glamour girl
My big flat feet keep me on this world
Two tons of tissue, something to spare
The bad mad dog take it everywhere

Mad dog, mad dog coming down the way

I got a cut-off tie and some beat-up shoes
Holes in my pocket trying to lose this blues
Little skinny Minnie, she's in there too
She feels like jumping like the mad dog do

Mad dog, mad dog coming down the way
Owww, owww, owww!

Well now I'm walls of thunder, rods of lighting you see
And no-one on Earth is gonna mess with me
A fancy on my feet doing any dance I can
The bad mad dog is travelling through your land

Mad dog, mad dog coming down the way

Mad dog, woo, mad dog
Owww, owww, mad dog
Mad dog mad dog, mad dog coming down the way
Ooh!

THE STATE OF THE UNION

Tonight, my fellow Americans, I come to assure you,that the state of our union is strong. Strong, much like the foul odor of an aged wastrel, left unwashed and slowly decaying, an odor that no amount of right guard or cologne can mask...

Armistice Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae


Today our foe's are our own leaders, continually sending youthful bodies to waste in foreign fields while corporate managers sit back and reap rewards.
So today, to you I say, "Take up the quarrel."