What is this lodging and people strangeth
Yond walketh but never see
Looking as the screen doest changeth
Laughing with mirth and glee

And roaring beasts runneth up the roads
Like dragons with hurtling and smoke
Gigantic monsters with heavy loads
May runneth down honest folk

Just to returneth to calmer times
Would maketh mine own journey pleasant
I feeleth yond hither I'm out of rhymes
I'm nay more than a peasant

Taketh me back to times more sane
The fifteen nineties art for me
I cannot writeth, nor bethink, nor remain
In twenty twenty three

The misty murky forest deep
Forewarned his frantic finding flight
A chance to search without a peep
The misty murky forest deep
The only chance her heart to keep
Was finding her to make it right
The misty murky forest deep
Forewarned his frantic finding flight

Punt
Warm and windy, not November at all
The rains have wandered everywhere
But this dusty grid of dead turf

Punt
Sail, sail and turnover, it’s beautiful
Rebecca would like it here today
Open, wide open and free
The dirt smells like the forty other fields
Where I’ve spent the best part of my life

Punt
Wonder -- I wonder
If those purple shirts were lined down
***** and sweaty, ten abreast
With pain and determination in their eyes
And blaspheme in their breaths
Could I hit it?
Concentrate;  head down, follow through;
I doubt it.

Punt
Terrible;  missed it
Wobble like a falling dove
From the spray of that old double-barrel
Bounce wrong, like a sad story
It ends with a bleak emptiness
Keeping up is impossible
Reading less, running slower, timing off
Knowledge fading, the science doubles its contents
As I wander in the ignorance that surrounds me

Punt
Short, so short;  no power left
So long and so short the time simply ceased
It would fly so strong then
But dribbles now

Punt
Jog to the ball
The muscles ache, the lungs rebel
Give way to the young you old fool
You can’t cut it anymore

Punt
The winds are turning from the north
Winter is so close
The time that could not end is over
And I miss it.
More, better, higher, super, greatest
The future lies ahead
But I miss it

Stealthy winter foe

Shining white snowy curtain …

Silent avalanche

When Santa returned from his trippin’
A bottle of *** he was nippin’
His wife had a brew
And after a few
The elves caught them both skinny dippin’

Christmas is the time of year
We celebrate with family near
The holy message from above
The glory of God’s perfect love

We see the woods and snowy fields
Thankful for their summer yields
That keeps us through the winter frost
Running on faith that’s never lost

See the bright lights and hear the bells
Warming fires and stories to tell
Sugar cookies and Christmas pies
And wonder in the children’s eyes

And as we sing, and run and play
We come together all to pray
And celebrate Father and Son
Christmas is the victory won

“She toddled in the mighty Duck
And almost never was”
Whether by design or luck
Or maybe just because

Summertime in Tennessee
So scorching hot and dry
The family thought a swim could be
Relief so we would try

While swimming came so easy
For most of us that day
But Mom was water queasy
So on the bank she lay

My friend and I, we swam like fish
In the deep Duck River
A day that would make you wish
This fun could last forever

My baby sister was so small
She could barely walk
She toddled and then down would fall
And jabbered with her talk

So Dad had moved into the deep
That’s when I saw it well
My sister ran without a peep
Into the Duck she fell

Momma screamed and I just froze
And out of sight she went
The muddy Duck would now propose
Another life be spent

My Dad had sprung to action
On hearing of the scream
He dived as a reaction
Into the muddy stream
.
.
.
And many years would pass us by
She studied hard and long
Nothing was too tough to try
She never got it wrong

A Ph.D and drug design
She makes the pills you need
If you were really in a bind
And needed meds indeed

She plays piano and reads the books
And knows so much inside
She sews and cleans and then she cooks
With logic as her guide

Accomplishments on every level
Complete and tried and true
But humble, never would she revel
In all that she could do
.
.
.

He came back up and looked around
His eyes began to beg
He dived again and there he found
And grabbed her by the leg

Upside down he pulled her up
And water did pour out
And soon we heard her cry startup
Relief without a doubt
.
.
.

Remembering that day and so
A blessing to repay
That was sixty years ago
But feels like yesterday

I sometimes think of all the luck
That happened just because
“She toddled in the mighty Duck
And almost never was”