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Papa said ...
“Sentimental
people are cruel”
trading what might be
for what is

Filling their plates
with what’s not
on the menu
longing for soda
without fizz

Papa wrote
distant
always bringing it close
while leaving the weak
to surmise

With feeling
embodied
in hardscrabble words
to challenge but death
— so implied

(Gertrude Stein Remembers: August, 2025)
In the shadow
of perfection
time stops
— as eternity takes form

(Dreamsleep: August, 2025)
Thoughts of Old Age

To think about getting old?
Ay that is the question.
Tomorrow rapes the day
of sentiment, the curling
onion skin that never

unrolls.

And my mind cannot comprehend
old age.  The loose tooth
of retirement falls out.

Hope falls from yesterday
when,  albeit time allows,
the young scalawag crosses off

future’s possibilities as the
insensible droppings of
the cat who remains in the
corner.  The shedding of

youth’s romances.

Old age ponders through
rheumy tears the last
kisses , the shoulders
on which shawls

Droop


Caroline Shank
10.8.2024
You brought a smile
Back in my heart
I thought I’d never see
You again
The rain has stopped
Fallen in my face
So much I want you
To have your own place
You came back
It’s been awhile
I now can smile
Spaces apart
Time back together
Past is long

Life starts again
You brought a smile
To my heart
I know now you loved
Fun and happiness
No time to cry
We exist in the world
Of the living;
Living with the ghost of absence —

All the many losses;
We carry them in our breath,
In our bones,
In our eternity of memories
Passed down through generations,
After generation,
After generation —

Losing ourselves
But gaining many losses,
Becoming ghosts of absence —
Music isn't the same anymore.
The purity and grit are gone.
It's mechanical and cold.
I remember the days of
records and record players.
The crack and pop, the
sizzling booming bass that
rumbled in my soul.

I think of a song, let's say
something by Zeppelin.
I close my eyes and smell
the ****, see the
blacklight poster on
the brick basement walls.
I lift up the needle and
ramble on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwmDj1yF6LA
Here is a link to my you tube channel where I read my poetry from my books, Seedy Town Blues Collected Poems, It's Just a Hop, Skip, and a Jump to the Madhouse, and Sleep Always Calls.  My books are available on Amazon.
I dreamt this dream before I could speak it out loud,
Between the signifier and imperfect signified,
With all kinds of broken hours and promises never kept,
I tried transforming what was often said in the past.

This place would seem so real,
Made for me, trembling in the middle,
With small and growing earthquakes.
I wrote myself again—my little truths.

Looking for missing lines without wings,
Carrying stones inside my mind,
In tight, frayed bags from my beating heart,
without hope for a final insight.

Perhaps I just passed through the steam
Of a swirling, repetitive, chaotic dance,
Seeking tickets, carving an elusive imprint
With my mosaic in this human code.

Five minutes quietly slipped by.
My earned time vanished.
I had my moments going along the roadsides,
Avoiding the end of this poetic journey.

I stay wrapped in a heavy coat of suspicion.
I saw Moirés crafting another delusion.
I found a small reward in an addictive cliché,
To feel short relief from what I call my reality.

I remember what I did before,
Choosing every day not to cast a stone
Into the center of what I can’t grasp
With my breathing, human existence.
And this breath was enough.
If                               You  

Don’t             Stand

For

Something

You        Will

Fall                  For

Every                         Thing
X mark’s the spot
I

   D
      A
        N
          G
       L
E
my participles
               To throw people
                       off of the scent of
Mr premise
            whose
              always guilty

                          Proceeding are a

          Cast of cowards
                       Colossal failures
                                        Contrite
       ­                       Abject Apologies
Corporate greed
           will never concede
                                  Defending
             ­                          There is NO need



Inspired songs
American woman
By The Guess Who 1970

You’re the one that I want
By John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John 1978



Written
July 15, 2025
BLT Webster’s word of the day challenge
July 16, 2025 abject
Abject usually describes things that are extremely bad or severe. It can also describe something that feels or shows shame, or someone lacking courage or strength.
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