Season's Verses

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Season’s Verses

“Christmas doesn’t come from a store, perhaps

Christmas means a little bit more.”--Dr. Seuss.

Rah-Bra-Hurrah

Such a pure joy you’re so busty,

for even though I can be crusty,

I think these things cost too much.

So this one’s on me--not Dutch.

from your Worst Half.

*********************************************

Hangman

From the shape of this box,

You may think this is socks;

but no, it’s dotted with ducks,

so please don’t think it sucks.

from your Middle Daughter.

***********************************************

Show Me the Money

It is something that loves your cash,

and you’ll need it to buy corned beef hash.

Wearing it in front like a nut,

you avoid strain on your butt.

from your Mother-in-Law.

***************************************************

Vino Veritas

This is one you must not shake,

though it’s not something I did bake.

I’ll tell it’s fragile--enough said.

It can be enjoyed while in bed.

from your First Cousin.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Beyond Our Grasp

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Beyond Our Grasp

“I abhor the idea of a perfect world. It would bore

me to tears.”--Shelby Foote.

Too often

I have felt lost

in a Dali painting;       bizarre, macabre,

           where elephants are thirty feet tall,

           clocks are flat as fried eggs,

           where Medusa pushes Venus

           off the clam shell,

                    or a naked shepherd in a Titian

                    painting chained to two pillars.

on my right, Utopia,

on my left, Dystopia.

In 74 AD,

Spartacus took his 10,000 slave

army to the toe of Italy,

and aspired to create 

a Utopian dream

he called the Sun City.

There would be no masters.

      Every man would be equal,

          but when the victory celebrations

      were over, with hangovers 

intact, they tried to set up a

municipality,     with rules & laws,

                         commerce & trade,

                         a justice system,

complete with a constabulary.

Per usual, some rose to the top,

and became leaders, while

most did not; they soon began

to complain, stating that they were

better were off remaining

Roman slaves.

People deserted

in clots of a hundred, which

became flocks of thousands.

When the population

had sufficiently thinned,

they were attacked

by three Roman legions.

After their defeat,

all the survivors were crucified,

hanging on thousands of crosses

along the Appian Way.

The Communist Manifesto

sounded great on paper,

but over the last century,

every country that tried

to implement the shining theories

of brotherhood and perfect equality

has failed miserably;

their failures were brought on by

commerce and capitalism,

imperialism and war,

even just human nature, itself--

these things intervened, driving a wedge

of rampaging egos, privilege, & inequity

straight into that dream of a perfect society,

soon degenerating into empty words and

broken promises.

History tends to be cyclic, a closed system, a

Gordian Knot, an infinite loop, wherein our

foolish orbit has taken us to the dark side of

the moon where stygian darkness seems

all encompassing. 

I fear that the “New World”, as America was once

called, degenerates into a biased replica of the

“Old World”, after the newness rubs off, and the

honeymoon is over.

It’s up to the youth now. I’m too old to march, to build,

and fight with them for a better world, but I still can

cheer them on.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

U-45

painting by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau

U-45

“The only thing that ever frightened me during the

war was the U-boat peril.”--Winston Churchill.

On Christmas Eve

a super ferry

plowed its way

into Elliott Bay,

with Seattle’s skyline

all aglow;

passengers

began screaming

Stop!

Off the starboard side

a WWII submarine

surfaced.

It was the U-45,

painted blood red,

and the conning tower

said TRUMP

on it.

Glenn Buttkus

Quadrille

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Blackthorne--Episode 106

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Blackthorne

Cinemagenic 106

Heart Song

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.

What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

--Antoine de Saint-Exupery: The Little Prince.

1(sound cue) piano and violins.

2(close-up) Johnny, after an inhalation of pain:

If it comes to killing him, use a knife. A blade is

best. I want him to feel his own bowels, as I feel

mine, drop into his hands, just a steaming pile

of guts in the street, like butchering a boar.

3(two-shot) Buck: A knife it shall be.

Johnny: He runs.

Buck: El Blanco?

Johnny: Yes, and he is swift.

Buck: Will you chase him?

Johnny: I want to. I could catch him. I, too, run

like the wind.

4(tight close-up) Buck: Let him go, brother. He 

will come again.

5(sound cue) guitar & harmonica.

6(two shot) Johnny, after a beat: Did I ever really

tell you about your father?

Buck: No.

Johnny: Why not do you think?

Buck: I never asked you about him.

Johnny: Then it is time.

Buck: after hesitation, If you say so.

Johnny: I do. Bill Buck...he was a man.

7(medium close-up) Buck, quickly: Whiskey

devoured him, drowned his heart, slayed his soul.

8(two-shot) Johnny: In the end something

destroys all of us.

Buck: So far, nothing really likes the taste of me.

Johnny: Even loneliness?

Buck: I am home now, and I am not lonely--I

have you.

9(close-up) Johnny: Me? I am nothing.

10(two-shot) Buck: No, sir, I will not hear you. You 

are the Aguila, soaring over the land, and we

wither in the shadow of your wings.

Johnny: I will not die.

11(sound cue) accordion and banjo.

Buck: Die? Can they kill the thunder

storm? If you throw a rock at the sun,

will it go away?

Johnny: The sun is inside me now--
burning my bowels.
Buck: The Doctor will be here soon;

just hang on, my brother. I will not

let you leave me.

Johnny: We will have a grand rancho.

Buck: The grandest.

12(medium close-up) Johnny: We were

going to go and find you?

13(two-shot) Buck: Who?

Johnny: Your father and me; a week before

he was killed? He was an old man, and he

couldn’t travel alone. I was his amigo.

Buck: After all those years, why in Christ’s

name would he do that?

14(close-up) Johnny: You were his only family,

his son. He wanted to look you in the flesh, and

try to tell you how sorry he was, and to tell you

he loved you.

15(two-shot) Buck: Love?

Johnny: He knew he would not live much longer.

Grief was consuming him.

Buck was silent.

Johnny: In your family, you are the life force. Your

people were not strong. Death rode their shoulders,

rode them right into the ground. Sadly, they never

lived as we do. Life shines in us, even though now

it grows dim in me.

Buck: I will fan that flame.

Johnny: I am fighting. I hear the words from

my death song, but I won’t sing them yet. 

Yet I have seen much. I rode hard.

Buck: You will ride again.

Johnny: Caramba...you would have to tie me on

a horse.

They both laughed, and it was difficult for the Eagle.

Buck: We are talking a lot. Does it hurt to talk? 

Would you like to close your eyes and rest? I

promise I will not leave you.

16(sound cue) cello

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub OLN

Buy-By-Bye

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Buy-By-Bye

“Our echoes roll from soul to soul--and grow

forever and for ever.”--Alfred Lord Tennyson.

When young, death is but a shadow

--follow.

For some of us, death can come early

--barely.

My own mother was just thirty-nine

--pine.

My tiny nephew died of SIDS

--kids.

For me, funerals can be a drag

--hag.

Loved ones should just have a joyful wake

--cake.

No one gets out of life alive

--jive.

Mortality becomes middle-age crazy

--daisy.

They say fifty is the new forty

--sporty.

After retirement, time reaches hyper-speed

--indeed.

Your older body begins to break down

--clown.

Your own libido takes flight

--fright.

No one wants you to drive a car

--har-har.

Funeral homes send Christmas cards

--regards.

You become easily distracted

--subtracted.

You begin forgetting many things

--badda-bings.

When walking you seek more benches

--trenches.

You hope Death resembles Robert Redford

--Stepford.

Perhaps with death comes a doorway

--hooray.

You attempt to stifle your fear

--tear.

You try to muster your resolve

--evolve.

Always step gaily into the light

--good-night.

Glenn Buttkus

Echo Verse

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Desert Serenade

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Desert Serenade

“In the desert the line between life and death

is sharp and quick.”--Brian Herbert.

From a moving car the Southwestern desert

looks barren, placid, even inert, but I took a

camera, built a sagebrush blind, and sat for

a whole day. I found that death sweeps over 

the halcyon hotbed like a shimmering mirage, 

rife with survival scenarios.

A Gila monster is climbing a cactus in pursuit of

bird’s eggs. Though it’s venomous, and marked

like a diamond back, it’s a lizard. A gray sand

spider is burying itself, preparing to leap out and

attack small prey. A pair of golden eagles are 

swooping down and feasting on jack rabbits.

Suddenly a cow is screaming across the arroyo

nearby. She is limping, viciously pursued by three

coyotes, Her rear flanks are bloody from bites.

They quickly disappear behind a sand hillock.

Then coyote yips and whines fill the air. I guess

they met the herd bull.

Glenn Buttkus

Prosery

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Great White Fathers

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Great White Fathers

“Those who would expect to reap the benefits of

freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of

supporting it.”--Thomas Paine.

If there is an afterlife,

our founding fathers

must be burning their wigs

over the state of our union.

Gentlemen, I realize

that you were not demi-gods, icons

or devils--you were actual men,

with all the weaknesses and foibles

integral to that species.

First off, it is very evident

that Dolly Madison, Abigail Adams, and

Mercy Otis Warren were helpful

in the shaping of our Republic, yet

history has been mute regarding these women.

Why is that?

James Madison: Are you serious, sir? It would

not have been prudent to acknowledge their

distaff contributions.

Alright, let’s talk about slavery. Most of you

owned slaves. Though you had

an opportunity to do so, you chose

not to deal with the issue of slavery.

Why not?

Thomas Jefferson: Sir, we had the wolf by the

ears. We could not subdue him, nor could we

afford to let him go. In addition, we could not

imagine that the thousands of slaves from our

day would mushroom to millions, nor could we

have envisioned your present day civil rights

issues.

OK, what about the Indians? The Native

Americans were here first. I think you

clearly saw the crux of future conflicts

with the indigenous populations, yet
you made no provisions for dealing

with this obvious future problem.

George Washington: Actually I did make an

attempt to deal with this, planning on creating

sovereign reservations for their tribes, but

Hamilton had to remind me that we lacked

the resources to implement these plans.

Of course in fact, they were ignorant

savages, who were resisting inevitable
progress.

George Washington: Yes, there was that

to consider as well.

Benjamin Franklin: But would you agree
that our achievements outweighed our

failures?

Yes.

Alexander Hamilton: As Emerson noted, anyone 

who compares themselves to us, must realize

that we had the advantage of “being present at

the creation.”

John Adams: It’s been stimulating having this

conversation with you. We have to do it again

sometime.

Far out, I’m in.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

The Spirit Triumphs

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The Spirit Triumphs

“Here in America, we are all descended in blood

and spirit from revolutionists and rebels. As their

heirs, we must not confuse honest dissent with

disloyal subversion.”--Dwight D. Eisenhower.

During

the Golden Age

of Comics.

in 1940,

artist Will Eisner

created a newspaper

comic series called

THE SPIRIT, 

about a murdered

rookie cop,

Denny Colt,

who returns

from beyond to fight crime.

He was sexy

and had super powers.

It ran until 1952.

Glenn Buttkus

Quadrille

This comic book character, one of my favorites, has lasted 
79 years, right up there with Superman and Batman. They
made a TV movie about him in 1987, which flopped. They
made a film about him in 2008, which was a moderate
success. Dark Horse Comics has resurrected him in
recent graphic novels.

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub