The EDDAS Staff (1980-1981)
The Eddas was a collection of Norse mythological and heroic songs dating from between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. The modern Eddas is a c collection of poetry and prose created by Lansdowne Students.
Advisor: Elizabeth Kolodny
Editor: Kimberly Fitzhugh
Co-Editors:
Steve Anderson
Mary Sague
Literary Editors:
Kevin Herbert
Karin Wagner
Laurie Zaccagnino
Janet Antlitz
Laura Cole
Sherri Maenner
Linda Rau
Art Staff:
Julie Burg
Vickie Edwards
Patti Metzler
Typist:
Fung Yee Wong
Staff:
Thomas Anderson
Frank Boteler
Katherine Cassianos
Stella Christopoulos
Katherine Clark
Katherine Cofiell
Sue Comnnelly
Ruth Dillon
Rusty Eyring
Teresa Hahn
Tina Herold
Jenny Loui
Nanci Rosemere
Trish Sulivan
A Special thanks to Mr. Mike Bailey and his students at Western Vocational Technical School, for printing the magazine.
The following are selections included in this edition of the Eddas that were composed/written by members of the Class of 1981.
THE LILYPAD
In a pond a lilypad grows
Upon the deep blue water
In patches of vivid green spheres
with flowers of delicate white blooms.
They lie immobilized
In their placid environment
Until a gentle rain
Beats slowly upon them
Moving them with the delicate rhythm
And sending ripples echoing onto the shore.
Laura Cole
THE WAR
My mind is barracded
My thoughts are monitored
I think (or try to) of only
Happy things, dreamy things
A soft kitten
A new puppy
A sunset or sunrise
Snow falling quietly on a
Dark night
My brain’s soldiers are weakening
The edges begin to clear (cave in)
And then
Your image, your smile, your eyes
Your touch
The war is over
I weep
I’ve lost again
Why must this mental killing continue?
Nancy Picker
WITH THE SOUND OF THUNDER
Why is it, I wonder
That, when life seems so good,
With the sound of the thunder
It’s quickly destroyed.
A man seems so friendly,
So friendly, until
One day, you realize
He’s destined to kill.
He tried, and he tried,
Until one day he got it –
A new kind of bomb
Now where will he drop it?
A city, a town
Or maybe the world –
This one man decides
Just what is destroyed.
He finally decides where
The monster should rest;
Dropping it suddenly,
He puts the whole town to death.
The laughing of babies
The singing of songs
Destroyed and destructed
By a new kind of bomb.
They scream and they yell,
And fall to the ground,
Their skin begins melting,
They die with no sound.
Why is it, I wonder,
That when life seems so good,
With the sound of thunder
It’s quickly destroyed.
No one yet knows
Though, we’re all still concerned –
Maybe, one day
The truth will be learned.
Cathy Owens
ONLY GOD KNOWS
Only God knows what will happen:
A friendship
Grown closer by the years
May suddenly not be there –
Two people loving one another
So dearly
May not pass the same way again.
The secret feeling
And all the good times
Will soon be just memories
Placed among the pages of time.
The flame
Which burned so long between us
May turn to just a flicker,
Never to be rekindled.
Our future goals and ideas
May never be reached.
They are what we should strive for,
But fate may take us our separate ways.
Maybe if we hold strong to each other
And try,
Our friendship will not be defeated
The love will stay in this world forever.
But then again,
Only God knows.
Gail Williams
HER
My heart bleeds.
I watch a lazy breeze
Rustle through her golden hair.
She glides across an endless meadow,
Filled with brilliant wild flowers
And stunning rainbows.
I watch her hazel eyes sparkle
As the sun’s rays glance at her.
Her lips are moist and red,
And softness is revealed
Throughout her body.
Heat radiates from her embracing heart
And warms the air around her.
She is a shinning goddess
In my eyes.
I watch –
Yearning to hold her
Bleeding every minute.
Kevin Herbert
THE PERFORMER
Graceful movements
Daring routines
The performer
Skillfully
Flipping and twisting in the air
Like a leaf
Caught in the wind.
The body
Flowing with the music
Is the trees
Swaying gently
In the evening breeze
Everything
So precise.
The finish
Proudly walking off.
Gail Williams
NIGHT TIME
The moon smiles and
The stars laugh
Until the daylight,
When the sun’s
Mighty arms
Cover up the flawless
Night sky.
Gail Williams
POEM ABOUT CENTENNIAL
Serenity prevailed upon the sea
As the first micro-ism came to be.
Volcanoes rocked the earth with rage
As mountains rose like caged lions.
Giant beasts roamed the terrain,
Swam the swamps, traversed the plain,
Mysteriously disappearing without a clue
Leaving humankind to wander anew.
Red people crossed the land bridge
Seeking a whole new like of knowledge.
Cultures, customs, and languages boomed
While tribes segmented and trade boomed.
Haunty, arrogant white people moved west,
Traded and befriended the Indians in jest;
Killed them and stole their lands
‘till tribes were just a few roaming bands.
Stack hats, horses, leather vests, and spurs.
Cattle and sheep herding were profitable lures.
To the pioneers, tired and forlorn.
The American cowboy had been born.
Sugar beet farming stole the stage
And in a new business the people engaged.
But dust storms, drought, and World War
Spoiled the soil and left many poor.
From Indian arrows to cowboy hats,
Centennial still sits on the South Platte,
Lavishing in a unique history
Of peace, war, and mystery.
Karin Wagner
SPLIT IMAGE
Alice sat in the waiting room of Dr. Gemini’s office reading a copy of Fireman’s Bi-weekly. While reading the magazine, she was fascinated by a picture of a hook-and-ladder truck. Soon, Dr. Gemini popped out of his inner office and said, “Next!” With that, Alice walked in and settled down on the large couch.
“So,” said Dr. Gemini, “what has prompted you to see me, Miss Leppart?”
“Dr. Gemini, I have been dreaming some pretty strange things.”
“Like?”
“One night, I sat up wondering who my parents were. Soon, though, I became drowsy and fell asleep. Before I knew it, I found myself in a shell, all curled up. Then all of a sudden, the shell broke, and I saw a stainless steel chariot. The chariot then took me off into a void. I went through the void in what seemed like seconds. The chariot then came to a sudden stop, and I rolled off. I found myself in an unearthly landscape. Glass mountains abounded, and in the distance were lakes of bubbling acid.”
Alice continued, “I drifted through this strange land for what seemed like months. There was no water to drink or food to eat there. I, at one point, became desperate for lack of water, and drank from an acid lake. Strangely, the acid didn’t hurt me. As a matter of fact, it felt like a part of me after I drank it. I managed to subsist on this acid while continued to explore the glass landscape for signs of life.
Eventually, I came to a ladder that went upward into a void. The ladder was strange in that it was twisted, and in turn was twisted like a spiral staircase. I began to climb the ladder and kept on climbing it for an indefinite amount of time. Suddenly, there was a flash of lightening, and the ladder twisted around me, pinching me into two. When this happened, I fell through the void, and splashed into an ocean with the ladder still wrapped around me.
In the ocean, I found that I could breathe under the water, and that the twisting ladder squeezing my body in two did not hamper my breathing in the least, either. Soon, the ladder dissolved and the ocean became smaller and smaller until I was barely covered with water. At that, I woke up.”
“You indicated,” said Dr. Gemini, “that you did not know who your parents were. Do you know anything about them?”
“No. As a matter of fact, for as long as I can remember, I’ve lived with my twin sister Jeanne.”
“What was your childhood like?”
“Funny thing, Dr. Gemini, but I don’t remember anything at all about my childhood.”
“Oh, come on, Miss Leppert, you must remember something.”
“I honestly can’t,” said Alice.
“Have you talked to your sister about your childhood?”
` “She refuses to say anything. She cringes whenever I say something about it.”
“Just how do you get along with your sister, Miss Leppert?”
“Very well, for the most part. We do everything together. We eat, sleep, work, play, laugh, cry, and take baths together. We’re very close.”
“You really love your sister a lot, don’t you, Miss Leppert? While we’re on the subject of love, how’s your love life?”
“Dr. Gemini, my sister is my love life. I don’t know how I could live without her. She’s almost a part of me.”
“Miss Leppert, do you have any other ties at all with people besides your sister?”
“Not really, Dr. Gemini.”
“Miss Leppert, where do you and your sister work?”
“We work at the Xerox copy machine plant.”
“Miss Leppert, don’t you think you should get away from it all for a while, meet new people, and just enjoy life?”
“I never really thought of that. Anyway, I don’t see how that would answer my questions about where I came from, or why I have strange dreams.”
‘Have you had any other dreams that you can remember?” said Dr. Gemini.
“Oh, yes,” said Alice. “About a week ago, I dreamed that I was a child. Funny, isn’t it, me who can’t remember a childhood, dreaming she was a child.”
“Go ahead.”
“In this dream I was a child, and I led a normal life that most children lead. I went to school, had friends, and was basically happy. There was something strange, though. In the dream, my twin sister was y mother, and I had no father.”
“Your sister was your mother?”
“I just said that.”
“Miss Leppert, have you ever had any contact with men at all?”
“Not too much. They’ve always thought of me as kind of off the wall.”
“In what way?”
“Well, I’m kind of shy, and I hang out with my sister most of the time, so they probably figure that I’m scared of them.
“Have you ever seen any men in your dreams?”
“As a matter of fact, I have. In the dream about the glass landscape, the driver of the stainless steel chariot was a man.”
“What did the man look like?”
“Very scholarly looking. He had a white coat on and horned rimmed glasses. He also had the look of a man obsessed.”
“Maybe this man is your father.”
“I don’t know. Somehow, I feel that in a way he is, and in a way he isn’t.”
“How so?”
“I get the feeling that he was responsible for my birth, but not emotionally involved with my mother.”
“That’s not unusual.”
‘I didn’t quite mean it like that.”
“Oh well. Do you have a birth certificate? After all, if you and your sister are twins, you must have been born together.”
“Strange, but I don’t. I really don’t have any articles associated with my childhood, If I had one.”
‘If you had one!?!”
“Sorry, but I only wish I could remember.”
“Miss Leppert, think back as far as you can. What is the first moment you remember?”
“The first thing I remember was when I woke up and my sister was smiling down at me.”
“Oh, come now. You must remember something of your childhood.”
“I’m sorry, Dr. Gemini, but I honestly don’t”
“Miss Leppert, all I can do for you right now is to ask you to try and remember your childhood, and to get out more to meet new people.”
“I’ll try.”
“I’ll be seeing you next week at the same time. Your fee please?”
“Oh, yes.”
Alice gave Dr. Gemini a twenty dollar bill, a ten dollar bill, and a five dollar bill. With that taken care of she left.
When Alice was gone, Dr. Gemini muttered to himself, “What clone.”
POSTSCRIPT TO “SPLIT IMAGE”
Did you understand the story? Did you like it? If you are doubtful about either of these questions, read on.
“Split Image” has many symbols, among them are: glass mountains – test tubes, Twisted ladder --- DNA, steel chariot – tweezers, Gemini – twins.
Do you get it? If not, go back and reread it with the above in mind.
Thomas Anderson
THE RAINSHOWER WAR
Brilliant
The sun’s smile
Beware
Lurking in the distance
Opposing armies of white and gray clouds.
The war march begins.
The armies close in.
Shivering with fright
At the imminent confrontation,
Grain stalks and tree leaves.
Draped over the sun,
Encompassing the earth like a curtain,
Darkness.
Fired!
Sporadic splats of rain.
A barrage begins.
Heavy artillery comes down in sheets.
Multi-colored umbrellas are shields,
From the driving fire of the clouds.
Suddenly! Prevailing!
As deep as the ocean silence.
The grey army retreats.
Bursting out happily from amidst the clouds,
The sun.
Battle scars?
Puddles in the potholes.
Karin Wagner
NIGHTMARES
Drifting into twilight slumber
To a world beyond this land,
To a place of ghostly horror
Where the devil takes command.
You’re roaming through a graveyard
In an eerie state of mind,
Unaware the Prince of Darkness
Is stalking from behind.
Hearing the gloomy footsteps
You hasten up your pace,
A cape surrounds your body
And your heart begins to race.
You rapidly take to running
Through a maze of swirling path,
The psychedelic darkness haunts you
And the color begins to laugh.
You’re swept into an endless tunnel
Which transforms to a bottomless pit,
You fall throughout the length of time
And from your mind a scream emits.
A tremor goes through your body
And you awaken with a scream,
You return to your placid slumber
Until your next horrendous dream.
Laura Cole
HIROSHIMA
A flash of light was all I could see.
Soundless might …still.
Then –
Buildings collapsing one by one,
Hiroshima, bursting with fire.
Children screaming …
Falling flesh of the child at my side,
Faces scorched with fear.
People were suffering with pain and burns;
To heaven they were waiting their turns.
We tried to help; it was helpless.
We tried to care; it was careless.
Losing our family is not an easy thing,
But feelings for our country remains proud.
War…as cold as the ocean depths.
Fung Yee Wong
GEARJAMMER
Slowly and painfully, the last mile comes,
I’ll push this rig just as long as she’ll run.
Snaps, creaks, squeaks and groans,
I’ve heard them all from this old truck.
But I’ve pushed it along;
Never been busted, never been stuck.
I’ve never done wrong,
Never pushed my luck.
I’ve always done good with this old truck.
Now the body’s a’ rustin’
And it’s time to put her away.
I’m getting old and can’t see straight,
They’ll probably do that to me someday.
John R. Pullen Jr.
SAND CASTLES ON THE BEACH
Sand Castles on the beach
A medieval-style sand castle sat majestically
On a crust of sand safe from the stormy sea.
Conic spires rose to a point from each corner.
The rising waves surround it as sagging roof caved in.
A lone sentry sheltered himself in the ruins –
A loyal sandcrab.
Karin Wagner
In a pond a lilypad grows
Upon the deep blue water
In patches of vivid green spheres
with flowers of delicate white blooms.
They lie immobilized
In their placid environment
Until a gentle rain
Beats slowly upon them
Moving them with the delicate rhythm
And sending ripples echoing onto the shore.
Laura Cole
THE WAR
My mind is barracded
My thoughts are monitored
I think (or try to) of only
Happy things, dreamy things
A soft kitten
A new puppy
A sunset or sunrise
Snow falling quietly on a
Dark night
My brain’s soldiers are weakening
The edges begin to clear (cave in)
And then
Your image, your smile, your eyes
Your touch
The war is over
I weep
I’ve lost again
Why must this mental killing continue?
Nancy Picker
WITH THE SOUND OF THUNDER
Why is it, I wonder
That, when life seems so good,
With the sound of the thunder
It’s quickly destroyed.
A man seems so friendly,
So friendly, until
One day, you realize
He’s destined to kill.
He tried, and he tried,
Until one day he got it –
A new kind of bomb
Now where will he drop it?
A city, a town
Or maybe the world –
This one man decides
Just what is destroyed.
He finally decides where
The monster should rest;
Dropping it suddenly,
He puts the whole town to death.
The laughing of babies
The singing of songs
Destroyed and destructed
By a new kind of bomb.
They scream and they yell,
And fall to the ground,
Their skin begins melting,
They die with no sound.
Why is it, I wonder,
That when life seems so good,
With the sound of thunder
It’s quickly destroyed.
No one yet knows
Though, we’re all still concerned –
Maybe, one day
The truth will be learned.
Cathy Owens
ONLY GOD KNOWS
Only God knows what will happen:
A friendship
Grown closer by the years
May suddenly not be there –
Two people loving one another
So dearly
May not pass the same way again.
The secret feeling
And all the good times
Will soon be just memories
Placed among the pages of time.
The flame
Which burned so long between us
May turn to just a flicker,
Never to be rekindled.
Our future goals and ideas
May never be reached.
They are what we should strive for,
But fate may take us our separate ways.
Maybe if we hold strong to each other
And try,
Our friendship will not be defeated
The love will stay in this world forever.
But then again,
Only God knows.
Gail Williams
HER
My heart bleeds.
I watch a lazy breeze
Rustle through her golden hair.
She glides across an endless meadow,
Filled with brilliant wild flowers
And stunning rainbows.
I watch her hazel eyes sparkle
As the sun’s rays glance at her.
Her lips are moist and red,
And softness is revealed
Throughout her body.
Heat radiates from her embracing heart
And warms the air around her.
She is a shinning goddess
In my eyes.
I watch –
Yearning to hold her
Bleeding every minute.
Kevin Herbert
THE PERFORMER
Graceful movements
Daring routines
The performer
Skillfully
Flipping and twisting in the air
Like a leaf
Caught in the wind.
The body
Flowing with the music
Is the trees
Swaying gently
In the evening breeze
Everything
So precise.
The finish
Proudly walking off.
Gail Williams
NIGHT TIME
The moon smiles and
The stars laugh
Until the daylight,
When the sun’s
Mighty arms
Cover up the flawless
Night sky.
Gail Williams
POEM ABOUT CENTENNIAL
Serenity prevailed upon the sea
As the first micro-ism came to be.
Volcanoes rocked the earth with rage
As mountains rose like caged lions.
Giant beasts roamed the terrain,
Swam the swamps, traversed the plain,
Mysteriously disappearing without a clue
Leaving humankind to wander anew.
Red people crossed the land bridge
Seeking a whole new like of knowledge.
Cultures, customs, and languages boomed
While tribes segmented and trade boomed.
Haunty, arrogant white people moved west,
Traded and befriended the Indians in jest;
Killed them and stole their lands
‘till tribes were just a few roaming bands.
Stack hats, horses, leather vests, and spurs.
Cattle and sheep herding were profitable lures.
To the pioneers, tired and forlorn.
The American cowboy had been born.
Sugar beet farming stole the stage
And in a new business the people engaged.
But dust storms, drought, and World War
Spoiled the soil and left many poor.
From Indian arrows to cowboy hats,
Centennial still sits on the South Platte,
Lavishing in a unique history
Of peace, war, and mystery.
Karin Wagner
SPLIT IMAGE
Alice sat in the waiting room of Dr. Gemini’s office reading a copy of Fireman’s Bi-weekly. While reading the magazine, she was fascinated by a picture of a hook-and-ladder truck. Soon, Dr. Gemini popped out of his inner office and said, “Next!” With that, Alice walked in and settled down on the large couch.
“So,” said Dr. Gemini, “what has prompted you to see me, Miss Leppart?”
“Dr. Gemini, I have been dreaming some pretty strange things.”
“Like?”
“One night, I sat up wondering who my parents were. Soon, though, I became drowsy and fell asleep. Before I knew it, I found myself in a shell, all curled up. Then all of a sudden, the shell broke, and I saw a stainless steel chariot. The chariot then took me off into a void. I went through the void in what seemed like seconds. The chariot then came to a sudden stop, and I rolled off. I found myself in an unearthly landscape. Glass mountains abounded, and in the distance were lakes of bubbling acid.”
Alice continued, “I drifted through this strange land for what seemed like months. There was no water to drink or food to eat there. I, at one point, became desperate for lack of water, and drank from an acid lake. Strangely, the acid didn’t hurt me. As a matter of fact, it felt like a part of me after I drank it. I managed to subsist on this acid while continued to explore the glass landscape for signs of life.
Eventually, I came to a ladder that went upward into a void. The ladder was strange in that it was twisted, and in turn was twisted like a spiral staircase. I began to climb the ladder and kept on climbing it for an indefinite amount of time. Suddenly, there was a flash of lightening, and the ladder twisted around me, pinching me into two. When this happened, I fell through the void, and splashed into an ocean with the ladder still wrapped around me.
In the ocean, I found that I could breathe under the water, and that the twisting ladder squeezing my body in two did not hamper my breathing in the least, either. Soon, the ladder dissolved and the ocean became smaller and smaller until I was barely covered with water. At that, I woke up.”
“You indicated,” said Dr. Gemini, “that you did not know who your parents were. Do you know anything about them?”
“No. As a matter of fact, for as long as I can remember, I’ve lived with my twin sister Jeanne.”
“What was your childhood like?”
“Funny thing, Dr. Gemini, but I don’t remember anything at all about my childhood.”
“Oh, come on, Miss Leppert, you must remember something.”
“I honestly can’t,” said Alice.
“Have you talked to your sister about your childhood?”
` “She refuses to say anything. She cringes whenever I say something about it.”
“Just how do you get along with your sister, Miss Leppert?”
“Very well, for the most part. We do everything together. We eat, sleep, work, play, laugh, cry, and take baths together. We’re very close.”
“You really love your sister a lot, don’t you, Miss Leppert? While we’re on the subject of love, how’s your love life?”
“Dr. Gemini, my sister is my love life. I don’t know how I could live without her. She’s almost a part of me.”
“Miss Leppert, do you have any other ties at all with people besides your sister?”
“Not really, Dr. Gemini.”
“Miss Leppert, where do you and your sister work?”
“We work at the Xerox copy machine plant.”
“Miss Leppert, don’t you think you should get away from it all for a while, meet new people, and just enjoy life?”
“I never really thought of that. Anyway, I don’t see how that would answer my questions about where I came from, or why I have strange dreams.”
‘Have you had any other dreams that you can remember?” said Dr. Gemini.
“Oh, yes,” said Alice. “About a week ago, I dreamed that I was a child. Funny, isn’t it, me who can’t remember a childhood, dreaming she was a child.”
“Go ahead.”
“In this dream I was a child, and I led a normal life that most children lead. I went to school, had friends, and was basically happy. There was something strange, though. In the dream, my twin sister was y mother, and I had no father.”
“Your sister was your mother?”
“I just said that.”
“Miss Leppert, have you ever had any contact with men at all?”
“Not too much. They’ve always thought of me as kind of off the wall.”
“In what way?”
“Well, I’m kind of shy, and I hang out with my sister most of the time, so they probably figure that I’m scared of them.
“Have you ever seen any men in your dreams?”
“As a matter of fact, I have. In the dream about the glass landscape, the driver of the stainless steel chariot was a man.”
“What did the man look like?”
“Very scholarly looking. He had a white coat on and horned rimmed glasses. He also had the look of a man obsessed.”
“Maybe this man is your father.”
“I don’t know. Somehow, I feel that in a way he is, and in a way he isn’t.”
“How so?”
“I get the feeling that he was responsible for my birth, but not emotionally involved with my mother.”
“That’s not unusual.”
‘I didn’t quite mean it like that.”
“Oh well. Do you have a birth certificate? After all, if you and your sister are twins, you must have been born together.”
“Strange, but I don’t. I really don’t have any articles associated with my childhood, If I had one.”
‘If you had one!?!”
“Sorry, but I only wish I could remember.”
“Miss Leppert, think back as far as you can. What is the first moment you remember?”
“The first thing I remember was when I woke up and my sister was smiling down at me.”
“Oh, come now. You must remember something of your childhood.”
“I’m sorry, Dr. Gemini, but I honestly don’t”
“Miss Leppert, all I can do for you right now is to ask you to try and remember your childhood, and to get out more to meet new people.”
“I’ll try.”
“I’ll be seeing you next week at the same time. Your fee please?”
“Oh, yes.”
Alice gave Dr. Gemini a twenty dollar bill, a ten dollar bill, and a five dollar bill. With that taken care of she left.
When Alice was gone, Dr. Gemini muttered to himself, “What clone.”
POSTSCRIPT TO “SPLIT IMAGE”
Did you understand the story? Did you like it? If you are doubtful about either of these questions, read on.
“Split Image” has many symbols, among them are: glass mountains – test tubes, Twisted ladder --- DNA, steel chariot – tweezers, Gemini – twins.
Do you get it? If not, go back and reread it with the above in mind.
Thomas Anderson
THE RAINSHOWER WAR
Brilliant
The sun’s smile
Beware
Lurking in the distance
Opposing armies of white and gray clouds.
The war march begins.
The armies close in.
Shivering with fright
At the imminent confrontation,
Grain stalks and tree leaves.
Draped over the sun,
Encompassing the earth like a curtain,
Darkness.
Fired!
Sporadic splats of rain.
A barrage begins.
Heavy artillery comes down in sheets.
Multi-colored umbrellas are shields,
From the driving fire of the clouds.
Suddenly! Prevailing!
As deep as the ocean silence.
The grey army retreats.
Bursting out happily from amidst the clouds,
The sun.
Battle scars?
Puddles in the potholes.
Karin Wagner
NIGHTMARES
Drifting into twilight slumber
To a world beyond this land,
To a place of ghostly horror
Where the devil takes command.
You’re roaming through a graveyard
In an eerie state of mind,
Unaware the Prince of Darkness
Is stalking from behind.
Hearing the gloomy footsteps
You hasten up your pace,
A cape surrounds your body
And your heart begins to race.
You rapidly take to running
Through a maze of swirling path,
The psychedelic darkness haunts you
And the color begins to laugh.
You’re swept into an endless tunnel
Which transforms to a bottomless pit,
You fall throughout the length of time
And from your mind a scream emits.
A tremor goes through your body
And you awaken with a scream,
You return to your placid slumber
Until your next horrendous dream.
Laura Cole
HIROSHIMA
A flash of light was all I could see.
Soundless might …still.
Then –
Buildings collapsing one by one,
Hiroshima, bursting with fire.
Children screaming …
Falling flesh of the child at my side,
Faces scorched with fear.
People were suffering with pain and burns;
To heaven they were waiting their turns.
We tried to help; it was helpless.
We tried to care; it was careless.
Losing our family is not an easy thing,
But feelings for our country remains proud.
War…as cold as the ocean depths.
Fung Yee Wong
GEARJAMMER
Slowly and painfully, the last mile comes,
I’ll push this rig just as long as she’ll run.
Snaps, creaks, squeaks and groans,
I’ve heard them all from this old truck.
But I’ve pushed it along;
Never been busted, never been stuck.
I’ve never done wrong,
Never pushed my luck.
I’ve always done good with this old truck.
Now the body’s a’ rustin’
And it’s time to put her away.
I’m getting old and can’t see straight,
They’ll probably do that to me someday.
John R. Pullen Jr.
SAND CASTLES ON THE BEACH
Sand Castles on the beach
A medieval-style sand castle sat majestically
On a crust of sand safe from the stormy sea.
Conic spires rose to a point from each corner.
The rising waves surround it as sagging roof caved in.
A lone sentry sheltered himself in the ruins –
A loyal sandcrab.
Karin Wagner