From Illinois to Topsail Island
The sea has been calm and the wind has been light,
The beach house is perfect, the families all right.
We saw dolphins swimming,
The Cubs have been winning,
But the kids all keep asking, “Just where is your kite?”
Steve’s kite on Topsail Island
The broken tooth hurt only when I would
breathe in. The air across the exposed nerve
sent electricity up to my head.
My wife of fifty years asked, “Do you have
some chewing gum? Use it to cover up
the hole until the Dentist calls you back.”
It worked. I took two aspirin with a cup
of water (warm, because she said the shock
of cold would make me scream.) Then I
could breathe,
inhale, and feel no pain. I snuck into
the kitchen and found that I could leave
the gum in place and eat ice cream. (When you
Grater’s ice cream
have lost half of your own Sweet Tooth and still
cannot resist more sugar–you’re in hell.)
She may have been my father’s mistress, but
I’ll never know. “I’ve given all that up,”
was all he’d ever say until we put
him in the ground. He helped our mother up
and down the stairs for years with her bad knees,
and washed their clothes, perhaps in penitence.
But forty years before, in innocence,
I wrote about her beauty in a verse
for high school English class. I showed my Dad,
he said, “Why’d you choose her?” “I see her three
times every week in Church!” I said, “and she
is the best looking woman there…” He had
no more to say. Was it coincidence
she and her husband left our Baptist Church?
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 5, 2015
Our son called with the news of his
son’s birth. It was before cell phones–
I took the call while sitting down
behind my own grandfather’s desk
now in my office at the Y.
The news caused both of us to cry.
He had been with his spouse, of course,
had helped the Doula and the Nurse,
but she produced the small, grand child
without a Doctor near. I called
my wife at her Lab with the news.
We laughed recalling the eclipse
that left me in the dark when she
had birthed our son so painfully.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 4, 2015
What could be more secure?
He gave the combination
of his PO Box to her,
Left to C, Right twice to G,
Left to B, then open.
She’d find his note,
know when & where to meet,
and no one in town would know…
except the PO Box is Government
Property to be used only for stamped Mail.
His oldest son’s girlfriend’s Uncle
was a Postal Clerk, who read the note,
told his Neice, who told his son.
What could be more certain?
Txt msg hacked-all knwn
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, August 4, 2015
Is there a day without a sport?
Remember when ABC’s
Wide World of Sports
was just on TV Saturdays…
and for only 90 minutes?
Baseball games were on the radio.
Now ESPN Channels 1-348 are on 24-7.
Just today WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS are being played and broadcast in
Professional Men’s Basketball,
Professional Men’s Hockey, and
Professional Women’s soccer.
I think there is a sport every minute.
Of course I could be wrong–
I watch only movies via NetFlicks,
37 HD Satellite Channels, BLU-RAY,
or in Theaters with rocking chairs,
cup-holders, 5 gallon popcorn buckets,
300 speakers, and IMAX.
Our grand-children watch small screens
under the covers after lights-out.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, June 9, 2015
The Kingdom Tower, Saudi Arabia
Meeting an engineer helping design and build what will be the world’s tallest building at over 3,250 feet, the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, reminds Steve of his first published poem. “I had written it in Chicago in 1963 while in college watching the new skyscrapers being built to surpass the then tallest building in town, the Prudential Building.” “Towers” was published 10 years later in The Anglican Review.
TOWERS
Of course a tower is built by starting from
the bottom. Strong workers and machines make
a joint to earth with wet, grey gravel–form
with time a foundation almost like rock.
Orange steel is welded, riveted, and made
to stand naked pointing skyward. Then blocks
and bricks are hoisted slowly up the side
providing covering flesh the tower lacks.
Small children make towers in trees, and these,
though only made of rotting boards, still stand
as proudly strong in little children’s eyes
as those from which much older men descend.
But both kind of towers still seem to say
with their builders: we look down on the sky.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 19, 2015
I have made a new “Friend” on my FaceBook:
It is Francis, the Pope–you can look;
But he never will “Comment”,
Or will “Like” what I present,
He just Pronounces and quotes the Good Book.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 14, 2015
WASP LEG
(How to remember
the 7 Deadly Sins)
Wrath is unrighteous indignation
Avarice is wanting more than enough
Sloth kept me from doing what I should
Pride has I in the middle
Lust will do it no matter what
Envy hates that you have more than I do
Gluttony is as American as apple pie
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 13, 2015
A New Inscription
For The Statue of Liberty
The lamp once was a beacon. Now the hand
holds high a searchlight, torch, a burning flame
exposing all the exiles, all who came
unasked in search of liberty. Our land
is full, our steel gate closed. Those who demand
a chance to live in freedom now will name
our border guard lady Mother of Shame:
the rich protected, refugees are banned.
“No sanctuary here, no room,” she cries
with rigid lips. “No welcome at our door
for homeless masses struggling to rise
above the hunger, pain, disease and war
in lands where they were born. Compassion dies.
I send the poor back to El Salvador.”
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, July 13, 2015
Views from the Edge 