Category Archives: verse

Blue Daddy

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At the birdhouse outside our window in Montana the bright blue male Mountain Bluebird feeds his young at day-break.

Mountain Bluebird Daddy

Blue daddy’s not blue today, soaring
through sunlit skies in search of
berries and beetles he pulls from
the green world for their baby blues.

The Bluebird is not blue today at
crack of dawn, returning to their
brood in the Bluebird house
beneath the telephone wires.

He fills the open beaks with
breakfast brought from Momma’s
kitchen stocked from the pantry
of Nature’s Earth-green Temple.

The Mountain Bluebirds are threatened by changing climate, according to research you can read HERE on The Audubon Society website page.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Georgetown, Montana, July 28, 2016

 

Steve Shoemaker Interview

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Click HERE to listen to the brief interview with Steve about his newly published book, 52 Sins, on the University of Illinois Public Radio station.

Verse – Making Love at 3:00 a.m.

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I thought the lightening bugs were shooting stars
And woke you up at three in the morning
To see the display. You knew better, but
Were kind, suggesting the more likely fact,
Though my view was the more romantic…

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, June 12, 2016

Verse – 52 Killed

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Mass murder, terror, hate,
Assault rifles, semi-automatic,
Hand guns, gun shows,
Concealed carry,
Congress bought by the NRA.

Victims: LGBTQ,
Children, shoppers,
Movie-goers,
Muslims, Christians,
African-Americans, worshippers,
Anyone.

Shooters: ISIS,
Racists, bigots,
Mentally ill, gangs,
Drug addicts,
Anyone,
No background checks needed
For private gun sales or gun shows.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, June 13, 2016

Verse – Night Vision

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The rotating blades make the red lights
appear to blink atop the windfarm
electrical generators far in the distance, while In the back yard the lightening bugs flash their need for love.
All our chargers need charging, too.
Electronic lives have been drained
by machines powered by dinosaurs.
Coal miners and oil rig workers
die to supply the energy we covet.
Piles of nuclear wastes surround us
glowing unblinking in the dark.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, June 6, 2016

Verse – Vanity, Cancer & Chemo

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Well yes, I’ve lost weight in a flash,
But I’ve spent all my cash–my skin has a rash,
My Mother won’t feed me,
My wife doesn’t need me,
I’ve lost hair (pubic), beard, and mustache.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, May 23, 2016

Verse – May Sunrise

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The sunrise painter’s palette
Today has pink and blue
With touches of white,
And is that purple and orange?

No rhyme, of course,
For that last word,
But also no clash
Of colors in nature.

The white hot sun
Will soon be hidden
By the massing clouds,
But colorful may yet be the day.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, May 20, 2016

Verse – Teenagers at the State Park, 1959

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Chigger_biteThe spring ground no longer was frozen.
We made out on a blanket we’d chosen.
Chiggers bit where elastic
Her Mom thought it fantastic:
“Well, at least you kept some of your clothes on!”

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 29, 2016

Verse – 7 Minutes in Heaven

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A party game
When we were 11
A girl in a closet
I was picked to join her
All the 5th-graders at the party
Would time us kissing
Just 7 short minutes

The CAT scan lasts 7 minutes
Feet first I am rolled in
Take a deep breath
Hold your breath
Breathe
3 times in and out
A burning in my genitals

Just like in the closet
With Mary Kay Place

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 28, 2016

Verse – The NRA versus the Librarians

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I tie some extra large
fruit juice tin cans to trees
in my orchard. The range
where police guns practice
is not very far from
my home. The officers
used their pistols and from
30 feet made some holes
the size of dimes in cans.
Shot cans wave in the wind
and keep away the birds
and thieves who think I’m armed.

No guns for me — instead
I will just use my head…

(Don’t fret, we know that thieves
won’t read this. Reading is too
effete, takes too much effort.
All thieves are lazy — so they’re thieves. Some gun owners are crazy — ban guns.
Let LIBRARIANS judge who can check out guns to hunt or use at ranges!)

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 18, 2016