Under the Umbrella of Paradise

I watched him reach up on top of a shelf and take hold of something long and brown to bring down just as I heard Karen say, “Hi! I’m here,” as she opened the screened door to step in.

I turned to look at her with a big smile when I heard a loud noise like a car muffler’s pop and then saw Karen fall back onto the cement, never getting inside the door.

While sitting at my desk writing about the vivid memories of my childhood — specifically when I was seven, almost eight, when I lost my friend Charlotte — I can’t stop crying. Why am I sobbing about the loss of my friend so many years later, when I didn’t shed a tear at the time? I kept asking myself.

In retrospect, it seemed that when the ball of death started rolling, it wasn’t going to stop. But we didn’t realize the ball started rolling with Charlotte, and it would gain such disastrous momentum.

While I stood all alone to wash my hands
I noticed a lone paper sack.
It had no identifying brands,
And the top was neatly folded back.

Mmmmm! I hummed, as I wondered what to do.
Do I take a peek out of curiosity?
I still wouldn’t know who it belonged to,
But would that be important to me?

If people were as dedicated to his/her spouses, as some seem to be about their political party's candidates, our happiness quotient would be a hellava lot higher. Divorce rates would be down exponentially because the atmosphere on the home front would be embracing and joyous, instead of drudgingly accepted, or unacceptable but tolerated. And the political scene likely wouldn't be as volatile.

Mother Nature has many forms of paybacks,

It's not just twisters or hurricanes.

There're volcanos, earthquakes, and big damned cracks,

Does she want no one to remain?

As we got ready to leave the campground to begin meandering once again, we packed the outdoor stuff into the topper and hid the baggy of marijuana in a back far corner with some other items in one of the compartments for easy access from a side window. However, as I’d predicted, when we drove around Mexico seeing so many spectacular sights, Eddie forgot about his vow to smoke each night, not to mention his plans to throw the rest of the weed away before we crossed the border. In fact, we both had completely put it out of our minds.

As we grew older, school friends scattered,

Promises to stay close no longer mattered,

‘Cause, I was the first one to move.

With that distance we grew apart and changed,

Our thoughts, perceptions, directions that ranged,

From marriage, college with career, or both.

This poem is about class reunions.

The first one, which everyone expects to be fun ones,

Often will come across as being dum-ones,

When some try too hard to impress.

The second one is sometimes sparsely attended,

‘Cause of how the last one ended,

When many used pills for impressions intended

While showing off thrills and frills.

I was spawned, one stormy day,

When my mother decided to play

Somewhere along Tornado Alley.

She bumped into my dad,

Spawned me, and I was glad,

And they gave me the name of Sally.