StarPoet Newsletter Vol. IX, No. XLVII

Damn it, Jim,
Where the hell have you been?
We’re just normal humans
Not some Hollywood fabrication,
But we sure could use
Someone who was willing
To put themselves on the line.

 

We don’t need
No more moral teachers,
No hit and run leaders
Who get all tongue-tied
When things get rough
-- Where the hell are you, Jim?
We really do need a hero now.

 

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

still looking

 

 

 

Alexander conquered all he saw
But saw not all there was;
His general founded a line of pharaohs
That Caesar swallowed for Rome.

 

Elvis built a magnificent temple
Along the Mississippi;
The Colonel stole his heart and soul
And mummified his body.

 

In New York City John Lennon died,
A victim of fame and fortune;
Paul McCartney continued to march,
A shadow of all their yesterdays.

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- Helen Mirren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food Network, The Poet Show

 

 

 

 

If I were an Iron Chef,
Everything I cooked would be Sicilian,
Parsley, oregano, and basil
Would be my chief spices
With a substantial does of garlic
Seasoning everything, including eggs.

 

My bread would be crusty,
Flavorful and chewy,
My Pizza would be thick
With mushrooms and anchovies,
Every meal would be graced with wine,
Dago Red or Pino Grigio.

 

Christmas and Thanksgiving would be fattening,
With raviolis, grated jack, and fried chicken,
Pumpkin for desert, perhaps some mince
And freshly ground coffee by the pot;
Dinner would last a couple hours or more,
Telling stories about our children and our friends.

 

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

assumptive perspective

 

 
Leviathan

 

Where do we draw a line
In the chain of sentient beings
Below which we feel free
To fill our stomachs and our tables?

 

Primates?
Mammals?
Birds, Fish
And Crustaceans?

 

Perhaps a Giant Sequoia
Thinks very long thoughts
That we, we impatient humans
Are far too insubstantial to understand
During our brief moment on this earth.

 

Who is to say
That wheat is unaware
That its destiny is to be
Both bread and nourishment
For our ever expanding billions.

 

What thoughts must pass between each shaft
To know that in a few short months
Some roving band of anthropoids
In some monkey driven machine
Will harvest all their growing families
To make an vegan organic pizza.

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AP 28 Nov 2008.  A Wal-Mart employee in suburban New York died after being trampled by a crush of shoppers who tore down the front doors and thronged into the store early Friday morning, turning the annual rite of post-Thanksgiving bargain hunting into a frenzy.

 

The 34-year-old employee, who was not identified, was knocked down by a crowd that broke down the doors of the Wal-Mart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y., and surged into the store. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 6 a.m.

 

The police said that three other shoppers were injured and a 28-year-old pregnant woman was taken to the hospital for observation.

 

One shopper, Kimberly Cribbs, said she was standing near the back of the crowd at around 5 a.m. on Friday when people started pulling the doors from their hinges and rushing into the store. She said several people were knocked to the ground, and parents had to grab their children by the hands to keep them from being caught in the crush.

 

“They were falling all over each other,” she said. “It was terrible.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what it is

 

 
The Watery Part

 

Ever dusting my old lexicons and grammars
-- Trusting my degree in poet and embellishment --
And waving all the gay flags of all the known flavors
(And quite a few planets and worlds that only I seem to know)
I write,

 

Demonstrating my frequent knowledge of misspelled word
    and ill-named nominatives
To the amusement of my loving editor
-- My lover and my editor,
        Let’s be clear –
Who corrects the creative disjunction between my mind and fingers
But leaves the odd excursions for other readers to explore.

 

I am a painstaking borrower, a grub worm devourer
Of Heinlein and Shakespeare,
A sub-sub substitute for Sappho’s lost scriptures,
A library of random allusion and the rocking roll,
A higgledly-piggledy collection of fallen Roman Catholicism
And strategic Bobby Kennedy, Aurelius and Twain
As if they were viewed by Carlin, Pryor, and Carson
With Ernie Kovacs in charge of the direction.

 

Open-mouthed I swallow the chaos of this world,
Swimming deep beyond the shipline
To leave great whales in my wake;
The motion of vast bodies drains both soul and pen,
A moving land stretches across the promontory
On which I cannot sleep until my momentary fire
Burns brightly amid the vault.

 

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 in transit

 

 
Apple Pie

 

There was a woman at the metro station,
Carrying half an apple pie;
She was a young woman, not a street person,
So most likely she made the pie herself
And did not borrow it from a window sill
To fill some hunger driven emptiness.

 

She may have been coming from work,
An office party that left half pie half eaten;
She must be wondering if they really like it
Or only ate a small piece to be polite
--that would explain the worried look and the smile
That was absent from her face.

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Christmas Story II 

 

 

 

FOX NEWS 28 November 2008.  Two men were shot and killed Friday inside a Toys R Us in Palm Desert, Calif., during a confrontation apparently involving rival groups, city officials said. 

 

Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other. Ferguson said he asked police whether the incident was a dispute over a toy or whether it was gang-related. He said police told him they were not going to release further details until the victims' relatives were notified.

 

"I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys "R" Us?" he said. "I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper."

 

City spokeswoman Sheila Gilligan said police told her the shooting broke out between "two groups of individuals that have a dispute with each other."

 

Witnesses are calling the incident a murder-suicide, but that could not be immediately confirmed.

 

Palm Desert is about two hours southeast of Los Angeles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dawn

 

 

 

 

The moment of sunrise
Over the mountains, over the valley,
Over the sea and plain;

 

The moment when all things are possible
And blood stirs deep with endless road;

 

The moment of perfect creation
Before the day can devil us
To hours of restless sleep.

 

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Christmas Story III

Pregnant Woman Shot At Metro Atlanta Mall

 

Atlanta, GA. Saturday, November 29, 2008. Atlanta police said a fight between two men inside a metro Atlanta mall ended with a pregnant woman being shot.

Authorities told WSB-TV Channel 2 that the shooting happened just before 3 p.m. Saturday in the food court of Greenbriar Mall in southwest Atlanta.

Investigators said the men were arguing over the woman when things turned violent.

"I was sitting in the food court on my lunch break and I heard a shot, then I heard 'pow, pow, pow' ... three more shots and everybody ran," said Catherine Hutchins, a mall employee.

A police spokesperson told Channel 2 that the 19-year-old female victim was wounded in the leg. Authorities said she is two months pregnant. The woman was transported to an area hospital where her identity and condition is unknown.

Investigators also said another person was shot, but haven’t released more details.

Authorities said the shooter fled the area.

"The shooting is not a random act," said Atlanta police officer Eric Schwartz.

 

 

a yarn I heard or read about once, or maybe it was a dream

 

 

 

In a dim, smoky tavern I took to bed,
-- Come November in New Bedford Mass--
A harpoon’d savage, well tattoo’d,
Hung like a good Christian whale.

 

He passed his pipe, filled with what I did not ask,
And we talked a few hours in the candle glow;
His body glistened as he leaned to kiss me,
His muscle rippled with hard work and hormone.

 

I acquiesced without a thought
-- Surrendering to his rich male scent --
That night we shared our every secret,
In the morning he took ship for to whale.

 

 

Lisa Jain Thompson
November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anybody want some left over turkey?