Poem

Twenty one guns strike the air
The flag is folded with precision and care
Close friends and family silently weep
While down to the dirt my bed does slowly creep
All of this could have been prevented
With just one intervention

For weeks I sat alone and hollow
Now from you falls a tear of sorrow
So fast it all did happen
My own victim, I was trapped in
You can't know what I've seen or done
Though you, too, may have held a gun

The pressures of combat
Yes they caused all of that
Conflicts fought both internal and external
Following the command of the heartless colonel
Now here I lay finally at rest
I'm sorry, Sergeant, I tried my best

Story

            Millie was a small dog, a beagle puppy of just four months old. She had been playing with her favourite soccer ball, adding more teeth holes to the flat, tattered object, when the unusually heavy wind of Nebraska stole it away from her. She chased after it, up the long, winding deserted road that was Moose Avenue, but her short, adolescent legs grew weary. Slowing to a trot she continued on until she reached the park, some three miles away from her home. Halfway through the park she came upon a squirrel waddling across the sidewalk.

            “Excuse me, sir or ma’am, but have you seen a ball anywhere?” she asked.

            “Yes,” replied the squirrel, “yes I have. I saw a ball dancing that way,” the squirrel said, pointing to the north.

            “Thank you!” said Millie, heading in the direction the squirrel had appointed her.

            “Wait,” called the squirrel. “I want to come with you. I haven’t been on an adventure all summer.”

            And with that they went prancing off across the park in search of the ball. After a while of looking, a blue jay flew down from the tall oak tree tops above, and asked what they were doing, a beagle and a squirrel together in the park.

            “The wind stole my ball, and we’re looking for it,” Millie told him.

            “Oh!” said the blue jay. “I saw one go that way a while ago, and with that he lifted his wing to the west.

            “Maybe the wind carried it that way after we started looking,” said the squirrel. And with that the three of them headed off in the direction mentioned by the blue jay.

            They searched and searched for twenty minutes, but still they could not find Millie’s ball.            “Am I ever going to find my ball?” Millie wondered aloud, sitting and dropping her head until her long snout and caramel coloured ears were just an inch about the tall, dense July grass.

            “What exactly did the ball look like?” inquired the squirrel.

            “It was a rose red soccer ball,” Millie told them. At that, a small charcoal rabbit with a little cotton tail perked her tall, pointy ears.

“You lost a red soccer ball?” she asked Millie. “I saw one earlier. It was red, but it was kind of flat, more like the top of a muffin that a ball. It was nowhere near here, though. It was more toward Tiger Boulevard, lodged under a bush.”

“That’s my ball! And that’s right near where I live!” Millie exclaimed, perking up. “I live on Moose Avenue, just two blocks down from there!”

Silently the rabbit took off hopping down the paved sidewalk, Millie scampering along clumsily at her heels. Twenty minutes and several blocks later Millie and the rabbit made it, at last, to Tiger Boulevard. The rabbit continued down the street, Millie trailing just behind, until she reached the row of bushes under which she had earlier seen Millie’s soccer ball, only when they got there, the ball was gone!

“Where’d it go?” Millie wondered aloud, her spirits sinking like the Titanic at this new discovery.

“May I help you?” a familiar voice asked.

“Olive!” Millie said to her dear friend, a poodle she met at puppy camp two months earlier. “My ball is gone. The wind took it earlier, and this rabbit here said it was under these bushes.”

“Ahh, I thought I recognized that ball,” Olive said. “I brought it inside not long ago. I was going to bring it over tomorrow and ask if it was yours. Come, both of you. It’s just upstairs. And I made a fruit pizza earlier, come have some,” she said motioning to her right at the mocha coloured apartment beside her.

Happy to have finally found her ball, Millie followed Olive up the stairs to her second story apartment, the rabbit just behind her. After they had their pizza, Millie invited them all to play with her ball with her. They had such a good time, that no one noticed the late hour until the sun began to go down, and rabbit said she had to get home to her brothers and sisters. Millie, too, had to get home, so her mama wouldn’t have to worry about where she was all day.

Play

Characters:

Joseph Andrew

Emma Anne

Hostess

Waiter

(Joseph holds the door open for Emma as they enter the Olive Garden before Prom)

Emma: (whispers) Thanks

Hostess: Welcome to Olive Garden, table for two?

Joseph: Yes.

Hostess: Right this way.

(Joseph and Emma sit down at a small table)

Waiter: Hi, welcome to Olive Garden, I’ll be your waiter for this evening. May I start you two off with a drink?

Emma (shyly): Iced tea, please

Joseph: Coke, please

Waiter: I’ll bring that right out, with your bread and salad

Emma and Joseph: Thank you

Emma: Did you know that Olive Garden agreed to not give free unlimited breadsticks anymore?

Joseph: Are you serious?? The bread is the best part!!!

Emma: Yup, Michelle Obama thought it was the breadsticks contributing to obesity, and proposed that the restaurant not give out unlimited bread.

Waiter (brings drinks, bread, and salad): are you ready to order?

Joseph: Yeah, I’ll have the ravioli with meat sauce please.

Emma: The stuffed chicken marsola, please.

(Waiter leaves)

Joseph: That’s insane!

Emma (chewing bread): Yup, and kids aren’t allowed to order fries anymore without parental supervision, and McDonald’s now has apple slices mandatory – the portion of fries will be reduced, so you get both.

Joseph: That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! People have known for years that McDonald’s is bad for you, and that bread is all carbs! So now the government is interfering with the foods we eat, too?!

Emma: I know… Maybe you should write a letter to the First Lady; it was her idea after all.

Joseph (stabbing at his salad): Ya know what, I will! I'll ask her why we can't have bread but we can have all the soda and ice cream we want!

Emma (laughing): Okay sweetie.

(Joseph searches for a pen and napkin)

Emma: What are you doing?

Joseph: Looking for something to start my letter with! I mean, seriously? People know not all foods are healthy, but we're still going to eat them anyway? I mean, I'm pretty sure we're going to have some kind of food at prom tonight, is Michele Obama going to propose that the schools stop doing that, too?

Emma: Can’t you wait until you get home to write the letter? Just enjoy the evening.

Joseph (sighing): Yeah, I suppose. But why is it that we can have soda machines in schools and sell ice cream and energy drinks, but we can't get unlimited bread at Olive Garden?!?!

Emma: Hun, I don't know..

 

Joseph: It's just so dumb! We give out bread to the homeless, we give out bread at church - in fact, Jesus gave out bread at the Last Supper - but we can't get more than one piece of bread?!

 

Emma: Joseph, please just drop it.

 

Joseph (making a mental note of everything he wants to say in his letter to Congress): Fine, sorry.

 

Emma (smiling half-heartedly): It's okay

 

(Joseph continues mumbling under his breath about Olive Garden's agreement to quit serving more than one basket of bread)

 

Emma: So how was the rest of your day?

 

Joseph: Pretty good; we won the soccer game by a lot, so that was great! And now I'm going to prom with a gorgeous girl..(grins)

 

Emma (blushing): Awww, well that's good about the soccer game.

 

(Waiter brings food, and Emma and Joseph continue talking and enjoying their meal before going to the dance)

Fable - Independent Frog

            There was once a frog who never listened to his parents. When they would ask him to do the dishes, he let them pile up until his mom or dad did them. When they told him to turn off the TV and go to bed, he stayed up watching it until he fell asleep.

            “I’m a big frog,” he would say, “I don’t need parents to tell me what to do.”

            After months of their son not cooperating and following their rules, Mr. and Mrs. Frog grew frustrated. They told their son they would let him stay on his own, and be an independent frog.

            Frog was happy he was finally being trusted, and promised his parents to do what he needed, and in return they would not be there to tell him what to do.

            By the end of his first week alone, Frog had no clean dishes left. He was always exhausted from staying up so late watching the TV, and his grades were already dropping, because his parents weren’t around to tell him to do the work. One night he was hungry, but forgot to go shopping. It wouldn’t matter if he had gone anyway, because he had no clean dishes to use.

            Finally frustrated that the dishes were dirty, and tired from staying up, Frog cleaned. He cleaned, did his work, and went to bed early. The next day Frog went back home and told his parents he didn’t like being left on his own just yet, and the responsibility of being an adult was too much. He realized how frustrated his parents must have been, and moved back home. Every time his parents asked him to do something and he thought of ignoring them, he remembered his own frustrations and messes, and realized his parents’ requests are preparing him to be on his own, and that he should listen to them.

Fearing the Fear - Clowns

            Clowns are terrifying beings, with their faces painted chalk white and creepy cherry smiles that stretch, quite literally, from ear to ear. Some clowns even have carrot orange stars painted around their eyes. On their noses sit squeaky tomato – like rubber balls. Poufy, curly wigs of all different colours sit atop a clown’s head, topped by too – small top hats and flowers. Their bright rainbow attire hangs too big off their bodies, their large shoes nearly two feet long. They walk around with pies, and slam them into the faces of random people around them.

            Black and white clowns, however, are the most terrifying. Instead of cherry red smiles, horrifying expressions are painted on their faces, and they often have a vertical line painted in black over one eye. Their clothes, rather than brightly coloured, though still loose, are more often than not black and white stripped. Substituting for pies, these dark clowns carry around large mallets, which they use to hit people. It is amazing to me how so many clowns are employed for circuses and birthday parties when they are so menacingly creepy.

Love Poem - Forbidden Feelings

Know I’ll always be there for you

As I know you’ll be for me

When she breaks your heart again

I’ll be waiting on the side

To catch your tears

And bring the sunshine back to your eyes

The flaming cherry in your cheeks

My favourite Sunday topping

The stream of topaz in your eyes

My favourite precious stone

The sweater of your hug

My favourite sanctuary

In you I do confide

That which no others can know

When nothing in the world is right

It’s you I will come to

If you ask I will answer

For I can tell you anything

The furnace of your hand on mine

My favourite pair of gloves

The blanket of your arms around me

My favourite bedtime companion

The satin of your touch

My favourite teddy bear

I knew you before I did

Though about you I knew not

But with just a few short weeks

It seems it’s been forever

Obvious to all but you

They say we’ll end up together

The music that you breathe at night

My favourite lullaby

The speed bumps of your heart rate

My favourite bus ride

The love I wish we shared

My favourite secret from the world

Haikus - Hidden Meanings

1. Blustery winds blow

    Whistling through the morning sky

    Christmas morning snow

2. Fish swimming in the sea

    Carried by the rushing stream

    Far away from thee

3. Only he remains

    The robot on the window

    In the cool, dark night

4. Bloodlust fills the air

    Guns are drawn, the war is on

    Treasure is now there

5. She sees what you can’t

    The hollowness is haunting

    Herself she won’t show

6. The world we see is fake

    They wish to keep you hidden

    From outside the lake