There were three of them looking unfinished because Gramma did not have enough eggs for the Meringue. It was the end of our short summer stay with Dad's parents in their cottage near Lake Ontario. World war two was still a year or two away. On the last day of our stay Gramma gave us the Meringue-less lemon pies. Lois, Eunice and I did not care. And with some disbelief we were told we could each eat a whole pie. Oh it was so good with each delicious bite carefully savored and tasting so good...

1993. The red chair is in my bedroom now across the room where I sit. I remember Jose from Puerto Rico sitting in that chair kicked back relaxing. He and his girlfriend were staying with us for a while between places to go to work the farming fields. The lever controlling the chair position was missing. Jose has rigged a box end wrench to replace the missing lever. Jose and his girlfriend had a baby girl about his time. The child was born incomplete and will always be about a year old. They st...

The suckers made of hard candy mounted on a white cardboard sucker stick and wrapped for sanitary reasons sell for ninety-nine cents a bag at the local drug store. The veteran made of flesh and blood and and dreams and tears and fears sometimes wonders into and out of the various rooms at the VA hospital where I am a guest much as he is. I am a little bit afraid of him as I watch him in his nightly search for midnight goodies. He has found my bag of suckers. He sits in a nearby chair his tee...

I wonder as I rush to my seventy second birthday. Now I see yesterday as being more interesting than tomorrow. It is like once when the motor on my crab boat quit and I waited patient for (perhaps) rescue. While I sat alone on my boat anchored up in the brown water salt creek surrounded by salt marsh grass I had no fears of yesterday or tomorrow. In the distance I could see the Cape Romain light house and the adjacent tower and I knew I was not alone. But now I am not so sure. 180

My Dad would sing that song almost so low I could barely hear it. Sometimes he might whistle the tune. I doubt he was even aware of it. Kathleen was my mother. She and Dad were divorced when I was four years old. I went with Dad. I waited and waited for Dad to take Kathleen home again. He never did. But years later as Dad lay dieing I brought Kathleen to him. I left them alone together. They were holding hands. A thought on my Mother's day. 180

Carl and I came upon the plum in the overgrown fields of a dying farm. The home had already fallen to the earth. The nearby forest is approaching the very last plum tree in the old orchard. On the last plum tree in the orchard is also the very last plum. It is swollen ripe with the resources of nature, purple and black, glistening wet in the early morning sun. The last of the wet collects into beads of water on the plum and drips slowly to the ground. The plum is removed from the tree. Carl a...

In the deep forest I select a giant oak tree to sit beneath to rest me from my morning's journey. By my side I lay my bow and quiver of arrows. From my food pouch I remove my lunch of bread and cheese. From my leather bags of water and of wine I drink equally. On later reflection I think perhaps I drank too much from the red wine bag. Having eaten and drank my fill a sudden tiredness enters into me and leaning my back and head against the tree I fall into a deep sleep. In my dream I am startl...

I come upon a grotesque creature. He is looking up at me from his position on his low cart where he sits. His hand is extended to me begging for help. His mouth obscenely open has his spittle running out onto his chin. Snot also drips from his nose and gathers in the sparse grey whiskers on his upper lip. His teeth are broken and yellow. His eyes are crying. The four wheels of his cart are sunk into the muddy street. It is raining gently as it often does in Yokosuka, Japan. The rain has soaked...

I stand alone in in a large pasture next to a large rock left there by the passing of great glaciers. At the base of the rock scattered about are red shot gun shells where one of my cousins was shooting. The empty shells smell of spent gunpowder. The field is dotted with rocks and stones. Cows graze there too. The odor of their droppings mingles with that of the gunpowder. The grass is dark green covered with morning dew. I do not know that I am lost. I hear the voices of my mother and my si...

Just as I was emptying the second beer bottle of kerosene onto the wood in the pot belly coal fired stove there was an explosion and I was engulfed by yellow fire. The damage was instant but not yet painful. I made my way out of the cellar to the upstairs. By then the pain was becoming intense. My older sister Lois then twelve years old pointed at me and laughed. Later she explained she laughed because my hair was gone and my face was all black. I went into a bed room and laid on the bed sob...

During a spaceship launch from earth orbit at a constant rate of acceleration to 'x' speed at what point does setback to the nuclear components of both the space ship and human passengers reach equilibrium and inertia is constant. Or do they assuming constant acceleration is maintained. Night musings from 180 based on hmm well based on nothing I guess. Sometimes it hurts to think, but it is free. Haha--180

The rattlesnake eggs are packaged in a small white packet. On the packet in bold black letters it tells me; 'Rattlesnake Eggs, $1.75'. I shake the packet. I hear the dry rasping of the eggs inside. Were I in the woods of South Carolina I would stop. Listen. Look. Shiver. But I am not in South Carolina. I am in Georgia at a road side truck stop. Tourists stop here too. JL and I are not tourists. We are shrimper men on our way to Saint Augustine where the trawler sets tied to the dock waiting to ...

The portable scallop factory stinks really bad.It stinks way worse than rotten herring crab bait and surly you know how bad that can stink. And the whole scallop before the edible portion is removed is a sight bad enough to make a maggot puke. I bet if you could see the mess that is the living scallop you would never ever be moved to eat one. The trawler I am striking on is tied up near the scallop factory. I am alone on the boat. The Captain and the other striker took off for home for the Tha...

I hear from afar the Siren's song And high on her waves I fly And quick at last she wrecks me fast On the shores of the Nipponese. The girls come to my table and sit with me. They want me to buy them drinks. I do not know what to do so I refuse. A pretty girl with kind eyes rubs my short cut hair and head. She is saying something like "Cuti Cuti". They are teasing me I decide. Except the one with the soft kind eyes. She is not teasing me. Having learned my name the kind eyed girl takes my han...

The fish has a suction device located on top of his head end. He sucks onto larger sea creatures for a free ride and missed food particles from the feeding of his host. A large Remora fish is attracted to the big fat belly of my swim buddy, a chief petty officer and master diver. We are coming up slowly from a fairly deep dive, decompressing. The chief whips out his trusty rusty diving knife to ward of the intruder. In the process the chief rips a gash in his hand. The flowing blood looks green...

I catch a ride from Breach Inlet over to Charleston,South Carolina and hit a few bars down on King and Calhoun Streets. Night arrives. I go to the bus stop where I learn there is no bus service crossing the Cooper River bridge at night. I have no money for a taxi so I am forced to hitch hike or walk. I am wearing white fisherman's boots, jeans and a cold weather vest. Nobody stops to give me a ride. I do not blame them so I set out to walk across. I walk the bridge on the right hand side. All b...

One day in Kamakura I see for my first time the bronze Buddha. Kazuko is standing in front of the Buddha her hands held in the same praying position the Christians will do. Her head too is slightly bowed in reverence. Kazuko is Shinto but it can do no harm to honor and pray to many Gods.In the surrounding countryside there are other Gods. One we visit is a tall wooden carving covered with gold. It is the Goddess of Love. In a secluded Japanese garden is a tiny open building where near the end ...

The calf muscles in his short legs bulge with the strain of pumping the three wheel rickshaw up the low hill beginning at the fleet landing and ending in Sasebo. At first I am disappointed because this is not a genuine rickshaw. My vision of a rickshaw is of a Coolie effortlessly pulling me wherever I wish to go. I will pay this man about twenty five cents for my ride up the hill. I do not feel very good about myself using a man like this. In the village I will pay him two hundred Yen a little o...

She has A music box. It is beautifully crafted of cherry wood lacquered to a deep glassy finish. One can stare into the lacquered finish and see forever. When opened the music box plays Chopin's Etude in E Major (No Other Love). This becomes our love song. The music starts lively, bright and full of hope and love and youth. The music quickly reaches mid-life and then slowly winds down, the beautiful notes becoming farther and farther apart as someday we must. We promise in our hearts to think o...

and how I have come to remember her. I cannot recall her name or the name of her little village, her childhood home. I first met her in Barcelona where she was a self employed woman of the streets. We became friends and together visited the countryside surrounding Barcelona. There were times we would not walk together as the Spanish men would scream at her and threaten her for being with an American Sailor. The ship I was riding left Barcelona and some weeks later visited a tiny fishing villag...

Between the New York Central RR tracks and U.S. Route five there is a very large building. It is empty now with a for sale sign begging for a buyer. During word war two it was a processing plant belonging to Welch Grape Juice. In the fall hundreds of tons of tomatoes and Concord grapes were brought here by the local farmers. It was a place of great activity. One day there appeared American soldiers carrying machine guns. They were guarding German Prisoners of War. The Germans were working in t...

Rose Rose I loved you. You with the slanted eyes, the slightly yellow tinted skin, the shining black hair smelling of jasmine, you and the beauty of your smile will live on forever in the recesses of my heart. After many years as lovers our time together came to its inevitable end. We spend our last night together holding hands, talking and saying long good-byes. With the rising sun came the time to leave her. I turn to look back, a final wave, her image blurred by my free flowing tears. A few...

Don and I decided to run away from home and live in the woods near the NY Central RR tracks. On the way we stopped by Carl's house to see if he might want to run away too. Carl was not home. Nobody was home. Our small bodies slipped easy through the cellar windows of Carl's house. In the cellar we appropriated (Stole) a quart of Jennie's peach preserves. Upstairs we located a half full pack (or was it half empty?) of Lucky Strikes and some matches. We left with our bounty and continued to run a...

Had my clam dredge 'Vicky Mary' tied up at a dock at Breach Inlet, Sullivan's Island, South Carolina at just about the same spot the Confederate Submarine Hunley was likely tied up prior to making her final journey. My wife's cousin owned the dock and the bar room at the creek's edge. The local natives had threatened to burn my clam dredge; claimed I was destroying the fishing. As a result of the threat was obliged to live aboard while working the area. I spent many an evening up at the bar r...

Some years ago while babysitting my grand daughter Cashel she choked on a piece of apple I had foolishly given her. Oh what a terrible thing I did. But she survived. Last Thursday night I dragged my failing body to the high school where Cashel was to appear in a musical. As the musical sang on I wondered, "Where is my Cashel?" Then it struck me she is that gorgeous woman up there; 'Ti Moune'. Singing? Dancing? Strutting? Acting? She can do that? My little grand daughter can do that? How coul...

Been alone on my Vicky Mary boat for many days trawling the ocean for shrimp from sunrise to sunset. I anchor up in a salt-water creek protected from the ocean waves for the night. I cook up some shrimp and grits on my two-burner propane fired gas stove. Last summer I brought a a young want to be shrimper with me. He lasted part of the first day. He became terrible sea sick, poor guy. He does not come with me again. Alone out here with lots of time to think I make up stories, write poems. I si...

Another poem by 180. Fear not I have only a few left! My Secret Place. An old man now I slip and stumble Down a steep embankment. I pause briefly to catch my breath, My time held in abatement! I see then with visions frozen, Kaleidoscope scenes of times long passing! Of childhood's dreams passing, flashing. Of children crying, of children laughing. On my galvanized feet a brook is splashing. Great oak trees rise above me, With acorns heavy on branches bending. A thousand greens, th...

Santa Finds Foul Mouthed Little Girl From Baltimore. Santa finds her visiting a family in a cement block house snuggled up against the outskirts of the 'Francis Marion National Forest' north of Charleston South Carolina and South of Georgetown South Carolina; Buck Hall to be exact. Don and his wife bring her to this Christmas gathering in this remote location. She is six years old. She is a waif, a will-o-the-wisp traveling through a society that cares little for waifs. She has brought with he...

The sixty five foot shrimp trawler is tied up at the dock in St. Augustine, Florida. The Captain is up in South Carolina for Thanksgiving holidays. He is also up in South Carolina because he is afraid of the ocean. I am alone on the Trawler tied up to the dock. There is little food aboard and no money. I am broke. So I write a lot. Dream. Ten Days At Sea. To the laundromat I took my clothes To wash them clean In those two quarter washing machines. Ten days I was on that hard luck boat Me and m...

Larry worked for me on my clam dredge the 'Vicky Mary'. Larry had a mustache. On the cold days leaning over the conveyor grabbing clams right and left and tossing them back between his legs to be counted and bagged later, snot would build up on his mustache. One day a very small fish came up the conveyor. Larry grabbed up the fish stuck it head first into his mouth. He was a sight Larry was. Snot on his mustache and the poor little fish tail flopping helplessly about. Often I remember Larry like...