-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
remember to laugh
laugh
sometimes all
you can do is
laugh
plans change
something
comes up
lines of
communication
get neglected
along the way
today is one
of those days
where i need
to remember
to laugh
especially when
the nurses tell my
mother she's an
hour early for
her procedure
somewhere
between the
paperwork
and a phone
call
the time change
was lost
laugh, remember
to laugh
there will always
be plenty of time
for revenge later
----------------------------------------------------------
in any traditional sense of the word
never fall in love
with a woman that
wants to stick a dildo
in your ass
she is incapable of
loving you in any
traditional sense
of the word
never fall in love
with a woman who
thinks she is a
dominatrix but is
unwilling to let
the world in on
the secret
never fall in love
with a woman who
puts money over
everything
friendship,
quiet moments
alone, even god
never fall in love
with a woman who
still seeks the privilege
of being an only child
well into her thirties
never fall in love
with a woman more
than two states away
from you
the distance will be
too much for some to
be able to handle in a
moment of crisis
------------------------------------------------------
still like the taste
i think my
imagination
is still in its
early twenties
everyone is
still naked
and ready
the drugs
still have a
good kick
and i still
like the
taste
sadly, the
body and
mind haven't
kept up the
pace
---------------------------------------------------------
violent in my dreams
i often wonder about
my death
it has always been
violent in my dreams
something tragic or
brutal in the daylight
i'd love to die in
my sleep
simply fade to black
my luck, it will be
upon insertion in
some unlucky
woman
the poetic way would
be mid-sentence, right
as the devil starts to...
--------------------------------------------------------------
a really short drive to crazy
i have always known it is
a really short drive to crazy
like maybe down the block
or around a fucking corner
it has been that way since
i was a child
they always told me i was
gifted
i read too much and knew
that was a kind way of saying
someone could be really
fucking crazy
i preferred savant but that was
my ego always speaking up
at the wrong fucking time
i was the type that never had
homework and could be seen
smoking cigarettes with the
homeless on the weekends
while writing poems with
a bottle of cheap wine about
even cheaper women
i look around this room
and see the cigarettes are
gone because of a lack
of funds
the wine is now a glass
of scotch
and the women are still
cheap
imaginary has some benefits
--------------------------------------------------
Once upon a time, a cat lived under a tree. The tree was the river side. It was a big mango tree. It was totally black. Many years ago it was grown here. It had given a lot of delicious juicy fruits to the people. People tested and enjoyed its juicy fruit.
One day the cat came to live here. When the cat came and saw a lot of ripe and colorful fruits was in the tree. It wandered to see beautiful fruit. At first sight cat fell in love of those fruits. Suddenly a dog passed the place. Dog couldn’t see the cat but cat saw. Cat closed his eyes and waited fairly long time for the happening. The dog passed away, the cat thought.
Cat opened his eyes slowly, spoke loudly and sprang quickly on the mango tree, because the dog stood in front it. The dog said, “Why do you spring on the tree? I’m your friend, don’t you know me?”
Cat replied that you were not my friend, the relation between you and me was hunted and hunter only. Clever dog said to the cat that he was not an enemy. He also said, "When you were on the tree and the tree was full of ripe juicy fruits, you could give me some. We enjoyed them together. Sorry my cruel friend, I couldn’t do it for you, because I tried them, they were now sour."
The dog looked tense and annoyed.
"It didn’t matter, I liked sour, my mother gave me sour fruit in my childhood, you were with me, I enjoyed it very much. "
Cat spoke wisely. "You are no friend, I never did anything wrong to you. I had a bitter experience, it was many years ago. I and my family lived in a village. I had two sisters and a brother, my sisters were older. One day a wounded dog came to our house. It said, "Help me and save me!" Mom didn’t want to help, but my soft hearted sisters wanted to help it.
They said that dogs were our enemy, but this one was wounded. So it was our moral duty to nurse it. Mom couldn’t say anything except O.K. My sisters nursed and treated it. We got the dog out of danger and it came around soon. We were all happy and the dog stayed there continuously. It became our friend day by day.
But one day my parents and brother went outside. Suddenly I heard a dangerous deadly sound, saw a heart rending sight. The dog killed my beautiful sisters. Would have killed me, but it couldn't find me. Now I had lost my family and also my house. It’s happened because of your species. So I don't believe you! I hate you!"
The dog was ashamed and went away.
C H A O S
Tell me please...
If those miscreants buzzing around
The ears. Has peace come to an end?
Are they the only dishes to serve people
their freshly breakfast?
When will they sing a song of no-more and
Wave a hand of no return to this infidelity?
Tell those gila-monsters, those wicked lions
That bore horrible teeth in their tragic that
Their lives will perish away like an atom
In the whirlwind of desert when breeze in the
Atmosphere hits the jackpot of peace.
Tell me...
Who would we bear on shoulders again?
Is it the giant whales flapping in pools of
Our wealth or the broken pieces of peace
Bloodly lying in every nook & cranny of the street?
I say this is not the faults of violence:
But a burning fire fueled by those
With great power in their hands and
Soaked people's minds in bowls of
Deceptions and cups of woeful wonders.
With love and peace, no way for violence.
What does the word love
Really mean?
Is it only a wishful
Dream?
Is love two people sharing
Their lives
Together, forever as Husband
And wife?
Is love a promise we
Make,
A promise we should
Never break?
A promise to only be
With each other,
A promise their will
Be no other?
Is love a feeling
Or thought?
Or is it just something
We all want?
Is love a choice
We make?
Or is it a chance
We take?
Is love good or is
Love bad?
Does love make you
Happy or sad?
Is love a simple touch that
Gives you chills?
Or a beating heart that
Won't be still?
Could love be a gently kiss so
Passionately on the lips?
Does love hurts, does
Love cry?
Is it love when you
Tears won't dry?
Can we love once? Can we
Love twice?
Or does true love happen
Only once in life?
Is love real?
Can love forgive?
Can love heal?
I know love is real.
Because of pain,
I know now true love feels.
When nothing hurts worse
Than it,
You, too, will know love exists.....
The Atolls
The atolls spaced on the ocean
Beautifully caught by the eyes in the soft morning light
How wonderfully decorated they are!
Especially the ring-shaped reefs, my love
Hovering all over the earth I enter into my home to rest and make love
The coral reefs bound tight by the ocean
Calls you and me to sleep in touch all through the night
The heart always falls on
I know you never let the time to go in vain
Hanging in love
As the atolls stand on ---- so strong
We must sing all through life with the music of the waves in the moonlit ocean.
Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh
30/07//2022
A Matter of Scale
One side of the stage shows a MAN dressed in whatever clothing will connote poverty to the audience. The other side of the stage has a conference table and plush chairs with FOUR or FIVE PEOPLE in the day's business attire.
A few minutes of pantomime: the shabbily-dressed MAN is obviously begging; he is ignored or pushed aside by passersby, perhaps even arrested. The FOUR or FIVE are conducting negotiations: one will be handed a pen and sign an agreement, after which handshakes all around.
Voice (from dark center stage):
As it was in the beginning,
it is now, and shall ever be:
Panhandle for a few bucks,
you're a bum
Panhandle for a few hundred million,
you're a civic leader
(LIghts go down.)
THE END
The Last Word
Upstage L, a casket with mourners crying. Downstage R, a MAN preparing to speak of the deceased.
MAN: He was a liar, a cheat, a bully,
who made life difficult for those of us
who worked under him;
we were partially consoled by the thought
that most of us would outlive him
For those of us who did, he got us again,
dying in December to deliberately
thwart those of us who were
planning to piss on his grave
(Lights go down.)
THE END
For What It's Worth
A school anywhere in the United States, action to be demonstrated wordlessly as NARRATOR speaks.
NARRATOR (can be onstage or off):
There's something happening here
What it is is quite crystal clear
There's a kid with a gun over there
Who wants to do more than just scare
Once started he won't stop
Children, hear that sound
Everybody knows what's going down
The battle lines have been drawn
And the spree won't take very long
Bullets strike some very deep,
sending them to permanent sleep
Thoughts and prayers, I'm afraid,
won't make this sad day go away
Again and again that sound
Everybody knows what's going down
(Repeat last two lines at least twice)
(Lights go down.)
THE END
The History Game Show (Episode 2)
Setting: Two tables with four chairs each, one on each side of the stage, set at enough of an angle so that each chair is at least partially facing the audience. These two tables will be lit from the start of the play; center stage will be dark.
Cast of Characters:
MAN, whose identity will not be revealed until the end of the play
And tonight's show is
TO TELL THE TRUTH
MAN (speaking from dark center stage):
"It is conducted
for the benefit of the very few
at the expense of the very many",
"a racket . . . possibly the oldest,
easily the most profitable,
surely the most vicious"
"I helped purify Nicaragua
for the international banking house
of Brown Brothers
in 1909-1912
I brought light to the Dominican Republic
for American sugar interests in 1916
In China I helped to see to it
that Standard Oil went its way unmolested"
There are other instances I could give,
but I think these three will suffice
"Looking back on it, I feel
I might have given Al Capone a few hints
The best he could do was to
operate his racket in three city districts
We Marines operated on three CONTINENTS"
"In short,
I was a racketeer,
a gangster for capitalism"
This is the point in the old show where the four panelists would try to guess which of the four contestants was the real person whose achievements had been cited. If you are the one in a million who correctly guessed my identity, give yourself a prize.
(Lights go off the tables, come up on center stage, revealing the MAN
I am Smedley Butler,
once a Major General, USMC
(Lights go down.)
THE END
The History Game Show (Episode 5)
And tonight's show is
WHAT'S MY LINE?
(GUEST walks to the chalkboard, signs the name THOMAS MIDGLEY, and then sits next to the HOST.)
HOST: Are you ready, panel? (murmurs of yes from the panelists.)
PANELIST #1: Are you well-known to the general public?
MIDGLEY: No
PANELIST #2: Were you involved in the arts in any capacity?
MIDGLEY: No
PANELIST #3: Were you involved in what is today called STEM?
MIDGLEY: Yes
PANELIST #3: Were you involved in the Science part of that?
MIDGLEY (after quick consultation with the HOST): No
PANELIST #4: Were you involved with the Math part?
MIDGLEY looks at the HOST, who then answers for him.
Math was involved but not as the primary part,
so the answer has to be No.
PANELIST #1: Well, now I've got a fifty-fifty chance (chuckles from audience)
PANELIST #4: I'm betting he gets it wrong
No takers on that bet?
See the confidence people have in you
PANELIST#1: Were you involved in the Technology part?
MIDGLEY: No
PANELIST #4: I'm betting the next panelist gets it right
Again no takers
PANELIST #2: Were you involved in the Engineering part?
MIDGLEY: Yes
PANELIST #2: Were you involved in the building of bridges or roads?
MIDGLEY: No
PANELIST #3: Were you involved in the building of buildings?
MIDGLEY: No
PANELIST #4: Did you hold any patents?
MIDGLEY: Yes
PANELIST #4: I believe Mr. Midgley
is known as an inventor
HOST: That is correct
Mr. Midgley was known as an inventor
(Lights go down on everyone but the HOST, who continues speaking.)
That was his claim to fame during his lifetime,
and he was much honored by his peers
But during the decades after his death
his two most famous inventions,
leaded gasoline and chlorofluorocarbons,
continued to inflict untold damage
upon planet and people
He has been called
"a one-man environmental disaster"
but even that understates his impact
He can legitimately be called
the most destructive individual
of the twentieth century
(Lights dim.)
THE END
Michael Ceraolo is a 64-year-old retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has had two full-length poetry books published (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press; 500 Cleveland Haiku, from Writing Knights Press), and has two more full-length books in the publication pipeline.
