It's Haymarket Day!

Dead Avocadoes
By Edward S. Gault

It didn’t feel like May
It was more like March or April
With the rain and the chill.
The vendor, bundled
In his wool jacket
Made it clear to anyone
Who could hear him
(for several blocks around)
That they could get
A carton of strawberries
For a dollar, fresh kiwi,
For a dollar fifty.
The bananas were guarding the pears and apples
As in a traditional still life.
The avocadoes though,
Were dead.

Copyright 2007

While You're On the Roads This Winter...a thought.

Close Call
by Edward S. Gault

He had to have been listening to the radio
Or he may have been nuts
But he certainly didn’t see me
Crossing the street.
I only just made it-
Even feeling the breeze from his van
At my back as he sped away
Not giving me any thought at all.
Every muscle stiff, I stood there,
Like a wooden statue.

Copyright 2007

Coffee Bean #4

" Where books are burned, human beings will be burned too."

-Heinrich Heine

There is currently a movement afoot to boycott The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman led by The Catholic League and other Rightwing religious groups. Forest River Journal stands opposed to any act of censorship, and recommends reading any book that is banned for general principles.

-E.S.G.

Christnmas Blitz

I'm back folks! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Here is a "Haiku" for the Christmas Shopping Blitz-it's my own corallary to Percy Shelly's Ozymandias:


In a vast desert
was a stone slab that read thus:
Me, Me, Me, Gimme!

Copyright 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I am going to be out of town all this week, Nov. 20-26. In the meantime, here is something for you and your family this holiday season.

Father, We Thank Thee

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

For flowers that bloom about our feet

Father, we thank Thee,

For tender grass so fresh and sweet,

Father, we thank Thee,

For the song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,

Father, we thank Thee,

For pleasant shade and branches high,

Father, we thank Thee,

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the the blooming trees,

Father, in heaven we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,

Father, we thank thee,

For rest and shelter of the night

Father, we thank thee,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends

Father in heaven, we thank thee.

A Haiku To End The The War In Iraq #2

Fools talk
Of spreading freedom around the world
But understand little

Copyright 2007

A Haiku To End The The War In Iraq

Tyrants talk
As troops march across a border
Children cry many tears


Copyright 2007

Gallows Humor

Funeral
By Edward S. Gault

I sometimes imagine
What my funeral
Will be like.
People will stand
Around my coffin.
Of course it will be raining.
It always is
In these scenes.
O dreary day!
People will be standing
Around drinking Scotch
And reaching for potato salad.
They will be talking about
What a spectacular career
I could have had,
If only I had
Not been a poet.
And the corpse
Looks terribly old.
Even so –
I know it’s me-
There’s a huge coffee stain
On my shirt.

Copyright 2007

Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Another Day!

Burnt Toast
By Edward S. Gault

It would be the first time in a decade
Boston City officials said
That the Charles River flooded.
As rain first came down softly,
And then came down in massive torrents,
A bridge in one town collapsed.
People were evacuated
From their homes,
The man on the radio said.
And that morning
I burnt the toast.

Copyright 2007

Coffee Bean #3

"Materialists and madmen never have doubts"
-G.K. Chesterton

We had no doubts about going to Iraq then,
And we seem to have no doubts about going to war with Iran now.


Copyright 2007

Buyer Beware!

Brown Bananas
By Edward S. Gault

There are some things
Everybody knows but me-
One of those things
Is that you don’t put bananas
In the refrigerator!
This I had to learn the hard way.
Last Saturday, for once
I was able to get
To get to the haymarket extra early.
My wife wanted:
Bananas,
Peaches
Grapes
black and blueberries
and strawberries
(And thousands of other things).
Of course when I got to work
I put them in the staff fridge
(Not the thousand other things, just the fruit).
There they stayed
Throughout the the day.
When I got home I found,
The bananas had turned brown.

Copyright 2007By Edward S. Gault

THANK YOU VETERANS!

For all the service that you have given to our country


To those of you in Iraq now, Our Prayers are with you,
For a safe return home.