Monday, August 27, 2012

Squatter's Rights ~ 138 Lowman





I lived here once, in a house on this site.
Nothing left now save a pile of bricks and a reclining sentinel
With its soul nailed to the crossbars of life.
I lived here once on this plot, this gaping hole.

Hungry for comfort, I squat and dig for
Leftover pieces of another life, crumbs of what used to be.
I long to quench my unhappy thirst with forgotten tears of laughter,
Warm my waning spirit with past shouts of heated energy.

A shattered brick becomes a conch shell as
Waves lap onto the shoreline fringes of family:
A baby stumbles into her first word,
A dying old woman whispers her last.

A century of howls yanks me back
As the spine breaks away, separates.
Sounds from whimpering souls slip past as
The last pinch of light morphs into dust.

Mama, are you still here?
Do you wander through the rubble
and think, “I lived here once.”

Old wart of a house with all your bumps, lumps and blisters
Fix me with your defiant stare if you have to,
Pin me with your mutinous stance if you must,
But release me from your cantankerous hold.

The old wart roars, “I am you. 
Now and forever, I am you.”
The heated words burn acrid on my tongue.
Go to hell, you deceitful pile of bones. Go to hell.

No half-hearted sigh reaches my ears, no agonizing keen of grief.
No sounds come from the rubble that once was my house.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Fantasy Number One


In the past I lived some other world.
Where my special purpose was never unfurled.
I always answered to child, wife or mother.
Non-exclusive labels so I dreamed of another.

I want to thank this lofty Commission.
As I accept a prize from my new position,
Tonight I stand before you a poet.
And believe it or not
By God, I still don't know it.

                                                  — by Cappy Hall Rearick

© Copyright Cappy Hall Rearick

Time Out!


If I could have one more shot at life, one more turn at bat,
I would make my life a Happening, not an
Almost Happened, not a Spectator Sport.

I wouldn’t be content to sit on the sidelines while
The rest of the world played hardball life.
I would pitch and take my turn at bat.
I would break some records.
If I lived before in another lifetime,
I hope I didn’t settle for the sidelines,
I hope I gave it a shot.

I hope I didn’t sit it out and say
‘I coulda been a contenda’
Or look back on yet another lifetime and say,
“If I could have one more shot at life, one more turn at bat . . .

Time out!

It’s the top of the fifth,
The bases are loaded. It’s my turn at bat.
It's my turn to hit a homer,
My turn to take a shot at life,
My turn to break records,
Just because I can . . .
                                                                              ~ Cappy Hall Rearick

Friday, August 10, 2012

Making a Case for Hope

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

What’s up with all these wars we keep getting into? Will we never learn?

We had a leader who knew how to think and was courageous enough to tackle the mess left by his former inept president. Barack Obama came to us with a mandate for peace, not war, love not hate, negotiation not retaliation. He dared to think outside of the war room box; he urged Americans to look at how we have gone wrong in the past in order to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

The people chanted, "Yes we can!" because the people needed to believe in hope; the people needed to trust that our leaders had our backs. The people needed to believe that he had the right stuff to lead.

This kind of hope never sits well with the super rich or the conservatives who champion arrogant leaders and refuse to admit when they are wrong. This kind of hope gets shot down each day by self-serving television pundits who dare to call themselves journalists but are supported by the lemmings in Congress who care more about re-election than the welfare of the people they represent.

The neo-conservatives appear eager to take fated leaps into the abyss while supporting radical movements that give birth to an increasing number of extremists. It won’t be long before the real terrorists will have no need to do us harm because our own leaders are doing their job for them. How crazy is that?

A hefty dose of liberalism would go a long way toward counter-balancing the overdose of Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Beck and Coulter. Demanding more critical thinking and less personal judgment would be a brain stretch, but isn’t it time to question the nonsense that irresponsible talking heads continue to spout?

Conservatives may feign indignation when accused of racism, but when Make Obama Fail is their oft-played theme song, then what else could it be? They accuse the "liberal press" of blaming our current woes on the previous administration. Hello? Reality check.

Racism is a formidable enemy and each time it rears its ugly head the good people of this country need to stand up and fight it tooth and nail. We should all loudly and profoundly object each time Obama is condemned for having the audacity to hope that together we can heal our broken country.

Together means that our elected officials have to stop politicking long enough to put Americans first instead of ambition. It means the Party of No has to put partisanship aside in order to see how much damage they have caused. It means they might, just might, realize how badly America is hurting now that breadwinners no longer earn the bread, teachers instruct for little or no pay, soup kitchens have tripled and young people no longer have the same opportunities that were available to their parents.

Why worry about being invaded by terrorists when homegrown terror campaigns grow stronger each day while we do little or nothing? Instead of helping the extremists and . who preach government overthrow, why not show them up for what they are?

Resistant movements are not be all bad, but do they incite the Timothy McVeigh’s and Jared Loughner’s to do things that hurt so many? Disagreeing with government policy is a right of every American, but it does not mean we can blow up buildings and shoot innocent people. That is what foreign terrorists did to us.

Are we going to behave like solid citizens and stop listening to the lies told by people who care only about themselves and not America as a whole unit, or are we going to demand an end to the constant vitriol? Americans, it is up to us and nobody else.

Our country can only become strong again if we work together to make good things happen by getting out of our comfort zone and getting ourself to a voting precinct.

Americans believe in hard work, social equality and hope. It is why we continue to chant: "Yes We Can!"