14/30 PAD Challenge stuck

Stuck 

S o not going anywhere

T ied down and tangled

U nusually stationary

C apable of much but

K ept in one place

13/30 PAD Challenge Letter

 Dear Me

Hello, dear me, ten years from now.

You are now sixty-four.

How is two thousand twenty-two?

I wonder what’s in store. 

Has all your hair turned gray or white?

And did you lose some weight?

What is your daily schedule like?

Do you still stay up late?

Do you finally have an empty nest?

Did hubby leave his job?

Is your house all spic and span?

Or are you now a slob?

How is your lovely daughter, now?

And has she met her prince?

Did God answer this prayer of mine,

Are you a grandma since? 

Your son is almost thirty-eight,

Did he grow to be a man?

Does he have family and job?

Or he’s like Peter Pan?

Are you still writing every day?

Or are you finally though?

And did you take up carpentry

like I so threatened to?

Did you take an Alaskan cruise?
And see the Island state?

If so, you’ve seen all fifty now,

Not just the forty-eight.

Did you spend money and your time

In ways that are worthwhile?

And most of all, did you do things

That made your Father smile?

12/30 PAD Challenge Invention

Dematerializer

When I think of landfills

all around the world

cluttering up our beautiful planet,

I wish I could make them all disappear,

just snap my fingers and they’d be gone.

So wouldn’t it be nice,

instead of trash compactor

or garbage disposal,

we’d have a dematerializing device

to be installed in our cabinetry?  

Just put the unwanted item in

and zap, there no more.

But it couldn’t be very big,

otherwise I’d be afraid

children would go missing.

11/30 PAD Challenge Veteran's Perspective and Poetic Bloomings Father

A Brave Stand

I learned to shoot when I was eight,

Providing food to fill each plate.

I’d roam the forest covered hills.

To hunt and fish would give me thrills.

When I was only twenty-one

I joined the army with my gun.

My friend who was most brother-like

Was killed before my very eyes.

And only some short days had passed,

It grieved my heart, but alas

My own dear brother died in France.

I knew I didn’t live by chance. 

With firm resolve I fought and stood

For folks back home, the right and good,

Enduring war and bitter strife

In hopes we’d win a better life. 

I went back home with purple heart,

So glad to have a chance to start
A family of a wife and girls.
To me they meant the whole great world.

In the steel mill I worked hard for

What I fought hard for in the war,  
For those I love, my lovely wife

For right and good, and better life.

PAD Challenge 10/30 Foreign word

Arigato 

My dad,

a World War II veteran,

would more often say,

“Arigato,” to us children

than thank you. 

He spoke with fondness

of his time in Japan after the war,

how the people treated

the American soldiers

with gentle hospitality. 

Years later my family

heard “arigato” often,

from a Japanese exchange student

we took into our home for a week.

He spoke with kindness and respect.  

But manners became a source of amusement

when we played Uno with him and his friends.

When we Americans unloaded

our cards on other players,

we did it with glee.

But when the Japanese students

passed on their cards

they would bow,

look apologetic

and say, “So Sawy!”

9/30 PAD Challenge When he's gone

When He’s Gone 

My time is not for me alone

I am on call from dawn to dawn
Relentlessly I care for him

Yet, I will miss him when he’s gone

Contributes little in this life

His words are few, the day is long

At times my patience wears so thin

Yet, I will miss him when he’s gone

His smile can warm the coldest heart

His hugs and kisses can go on

And his delight becomes my own

Yes, I will miss him when he’s gone

PAD Challenge 8/30 response to dead poet

“Let us then be up and doing.”  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life

A Psalm of Flu

Let us then be up and doing

Sorry Henry not today

I’m so sick I feel like dying

So it’s in my bed I’ll stay.