In the News Today

 

In the news, Israel and Ethiopia.

In Washington, the filibuster

fiasco fumes.

States are passing legislation

to hinder voter’s rights.

Infrastructure will be The

Administration’s next move.

Across the Country, serious

crime is on the rise. And of

course, the topic of The Big

Lie is still alive.

Vacinate, vaccinate—

There are folks out there who

still stubbornly resist.

Our area is under a flash flood

watch until 7 PM tomorrow.

Thought you’d like to know.

Hardly anyone talks about hard

boiled eggs anymore. I have been

watching the pot of bubbling

water for 6-minutes. I’ll continue

waiting for 2-minutes more.

There, I’ve said all I’m going to say

publicly today. Then, what’s done

shall be done. Egg salad for dinner;

I can hardly wait.

I have no more of irrelevancy to say.

Quite honestly, except for the latter,

most of this crap makes no sense

to me.

             -30-

Chris Hanch 6-24-2021

Things People Do

 

Father is up early. He smokes

his first cigarette while shaving

in front of the bathroom mirror

before dressing and heading off

to work. At an early age, I learned

that is what fathers are supposed

to do.

Grandma drinks her coffee and

smokes cigarettes in the morning.

She bakes oatmeal cookies for her

grand kids in the afternoon. I know

this because as a child I would see

this is what my grandma used to do.

Old men sit on benches in the

middle of the day, smoke cigars

and feed the squirrels peanuts in

the park. I know, because this is

what I have seen old men do.

Firefighters wash and wax their

engines when they aren’t busy

fighting fires. They lean back

in their wooden chairs and

chat with one another when

there is nothing else to do.

I used to watch them in my

neighborhood every day on

my way home from school.

Butchers slice meat into steaks.

Bakers bake donuts and cakes.

Mail carriers deliver mail in rain,

sleet and snow. Teachers teach

ABCs, math and history.

Robbers rob banks. Ballplayers

chew tobacco and spit their wads

in the dugout as pilots fly airplanes

to far away places. I know because

I have seen them with my own eyes,

or so I have been told.

When I was about 10-years

old a friend of mine told me

where babies come from.

At first I couldn’t believe

my parents would ever do

such a thing. And I thought

to myself, how aweful. Why

would God ever allow that to

happen?

Nowadays in the throes of

my old age, given in a life-

time what I have seen, heard

done and know, I have come

to believe there is nothing on

Earth people can do which

would surprise me.

And although she’s long gone

now, I suppose grandma knew

a hell of a lot more than I ever

gave her credit for.

               -30-

Chris Hanch 6-23-2021

Consumption

 

Consumers everyone everywhere.

Consumers of sunlight and air.

Consumers of loneliness and despair.

Consumers of happiness and gloom.

Consumers of music and games.

Consumers of sickness and health.

The wealthy consuming the poor.

Facebook, Google and Amazon,

T-Mobile and Samsung,

Verizon and Spectrum,

Disney, GM, and Netflix,

Exxon, fire and ice,

sugar and spice,

naughty and nice,

chicken soup and rice,

Beelzebub and Jesus Christ,

and for a price,

I consume you and you

consume me.

All feed and cosume to survive.

Walmart and Target,

Wall Street and Main Street,

Little Caesar's and Burger King,

every what-not and gizmo devour

every second, every hour,

grace before dinner, bedtime prayer.

We say please and thank you

before and after we consume.

Cancer and AIDS consume,

Alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, heart attacks,

Rhythm and Blues, fatty foods consume.

Peach trees and arthritic knees consume.

Nike's and Old Navy, Max Factor

and Preparation H, Snuggies, Huggies,

Depends and Kibbles and Bits consume.

The Blue Danube and Eiffel Tower,

The Grand Canyon and Ft. Leavenworth,

Cleveland, Ohio, Las Vegas and

Delta Airlines, AR-15s and Keebler

Cookies, murder, mayhem,

mass killers and crooked cops,

obesity, poverty and stupidity consume.

Fascists, Qanon, KKK and Proud Boys

consume.

Face it, folks, we are all doomed.

The pundits, politicians and preachers

and the powers that be

say there is no other way. Scientists

tell us it’s too late to change.

Consumption not salvation all along

has been the Grand Plan.

Get what’s coming to you while

you still can. And for God’s sake,

let go of the remote, hang up

the smart phone, take a deep breath

and have a pleasant day!

            -30-

Chris Hanch 6-22-2021

It's Magic

 

Wanna see a magic trick?

Wanna see it again?

The hand is quicker than

the eye, you know.

So how fast is the hand

you can’t see?

Magic is an illusion

leading one to believe.

Pay no attention to the

person behind the curtain.

Dorothy’s story in the

Wizzard of Oz was a

contrived illusion of the

mind. I grew up hating

flying monkeys, but

had to laugh when Mike

Meyers of Saturday Night

Live and Wayne’s World

Fame proposed them

flying out of his ass.

Now imagining flying

monkeys makes me laugh.

Lookie here and see, there’s

nothing up either sleeve.

-30-

Chris Hanch 6-21-2021

What Matters Anyway?

 

I had a feeling: Nothing was supposed

to happen today. And if it did, I would

be of a mind to ignore it. I’d go with

my gut on this one.

No appointments, no phone calls, no

one at the door, even the muse would

ignore me. The music, my writing,

nothing to interfere, just a modicum

of relief from the everyday for me so

to speak, like being left alone blissfully

sailing the emptiness of space between

here and Mars.

We’re advised in life to make every

minute count. Today is one of those

throw-away days which counts for

nothing. Who but I am keeping track,

anyway?

A clap of distant thunder outside,

and the dog barks. I tell her, hush girl,

it was nothing really. When you have

a dog, you can hope, but can’t pretend

some days nothing matters.

And besides, what the hell, we sure

could use the rain. The next thing you

know, thoughts come and the muse

has to pervade. And here we are again.

                  -30-

Chris Hanch 6-20-2021

Still Doing What I Can Do

 

Old Age teaches you one thing for sure,

you are no longer able to do some things

you were capable of doing when you

were younger.

I can no longer help a friend move; no

more construction work for me; no soft-

ball or volleyball activities. At age 74

with arthritic disabilities, I have limited

physical abilities.

I now need a walker and ofttimes a

wheelchair to get about. Sure, it’s a

loss for me, yet I accept my condition,

and make due the best I can.

Life is sometimes that way. It is what

it is. I’ve always done what I was capa-

ble of doing at any given point in time

with my life.

And now I must adapt to my present

reality. I can accept that. My greatest

loss personally has been the ability to

draw, paint and sculpt which had been

a major part of my life since I was old

enough to pick up a pencil, pen or brush.

Art is my greatest gift in life, has been

from the beginning and in some form

will be till the end.

With pain and uncontrolled shaking

hands, I can no longer create visual

art as I once did. Hell, I can barely

sign my name without scribbling

all over the page.

Fortunately, over the years I have

also been writing. These days I use

a computer word program allowing

me to type keys which works most

satisfactorily for me. So, writing has

become my primary form of artistic

expression.

No need to feel sorry for what I have

lost. And I am okay and perfectly sat-

isfied with that which I have gained.

Just for shits and grins, today I decided

to try my pen and ink cartooning once

again. Knowing beforehand what the

results would be, I went ahead with

the test anyway. And low and behold,

I got the shaky and rudimentary results

I expected.

But I was blessed instead with the

ability to write about my current

experience and condition.

I still have hundreds of examples

of artworks I’ve done in years past.

I haven’t given up on my creative

endeavors, and I have this and

several thousand writings to show

for it.

Creatively, expression wise, at age

74 and for my time remaining, I have

these word pictures to share with

you and interested others.

Although there are still minor glitches

and drawbacks with this medium, for

the most part I am grateful, and thank

God I have spellcheck.

                 -30-

Chris Hanch 6-19-2021

Choices or None at All

 

I was never refused service because…

never told to leave because...

I was never stopped and searched because…

I was never demanded to show my hands because…

I was never accused of because…

I was never not chosen because…

I was never chosen because…

I was never slammed up against a car,

never cuffed and hauled off because…

How was I ever to know discrimination,

intimidation and accusation because..?

I was never asked to step out of line

or to move to the back of the bus because...

Never singled out and called something

I never was.

I was never beaten, shot, kneeled on,

strangled,

incarcerated or hung from

a tree because…

Once in 1988, while on a bus stopped at the

airport in Rome, Italy, I was asked by armed

guards to see my passport, likely because I

was a middle aged white man with a long beard.

For the same reason, a boss I once had asked me

at work one day if I had forgotten to shave?

Had I refused to hand over my passport or

told my boss to go screw himself, I could

have been detained or lost my job, but I

had choices to make because...

And I had my goddamned rights,

you see, but only because.

                 -30-

Chris Hanch 6-17-2021