The Energy Me

 

We spend most of our days

thinking about ourselves.

We tend to take personally

even things which don’t

or shouldn’t concern us.

We are all opinionated

self-serving creatures,

creators of our our own

worlds. Often I will be

stopped in the middle

of my steady stream of

consciousness wondering

about what life was like

before I was born? And

what shall it be like when

I’m gone? The lifeform

of energy goes on and on,

you know. For me this life

form I presently hold now

is my awareness of self as

a participant or spectator,

surrounded by a transform-

ative energy with the ego

me sandwiched briefly

in between. Before and

after, the unexplained

dark energy lies where

self does not apply.

               -30-

Chris Hanch 5-7-2022

Rhyme and Reason

 

Devastating war in Ukraine

1-million lives lost to Covid

in the USA

SCOTUS is about to repeal

Roe v. Wade

Earth is threatened adversely

by man-made climate change

Rhyme and reason beg

to be explained

As mankind evil and stupidity

take the reins

Pathetic news in a nutshell

encapsulates the day

Round and round the world goes

and nobody knows

            -30-

Chris Hanch 5-6-2022

When it Was

 

When was it exactly

the boy became a man?

Was it at fourteen and

his first titillating kiss

with a girl he had met

at the movies?

Was it his first cigarette

given to him by a friend

at twelve years of age?

Was it the day his parents

divorced and he was left

all alone?

Was it that angry day in his

junior year of high school

he walked out the door

and never returned?

Was it that frightful day

he joined the Army

because he had no where

else to go?

Was it that day he closed

the front door behind him

and left home forever?

Was it his first love affair

and subsequent marriage

at eighteen?

When was it exactly

the boy turned into a man?

Was it his first child,

his first job at the factory,

his first car, his first home

in the suburbs, when he

grew his first beard and got

a promotion at work?

I suppose boys grow into

men incrementally at

different times or suddenly

like a bolt of lightning

out of the blue.

Yes, it was all of the above

and not any one of those.

It was the day with all

that behind him

the boy had his day

as he said to himself,

screw it, I can do this.

It was at that very moment

the man made up his mind,

right or wrong,

accepted responsibility

for his own life

and with the surety

of conviction

went his own way.

            -30-

Chris Hanch 5-4-2022

Music to the Ear

 

I sit here steeped in the stew

of my seventy-fifth year.

Native American flute music

plays on my Echo.

I watched some TV earlier and

it seems that old celebrities

are younger than I.

Music brings back memories

of a time living in Albuquerque

some 31-years ago. Through

thick and thin, I have come a

long way since then.

Sometimes I am amazed I

have made it this far. Several

years ago, I gave myself a

goal, to live as long as my

favorite writer, Mark Twain.

A silly wish indeed for longevity

in life is not entirely up to me.

But I managed to make it nonetheless.

Some have told me that seventy

five is not that old. You have many

years to go they have told me.

All I can say is given my waning

condition and the miles I have put

behind me, I accept the unpredictable

ways of the world and life.

Anytime now is fine by me.

Lots of thoughts, many a

memory. I can accept that

which is meant for me. I

am ready.

Steeped in the stew of my

seventy-fifth year, I sit here

listening and remembering.

Native American flute music

is soothing to my ear.

                  -30-

Chris Hanch 5-2-2022

The Morsel Me

A grain of sand

a speck of dust

a nano second

in the cosmic

expanse of space

and time

a frittering critter

to country folk

a city slicker

to the enlightened

cosmopolitan

I am what I am

all my possibilities

have been revealed

in three-quarters

of a century

one minute molecule

a morsel

of flesh and

blood humanity

an ostentatious

omnipresent

obscenity

eat me

-30-

Chris Hanch 5-2-2022

Rubbish

 

I got to thinking about all

the crap we collect and amass

over a lifetime. Closets,

basements, atics, garages full

of papers, pictures, nick-nacks

clothes and what-nots, nuts,

bolts, containers, you name it,

no longer wanted or needed,

useless stuff accumulated over

the years. Primative man,

especially the nomatic breed,

had need of very little, had

to have a light load to carry

about from place to place,

warm clothing and weapons

for hunting and scirmishes.

He lived off the land and

usually found what he

needed to survive along

the way. And when he died

his people or tribe either

rolled him into a ditch,

piled rocks over his remains

or set him aflame. They took

his spear, his bow and arrows,

his knife and moved along.

Ah, even in death, the simple

life. No bank files, taxes, wills

and reports, no watches, rings,

jewelry or valuables to assess

and give away. Uncle Bill, he

collected junk. Aunt Bessie,

she was a hoarder with a house

full of clutter. Everything they

owned was either bought or

made by someone else. Can’t

just set fire to the whole damn

mess.It’s against city ordances.

Face it, we have become a

nation of pack rats, and when

we pass on we’ll have left

behind one hell of a mess

for some unlucky friend

or relative to handle.

Future anthropologists

will have their hands full,

sifting through widespread

landfill wastelands of

rubbish material grubbing

mankind has carelessly

left behind.

             -30-

Chris Hanch 5-1-2022

The Proposal

 

Look at it this way,

you’ll have exposure

to your work, and that’s

worth a lot for a new

advertising business.

That’s what Old Man

McHenry told me

after playing the

commercial I had

produced on speculation

for his profitable

appliance business

in Independence.

Advertising is key

in keeping your name

out there for the buying

public to see, I emphasized.

Besides there is keen

competition to contend

with in the home and

commercial markets.

You’re fighting the big,

chain, brick and motar

stores for consumer

recognition.

Along with the premium

radio spot I had created,

I presented McHenrey with

a common sense and powerful

proposal for spending his

advertising dollar with me.

He insisted that I needed him

more than he needed me,

and I should be grateful to

hand over my work to him

cost free.

Granted, I could have used

the exposure for my fledgeling

advertisinf business, but

in turn I diserved to be

payed for my efforts.

You didn’t make a profitable

business by giving away

refrigerators, ovens an washing

machines for free, I told him.

No, the cheap bastard made

his fortune on overly inflated

profits made from suckers like

me. I shook his hand, walked

away with my proposal vowing

to myself to buy my next

appliance from Sears or

Montgomery Ward’s

Advertising or not, McHenry’s

was no longer able to compete

with them.

I learned my lesson, giving up the

advertising business eventually, and

stuck with my self-serving consumer

tendancies instead.

                  -30-

Chris Hanch 4-30-2022