After Me

 

After me someone will reach for an apple, a pear,

a peach at the grocery store.

After me someone will feel and breathe the cool

and sweet mountain air.

After me someone will stand on a sandy beach at

sunset and see the brilliant glowing sky turn into night.

After me the sea, the stormy sea, a concerto

then a symphony.

After me the madhouse then peace and tranquility.

After me bells will ring, a child will cry as the old

man rages, the oak sheds its gold autumn leaves.

After me doors will open and close, dust will gather,

flowers bloom, murmurs abound in a crowded room.

After me glory and doom.

Ships will sail, coupled boxcars ride the iron rails.

Birds will perch on telephone lines and sing after me.

After me razor blades, basketball and roller skates.

After me prom dates, high school and college graduates.

After me dreary, cold, warm and lovely days.

After me festive holidays and anniversaries to celebrate.

After me itches which irritate, muscles will ache, pizzas

ordered early shall arrive cold and too late.

Fresh bread and Peter Cotton Tails, nursery rhymes

hard times, duck blinds, treasures and gold mines

after me.

Open fires, bald faced liars, worn out tires after me.

After me broken arms, lucky charms, wooden barns,

soy bean farms.

After me boys and girls in Levi and Wrangler Jeans,

hockey games and diamond rings, nuts and bolts,

rubber bands and balls of string.

Before and after me, all these things I have and

have not seen. The many things I have considered

and what’s more, a lot I have not.

                                   -30-

Chris Hanch 625-2020

Word Play and Other Auspicious Ways

 

The Earth is endowed with an Equator.

Surrounding its circumference at the middle,

it was constructed that way.

The broker sells investments which in certain

circles could be said is his or her stock and trade.

A good play on words is always appreciated

by those who count themselves among the

esteemed purveyors in the lexicon of words.

Does Thomas Fuller's 1732 proverb, a

stitch in time saves nine, still apply today?

Careful, what you say, a slip between the cup

and the lip may come home to haunt you.

Does, take it or leave it, sound more like an offer

or a threat to you?

I always thought it would be cool to circumnavigate

the Globe. Circumnavigate is one of those words which

seems to roll off the tongue. Besides, at cocktail parties,

it impresses the ladies.

Pardon Me? Would You Happen To Have Any Grey Poupon?

                                            -30-

Chris Hanch 6-24-2022

In the Future, a Vision

 

I had friends who passed away

while on a spacecraft to Mars.

I saw them boarding

and waved goodbye at liftoff.

It would be a long journey.

I am not an astronaut.

I stayed at home on Earth

where I belonged

and survived the next few years.

No horses where injured

in the making.

Either way

come what may

eternity lasts forever.

               -30-

Chris Hanch 6-21-2022

Post Father's Day Photos

 

A day after Father’s Day, I got to looking

at an old photo of my dad and me I had

posted on Facebook. Then, there was

another photo my grand daughter had

posted with her dad (my son) paying a

heartfelt tribute to her dad. I got to

to thinking how proud dads are of their

kids, especially after they had grown into

adulthood. Now, it’s fine being a dad when

your kid is a baby or a child, but to see

them grown up to be the fine upstanding

adult person they have turned out to be

gives a dad a whole new perspective of

how precious and important being a dad

really is. You’ve done your job, brought

a good and decent person into the world

who has your bloodline and carries your

name, a person who will give the world

all the special gifts they possess. Oh

sure, you were no perfect dad. You made

your mistakes along the way. But this is

your child and of them, the special

individual they have grown into

adulthood to be, you are so very

proud. And your button-busting

smile from ear-to-ear in those posted

photos says it is so. That, my friends,

is what love’s got to do with it.

                       -30-

Chris Hanch 6-20-2022

For All It's Worth

 

Hay bales sunning naked

in an open field

Trash barrels Polka dancing with

no lids

Only one was granted

random access

Converts carry toxic candles

to their own demise

Koalas sing a happy birthday

song a cappella

It’s forty miles and a toothache

to the next watering hole

You sense the senseless

on the last day of school

Be-bop doo wap wails

at the sock-hop

Ridiculousness rides the rail

to elsewhere

Tangerine pustules mar

the surface of the Sudetenland

They told you to hold on

then hung-up the phone

What’s the use, you say?

Tomorrow there’s a chance

for rain

How many poets does it take

to fill the restroom?

Get a broom and sweep up

the rest of us

And you thought van Gogh

was insane

Sometimes Mondays and punctuation

count for nothing

Do it all over again

Rinse, repeat…

Three frogs wearing bowler hats have no feet

You’ve been warned

no more smart phone for you

                    -30-

Chris Hanch 6-17-2022

You and I

Imagine if you will, being born

something else. Trillions of cells,

and only a few arranged differently.

And then, brainwaves forcing your

behavior to dictate your day in a

more primordial way, lets say,

animal instinct rather than human

reasoning. You, no work, no play

no friends or family to understand

and get in the way. Just you and

your daily routine. Food, shelter,

constantly on the lookout for

predators. Imagine if you will,

having been born as something

else. No memories, no fantasies, no

vocabulary, no need to explain, no

philosophies or reasoning about

life and death, thoughts about the

before and after, just the daily

routine—food, shelter, mating,

ever on the lookout for danger,

day in, day out, every day the

same. No cell phone, computer,

toothpaste, deodorant or

automobile. No meetings to

attend, no prayers to say, no

bills to pay, stopping on occasion

to scratch behind your floppy ear

with a hairy hind leg while foraging

forest, field, tree or stream for a

certain delectable meal to eat.

There are lots of would-be folks

out there , you know, who were

never born to be like you and

me, and just a little tweak of a

few cells out of trillions made

the difference, you see, making

what we have come to realize

you as the you you are and I here

and now contemplating the reality

of the me I was born to be. 14-billion

light years and trillions of stars in the

making, you and I. What were the

chances of that? Mind-boggling crazy,

wouldn’t you say?

                         -30-

Chris Hanch 6-15-2022 

Lesson Plan

 

For eons dust has settled

over the history of man.

Sweep away as he may,

dust will forever remain.

They say every breed of

dog today is descended

from wolves 25,000

years ago.

Infants are born crying,

what then prompts them

to naturally form their

first smile?

Cicadas transform from

nymphs buried in the earth

seventeen years before

burrowing out above

ground into the light.

The recently launched

James Webb Telescope

promises to reveal

more images from

the Cosmos than

were possible before.

How much wood could

a woodchuck chuck if a

woodchuck could chuck

wood?

(There are no applicable

rules in English that say

a poem cannot end in a

riddle. Hey! Diddle,

Diddle. Live with it.

Class dismissed.)

                -30-

Chris Hanch 6-13-2022