Yet More Words

 

Let’s prime the brain pump

and get today started with

a few words.

First I need an idea, a notion

about what I would like to say.

Shall it be fact or fiction for me,

perhaps a poem, could be

an essay. Who can say?

Yesterday online, I submitted a

written piece and some of my

photographs to a literary journal

in hopes of having them published.

It has been my experience that

chances are my offerings will be

summarily rejected. But I decided,

what in hell, why not? I’ll give it

another shot.

It’s getting to be late in the game

for me anyway. And lord knows

when I was younger I had more

piss and vinegar, much more

energy for such things.

Others have tried hundreds of

times with little or no success.

Nonetheless, in my waning years

I might as well give ‘em hell.

Got nothing better to do anyway.

Why, just coming up with some-

thing to say makes my day.

Life is a numbers game or so

some will claim. And after I’m

gone all those pictures and words

from me or anyone else shall go

up in flames. Words anyway,

just a waste of time?

For instance, “Will you marry me?”

I submitted that request several

times over the years. And the

results never did work out that

well for me.

So, here I sit alone at age 76, and

for me after all the words I had to

say (published or not), they got me

here to the end anyway. And by

god, believe it or not, things pretty

much turned out to be okay.

                     -30-

Chris Hanch 4-17-2023

Finding a Place

 

 Knew a man in Denver years ago.

We lived in the same apartment

building. Won’t forget him because

he had two first names, David

Anthony. Nice fellow, had a

severe disability, quadriplegic

paralyzed from the neck down

by a car accident some years

before.

He didn’t let that stop him, though.

He got around in one of those motor-

ized wheel chairs. He had various

caregivers who would visit him

regularly to help out with bathing,

housekeeping and meals.

David enjoyed getting outside weather

permitting. He’d find a serene place out

of traffic’s way, getting in some sun and

fresh air. He loved reading goods books,

usually classic literature or history.

He was a very intelligent guy, graduated

from Annapolis some years ago. I ad-

mired that about him for I had dropped

out of high school at the beginning

of my senior year to join the Army.

Yet, fortunate was I to have use of both

arms and legs. And too, I had a car

which allowed me to travel about and

drive wherever I needed or wanted to go.

David used to warn me to keep my

transportation at the ready in the event

I needed to move somewhere else, or

just to get out of town. I’m sure that for

him was one of his greatest concerns.

Given his condition with his limitations,

he was pretty much stuck where he was

even if he didn’t like it.

“Don’t ever give up your car,” he often

warned me. “You just never know when

you’ll have to get up and go.”

I took David Anthony’s sage advise even

though I never could see myself selling

my car. I never envisioned myself becoming

incapable of driving as he was.

Well, some ten years later having moved

along to different places and given my

advancing age, I had succumb to disabling

arthritis which forced me to give up my

car and driving all together.

Nowadays, I’m stuck and I stay mostly

in my apartment alone, relying upon my

son and daughter to shop, run errands

and clean my place.

At this time in my life, with the exception

of visiting home medical caregivers from

the Veteran’s Administration, I really have

no one to pass along David Anthony’s

earlier warning to me—Keep your wheels

as long as you can, in case you find the

need to escape. Oh, and I might add, get

yourself some good books to read,. And

find yourself a nearby, uncrowded, comfort-

able place for some sunshine and fresh air.

-                            30-

Chris Hanch 4-15-2023

The Movies

 

It’s a movie, a Hollywood movie.

I see what the actors, director,

editor and producer want me to see.

It’s all too phony for me to believe.

And those French, Italian and German

films without sub-titles, I can make

up my own dialogue. I go by the

scenes and looks on the actors faces.

The tone of their voices tell both

truth and lies. I make up my own

storyline.

I like those Spaghetti Westerns with

Clint Eastwood best. Those bad-ass

close-ups, those deep dirty looks,

the quick-draw shootouts and dubbed

over horse clippity-clops, the blaring,

tinny, brass music.

Cigarillo- smoking Eastwood is the

only one whose lips are in-sync

when he says, “Dyin’ ain’t much of a

livin’, boy.” Close-up of his piercing,

steely eyes. Everyone knows what’s

going to happen next.

                   -30-

Chris Hanch 4-14-2023

Masterpiece, the Test of Time

Let’s consider the Empire State Building

in New York City—102 stories, 1250 feet

tall, completed in April of 1931, an impres-

sive structural masterpiece of stone, glass

and steel.

Take the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt,

455 feet tall, built around 2528 B.C., likewise

another astonishing masterwork of mankind

engineering and construction. Both structures

have stood the test of expertise and time.

Imagine it took thousands of workers,

architects, engineers, laborers and suppliers

years to construct these massive structures.

Attention to detail in the construction of

both structures had to be spot-on accurate

and impeccable. One misplaced stone, a

faulty girder or bolt, a malfunctioning cal-

culation by a designer, inspectors or

laborers could result in sheer disaster.

Perfection is key, demanding attention

to every minute detail by the most and

least important contributors of these mag-

nificent structures. Without teamwork of

the thousands involved, none of these

remarkable endeavors would have been

completed successfully.

Now consider a writer and author, one

may say that a man or woman’s literary

efforts whether it be a poem, an essay or

editorial, a short story, a novel or a musical

composition compares to that of the afore-

mentioned constructions.

There are several similarities which

come into play here. Both begin with

a thought an idea, dedication to the

creative process, the application and

development of any given piece.

Every word, each musical note placed

as a girder or stone is fashioned with a

creative and thoughtful expertise. Add

a labor of love and ingenuity, a precise

foundation, and the grand, construction

piece is achieved.

For example, take Shakespeare’s sonnets,

Whitman’ s Leaves of Grass, Hemingway’s

For Whom the Bell Tolls or Beethoven’s

9^th Symphony. Time-tested classics all.

As with the likes of New York’s Empire

State Building and The great Pyramid at

Giza, it takes our involvement. For without

an appreciative you and me where would

the human masterpiece be?

                            -30-

Chris Hanch 4-13-2023

 

The Games People Play

 

My dad did what he could to get by,

saying times would be better when

his ship came in.

Mom prayed daily to Mother of

Perpetual Help asking her to inter-

cede for her with Jesus her son.

With that in mind, although the

two were always at odds with one

another, they did the best they could

for my two brothers and me.

We each took their best and worst

intentions to heart. Needless to say

having interpreted mom and dad’s

offerings in our own way, we turned

out very differently.

Mom died at age 59, hopefully

with her prayers fulfilled, though

in many ways it didn’t appear to

be so.

Dad lived to be 89 years old still

standing on the pier waiting for

that illusive ship of glory to arrive.

And my brothers and I long ago

went our different ways. It’s not

up to me to say which one of us

ever achieved success to our

satisfaction in life.

We each took our chances and

played life’s game in our own

way.

I speak only for myself when I

say, holding two pair (treys over

deuces) were likely not enough

to win the hand, but it was good

enough at age 76 to keep me

in the game. A few years back

at 70, Brother Dave cashed in

his chips. Brother Mark now

77 has managed successfully

to bluff his way through.

I can’t count how many times

in my life people who have

known my brothers and me

have commented, you three

don’t look or act anything

alike. Did you come from

from the same mother and

father, they’ll ask?

Lifting up the edge of the my

cards to take a peek at my

hand again, I just shrug my

shoulders. And sometimes it

gives even me pause to wonder.

                    -30-

Chris Hanch 4-10-2023

Bail Me Out Here

 

A jumbled word array rips

through my brain. A thing or two

to say. Seems a rehash of yesterday.

You and I have heard it all before.

Shut the closet door and come

back tomorrow, I tell myself.

I’m a pack rat with all this

pilfered baggage to sell.

Show and tell of years gone

by. Hide and seek to reveal.

Present the banana, throw

away the peel.

More assaulted metaphors,

axioms and rhyme schemes

to reveal. Lightning strikes

twice in my rapid fire domain.

Seems life on Earth passes that

way each day. Time’s awastin’

for you and me, you see. Peter

Piper picked his last pepper.

The cop patrolling my thoughts

says, move along, there’s not

a damn thing to see here. Yet

I begged to differ.

Bring my bail to the Jackson

County jail. I’m being charged

with the atrocious manslaughter

of words against mankind.

Can’t come up with the cash,

slip a jackhammer into a pie.

I prefer apple, but cherry or

blueberry will do.

Man, have you gone completely

crazy? Bloody nonsense, you say.

I claim, just another day of man-

kind incarceration in this place.

Who in hell’s to say, anyway?

Word!

               -30-

Chris Hanch 4-9-2023

gob-smacked

 

gob·smacked

adjective

INFORMAL•BRITISH

utterly astonished astounded.

When I first heard this expression

I thought it was “God smacked.”

Supposedly God would smack

a person in order to get them

to listen up. You know, like when

Moses came down from Mount

Sinai with the Ten Commandments

God had given him. Pay attention,

folks! The followers below must

have been “God smacked,” I

figured.

Later on in life I came to learn

that the proper expression was

“gobsmacked.” I was sorely dis-

appointed to say the least. In

fact, I was so pissed off at my-

self for the misunderstanding,

so upset at my stupidity that I

leapt out of my chair and stormed

around the living room yelling,

“Gob damn it! Gob damn it!”

                -30-

Chris Hanch 4-8-2023