Higher Ed Poetry: Universitas (a Parody of Shelley’s “Ozymandias”)

A fun bit of higher ed parody for all you MOOC fans!



Higher Ed Poetry: Universitas (a Parody of Shelley’s “Ozymandias”)

College Leadership Crisis: The Philip Dolly Affair—a satire of contemporary American community colleges - World Socialist Web Site

Read the World Socialist Website review of our community college "campus" novel at...
College Leadership Crisis: The Philip Dolly Affair—a satire of contemporary American community colleges - World Socialist Web Site

Another Excerpt: Shadows on the Sun-- The RV Park Couple No One Has Met

From Love in the RV Park: A Romance for Men  (Rogue Phoenix Press, 2013)

Shadows on the Sun--

The RV Park Couple No One Has Met

Tennessee Williams knew distinctly

—No shadows dance upon the Sun

And now you know it, too

But the sun shines anyway...

Yes, the pair lives together in an older single wide

A two-room palace smelling like ash trays, old coffee, and ecumenical paint.

He might have looked like Elvis (the 50’s Elvis) three decades ago…

She is still a beauty, hardened some. Though her tattoos have lost that etched

and sexy look, she still turns heads... and has a poignant “way” any male or

female might recognize.

Yes, they still cut impressive figures together—but anachronistic—

Sometime, long ago, they left Public lives together

and rode a bus to Hamilton City, and thought they’d stay a day or two—walking

hand-in-hand through the diesel fumes, neither excited nor dismayed. Some time went by—

Then they waited to see if spouses were angry or perplexed—

They never heard a thing from the Old World—now, in late middle age,

Still they live and love in a rent-by-the-week mobile home,

Bathed in eerie and accusing pink light each winter morning—

Haunted by frosty windows in the dark sky December…

They wander to the Blue Caboose Diner for most meals

Coupling down cracked and slippery concrete sidewalks

Without cares but with many cares...

He listens to the world on an old AM transistor radio

She reads newspapers someone left behind—

and paints her nails and adjusts toe rings each morning …

He shaves a weathered face carefully, with a blade and mug of manly lather—

The modern age, the spiritus mundi, well that means nothing to this dyad. They have each other...

Sure, they live and love in a rented mobile

They love with the freshness of just-cut Timothy Hay, of Morning Glories, and the late April Rain…

There are no shadows dancing on the Sun…

But the sun shines anyway …

An Excerpt from Love in the RV Park: A Romance for Men (Rogue Phoenix Press, 2013)

Melting Toenail Polish

Adam’s Place, December 26th

Even though it was a short winter day, Adam had been busy patching big holes in the street which looped through the park.

His hands were sore, too, from doing a lot of caulking on the Rec Hall doorframe.

But the big caulking job wasn’t finished yet.

Coming in late, and tired, he ate some left over Chinese food and took a long, steaming, hot shower. He cleaned himself thoroughly. Everywhere.

Leah, wearing silk pajamas, was painting her toenails, watching TV, and thumbing through a book.

Forty-five minutes later, Adam was enjoying the evening with Leah, who had fallen asleep on the bed, knees up, while reading Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

Adam nibbled on her ear lobes—no response.

He stuck his tongue in her rum-flavored belly button—a murmur.

He licked the inside of her cocoanut smelling calves—husky, labored breathing.

He kissed her freshly painted toenails—Bingo!

He looked up, between her perfect knees, and saw her smiling face.

She was smiling because wet toenail polish had smudged his lips. She was not so pleased her paint job had been messed up. Oh well.

Their loving was swift, powerful, epic, and glorious—a locomotive at full throttle, thrashing through the night, trackless and pounding—Fiery Power!

Wintering cardinals, perched on ice-glazed willow branches just outside the trailer, watched through the window, chirping and smiling. Their red heads bobbed, their clutching claws stretched and eased, syncopated. The birds occasionally shrieked with obvious hot-feathered delight.

An early morning sun, a dull red blossom, tired and limp, found Leah and Adam content, cuddling in a pool of molten polish.

Steam curled up out of every un-caulked crack in the travel trailer. Not a bit of ice remained on the windows. Oh My.