A.G.E's Joint

  Life is funny until it isn't.  It seemed like yesterday Barry, Mark, Sam, and him were the Putzietones, at your service for Proms, Weddings, and Bars. They had started in Mark’s garage as an excuse to drink. One thing led to another and they found they played well together. Fun days or at least most of them were. The gigs paid for gas and some ass. Great when you didn't have responsibilities. About the time the record company noticed, life intervened.  Mary got pregnant and she and Sam got married. Mark got bored with it all and went back to school. That left Barry and him and the sketchy contract they had signed. They recruited a couple of people to take up the slack and finish up the work. After a year the band was another tombstone in the graveyard of broken dreams. Barry was lost without having an audience. He pissed off family and friends with his drunken antics. After one girlfriend kicked him out after a DUI, he found himself in a trailer outside of town. He miss...

  Waiting Taming the fear  Of the call Sure to come. A whole life Dropped into the final hole. The stop sign we all come to.

 "Recommend this obituary to your friends." The line startled me when I read it. Was this hard-coded into the website or did some bored secretary stick it in the frame header?   The news wasn't unexpected. She'd been doing poorly for years. But it was a life worth celebrating and recommending. A 1970s-era housewife who roared. She set up a community services center for the disadvantaged and ran it through its first decade. She then handed the reins to capable management. She was a person you either adored or despised. Headstrong and used to getting her own way,. She stepped on many toes. But things did get done. The dissolution of a 30-year marriage after several kids was quite the bangarang for her friends. It seemed every week the Coconut Telegraph had something about her. The response was typical, go to seminary and spend the next 25 years in hospital chaplaincy, taking three of her friends with her.  I look around the room. People who had known her way back when ...

Doorbell rings Another neighbor Another casserole Another set of condolences Wish they would go away. The era ended Picking through the macaroni Looking at the fire Maybe I shouldn't have wished to be alone

    Rain fell harder as Jack approached the exit. Ominous grey clouds in the distance promised more to come. Fitting weather for a memorial, he guessed. Twenty years passed by since he was last in town.   Without thinking, he began to hum Turn! Turn! Turn!, another season passing. It seemed like yesterday Barry, Mark, Sam and him were the Putzietones, at your service for Proms, Weddings and Bars. Fun days, or at least most of them were. They had started in Mark’s garage as an excuse to drink. One thing lead to another and they found they played well together. Never breaking out of the regional club circuit, the gigs paid for gas and some ass. Over time, life intervened.    About the time the record company came around, Sam’s girl, Mary got pregnant and they decided to get married. Mark got bored and went back to school. That left Barry and him and the sketchy contract they had signed. Soldiering on in a couple of more bands, Jack got the job with t...

So, the other day I got home from picking up my wife and picked up the mail. Most days, it is ads, bills and other items that frankly they shouldn't have bothered with. Just think of how many trees died for that slick coupon sheet advertising house cleaning services and what not. And this batch of mail was similar, except for one envelope with a laser printed address label. I shrug, guesses it is a dinner invitation from a stock broker wanting to "invest" my non-existent money in a fake warehouse scheme, or maybe for some inaccessible land in the mountains. The shredder is hungry, but I stop.What really is in there? Ripping the flap open are vouchers to a local restaurant, and then I notice who sent it. A local funeral home. Great! Now, I know I'm getting old. I mean, I've been getting crap from AARP for at least ten years and now someone wants me to face my own mortality, probably on the monthly finance plan. I showed it to my wife and she laughed. ...

The words said Crowd disbands To their cars. Sun breaking Through the tears Warming hearts Battle long Relief short Everyone leaves Empty house Time on her Hands, standing Rosemary thyme Potato dish on shelf. Memories In quiet Desperation Who will stop The rain, she Cries out loud Sitting in His large chair Life leaves her.. 

This is the mausoleum Of wealth and privilege. Empty eyes on dusty objects On shelves arranged to impress. Their owners mouldering Standing on the marble floors. No spirit, no life In these rich walls. Just stuff For the children To throw out. 

A beautiful day In a quiet glen The corner of a cemetery Where I have tagged along The mourners gather At the hole To bid good bye Another too young. In retrospect they shouldn't Have sped up the road To meet their time. And the pole Yet their time came To leave the others behind To wonder if that would Be their fate in time. Another young man gone Another lesson learned To be forgotten again By the next generation.