20151001 (returning home)

I think I'll be seeing these planes only from the outside now.

There was a little turbulence 

Coming down people asked

If I had a rosary no but I 

Don’t think we have the time

When the wheels smacked the 

Tarmac a cheer went up and

Dissolved in applause first 

Time for everything the air

Force retiree next to me asked

What’s the fuss we still had

Both engines the real estate

Knockout on my left passed

Me her card promised me a

Great place in Crocker Park

For ten fifty a month she’s

Got my card may stumble 

Across my rant on Crocker

Park think to withdraw the

Offer don’t fly Frontier unless

You can save enough to cover

The future costs of spinal

Repair from having to sit in

One-size aluminum unadjustable

Molded chairs with a luxurious 

One-eighth inch deep coat of

Sprayed on foam being 

Bound to kneelers for two 

Hours would have been less 

Confining plus we could more

Easily reach our credit cards 

They charge for everything

Except use of the toilets

Exception which proves the rule 

Frontier staff faced with 

Universal revolt from first

Timers have a standing 

Reply from ticketing agents 

To flight attendants that 

While no Frontier does

Not charge for air you 

Breath in flight their engineers

Accountants are working on

It what democracy of agony

They can give you more 

Leg room if someone

Ticketed for a seat at the

Emergency doors is willing

To switch of course that will be

A thirty dollar upgrade credit

Card please a thirty dollar

Credit or miles for the surrendurer

In case you thought the guy

At ticketing looked a lot 

Like the guy who brought

Your luggage to the baggage

Carousel fear no more

They’re trained to be a

Versatile bunch probably

Why it took so long to get

Your grip no amount of

Money could get me to

Say cheerfully as the smiling

Attendant said as we

Were deplaning wolfie 

The totem on our plane's

Rudder wishes you pleasant

Flying if it is pleasant flying

It can’t be on Frontier

c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150930 (papal visit)

Young son waits while his father a prisoner visits with Pope Francis

Americans might be asking 

What type how much crime 

Would I have to commit to get 

An audience with this pope

He's still passing out the same 

Rosaries his illustrious stiff

Predecessors chucked to princesses 

Grace, Diana, stars of stage 

Screen and such so in one 

Way he's not all that different

But you don't have to travel

To Rome this guy comes

To you maybe he pays for

The flights for himself and

His entourage by renting out

The Vatican apartment he'd

Be occupying had he not chosen

The smaller guest house digs

Believe me he's still not saying

What I'd have him say but he

Sounds a lot better than his 

Forebears when it comes to 

Religious talk you don't hear

This stuff about caring for the

Least of my brethren from

Creflo Dollar Joel Osteen 

Kenneth Copeland Benny Hinn 

Charles Blake T. D. Jakes 

Billy or Franklin Graham or 

Mormons who are really a

Category apart not at all

Heavy on Jesus as the Son

Of God and maybe not a 

Credible instructor you're

Not gonna lure many to the fold

If you keep pushing crucifixion

Except for that wife multiplying

Tithing missionarying to 

Increase the tribe of tithers

What Brigham Young Joseph

Smith were all that hot about

Is not apparent to me with Frankie

We see eye to eye on the death

Penalty part ways on women 

Abortion birth control rejoin

On ending wars justly

Reprocessing wealth so nobody 

Gets the short end of the stick

Since he bit the sinners down

At the Vatican Bank he just 

Needs to rout the Vatican courts

Of the pederasts and arrogance

Then he and I could meet 

For a drink after we close

All the prisons elevate

A great woman bishop

Hang a for sale sign

On Saint Peter's






c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150929 (certainties)

There was a time Aristotle 

Knew rocks without getting 

Out of his armchair Ari declared

Of course heavier rocks fall faster

Everybody knows let's move on 

To metaphysics which for him

Had nothing to do with 

Magical spiritual stuff so

Commonly misconstrued these days

Meta meant simply after the

Physics need I explain further

But he was wrong wrong as rain 

Not on the plain had he stayed

In his divan thought a tad longer

As I've writ before he could

Have nailed the laurels become

Papa scientiae two thousand

Years earlier instead of being

Vilified as an authoritarian 

Deliberator how much prettier

We'd all be sitting now except

For poor Galileo Galilei who'd 

Have had to wait for a Dutch 

Lenstube moons of Jupiter to 

Make him famous now with the

Gieger-Marsden demonstration

That rocks are mostly empty space

It would appear certainties 

Nowadays are notoriously brief 

I'd be wary of declaring 

Everlasting love based on seas 

Drying up heavens ceasing 

To be should I prove false to thee 

Prudential take care we can't be

Certain of anything anywhere

About rocks anymore




c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150928 (cheating the natives)

Never did find out who got Rose's 

Cow crapped out in property 

In my second semester of law 

I wanted to go to law school in 

The worst way attended 

Cleveland Marshall at night 

A bad way if not the worst 

Confess I was ashamed of 

Showing up in my mailman's

Gray blue badge of dis-courage-ment 

When others' wear didn't 

Disclose their humble states

Beat myself in the head 

College grad with post-grad 

Credit only a mailman 

Get over it I told myself

Same foolish self-consciouness

Cost me art school a year earlier 

None of the others regularly

Took meds for depression 

At least didn't show it 

Now late in life I don't 

Give a damn who knows 

My kids are well on their way 

Whether I ever set any records

In my life none I don't care

I've thought about wrote about 

Everything to my satisfaction

Claim an understanding better 

Than most no one will 

Convince me I'm mistaken 

On Brenner Way today with

Cosette the sign apprising me

Of waterfront available raised

The question just how did all this

Become their land to sell this land

At the water's edge with towering

Pines a dead end road leading to 

It so secluded so quiet compared to 

Others off the city road lacking

A view of the Eld Inlet but still

Worth a staggering sum which

Tribe was recompensed for these

Beautiful shores nobody you might

Just as well ask which Iroquois

Sold the golden egg of my plot

Near the overlook of the Cuyahoga

Where did all the rich natives go

Why do so many live in poverty 

In ramshackle huts on wastelands 

Did they just give everything

Away for baubles once we got them 

Drunk it's so easy to deny hide

The history that overlays all this 

Fraud they've got a few casinos

But nothing like the wealth they gave 

Up reservations are rife with 

Depression alcoholism ignorance

Ill will they're dying off by their

Own hand quicker than we 

Could kill them were I to pay

Half a million for a hundred

Yards of the shoreline what

Percentage do you think

The natives would get





c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150927 (survivalism as a waste of life)

I first reffed this scratch a conviction 

Find an opinion wherein I'd 

Cleverly discuss an illness

Known today as survivalism

How it so radically destroys 

Real living how it wastes

Actual life worrying about a 

Future filled with indefinable

Grotesqueries the least of which

The zombies who haunt the 

Cable world do they double for

Our projected hatreds fears

In the 'fifties the unnameables

Took the shapes of giant ants

Martians mixed goodies baddies

The days after as if there would

Be such intended or unintentional

Nuclear exchanges today's zombie

Analysts look to our need nervously

To laugh at our fears on the light side

On the dark side to indulge our lust

For sadism to torture maim victims

Free of the onus of political correctness

Who better to bear our heartless

Anger than creatures already dead

Many faceless possibly Black 

Possibly Muslim to absorb 

Modern varieties of cruelty

Invading like immigrants come

Take what we have like looters

Of Katrina's Algiers Point seeking

To escape the hellhole of flood and

Disease tried to cross the Crescent

City Bridge to die of shotgun

Blasts from turkey-shooting raging 

White folks of Algiers an area spared the 

Levee damage the flooding who 

Defended their homes with 

Buckshot as what they had to do 

Whipped on by governor Blanco's

Assurances that shooting to kill

Was the only way to stop the

Chaos of looting I can hear 

Echoes of Hutu nuns on the radio

Urging the slaughter of Tutsi

Cockroaches do you remember

So without even asking 

What these black men wanted

Or bearing to hear their plea for

Mercy they sanctified in their

Righteous whiteness killed six or 

More and have never been prosecuted

The great good that guns do in 

Fulfilling the wishes rotted hearts 

Alone could not accomplish

To this hodge I added the podge

Of first ever hearing the Kieran Kane

Jamie O'Hara song when we're 

Gone long gone sung by Garrison

Keillor and Heather Masse one of 

The last songs on their live-streamed

Prairie Home Companion show

Saturday I can quote the lyrics

But I'll burst into tears again for 

Its plaintive message

   And when we're gone long gone
  

   The only thing that will have mattered

   Is the love that we shared

   And the way that we cared

   When we're gone long gone

I am a pushover for Linda Ronstadt

Emmy Lou Harris Dolly Parton

Garrison Keillor Heather Masse and

The positively bluegrass delivery

Of course it's a love story first

So I thought of Jean then viewed

It in the wider scope of philosophy 

Theology this is unadorned restatement

Of Matthew 25: 31-46 Lord when did I

Visit you in prison the only thing

That will have mattered is the love

That we shared and the way 

That we cared when we're gone 

Long gone

c. J.S. Manista, 2015