20150904 (collegiate separation)

Like so many other things in my life

Of socially delayed development the 

Parental quagmire of dropping me off

To college was really dropping me off

I was a townie at Carroll to graduate 

School in my parents’ driveway

As I loaded my stuff into a fellow

Student’s car who would drive us both

To Bloomington Indiana now that I’ve 

Seen the process from both 

Ends of the bridge I can state 

Reliably the feeling parents get of

The child finally breaking away 

A complete delusion you really lost

Them during the application process

Or before when they first told you they 

Were really looking forward to their

Eighteenth birthday when society itself

Took a position against you on their

Independence the tearful hug is a ritual

For your benefit not theirs they may 

Walk with you back to the car

To see if they emptied everything out

Typically they have this is ritual remember

Another last hug receive your urging 

To call or write in my time I’m 

Not sure what kids do today

I would hope hourly texts taper off

As they bury themselves in procedures

Books booze boys girls and sin

The cord which supposedly was cut

In the delivery room should not have

Reattached if it has you were doing

Something wrong hobbling their step

If you were doing it right your kid’s

Had numerous chances to fly on his or 

Her own music camp in Michigan

Boy Scouts in New Mexico our first

Two were borrowed by friends in

New Rochelle who flew them 

At age eight and nine to New York

To see if they our friends had 

Parental moxie before unleashing 

Really dangerous sperm to 

Make one of their own suffice to say

They had a daughter in the year following

Perhaps our two pushed their envelope

By all reports they performed

Superbly which if true was not a 

Realistic test of parental stresses

Whether you make them the old way

Or adopt children should come with

Papers that spell out carefully you 

Get to hold them for only a few years

If you’re good and they’re lucky

Then you must let them go even if

You think you’ve still got years

Because they let go long before

They’ll be with their friends and

Their life before your car 

Leaves the parking lot

c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150903 (infestation)

Qui cum canibus concumbunt 

Cum pulicibus surgent*

Might have been true in Ben Franklin’s

Day when he promoted this proverb

Seneca framed centuries ago

Today we have Frontline and Advantix

For both cats and dogs I’ve been 

Nothing short of religious in their 

Care I know what flea invasion means

Firsthand or should I say first legs

When the kids were young 

Jean and I took the family

Away for the weekend

Left the cats home with food water

Clean sand but God forbid

Failed to close the basement

Windows our Toshkins and Chessica

Fraternized at the screens with the

Neighborhood ferals were soon the 

Bearers of full frontal fleadom

Which you might know spreads to

Carpets beds not long after

Returning I was being bitten

Ferociously about my ankles and

Calves after a night in the sack

My back chest arms experts  

Told me fleas don’t bite itchy

Welts the result of skin irritation

From flea feces you can imagine how this 

Calmed my feverish heart you’d

Have sworn Salvadoran Death Squads

Were stubbing cigarette butts out on my skin

Jean and the children while not immune

Were troubled far less Daddy the nutcase

Was going full tilt we’ve got to stop this

I opened the bedcovers for Jean showed

Her the black pepperspecks hopping to life

That night we bought several aerosol

Bombs designed to kill fleas 

Next day set them throughout 

The house closed all the windows

Sequestered the cats comfortably in the 

Garage then beginning in the attic

Set the bombs off bedrooms bath

Living dining kitchen basement

Locked the doors and left for a long day

At Cedar Point to give Zyclon Z all 

The time it would need to work

Disperse and expire it worked for two weeks

But the eggs in the rugs curtains spreads

Carpets emerged to ravage me again

Painkillers hell I needed tranquilizers

That’s when we hired the pest company

Paid through the snoot the first time 

The second time a third would have been

Their cost kind of a warranty better by 

Far than my only solution 

Out of Frankenstein  was to 

Burn down the house 

Needless to note we had few bipedal 

Visitors that summer

c. J.S.Manista, 2015

*Who lies with dogs will rise with fleas (usually interpreted as: "Be careful with whom you associate; you will take on their flaws."  Here the interpretation is far more literal.)

20150902 (grieving)

It’s impossible to grieve enough

When you consider the weight of a life

Even a babe who dies after a day

Has dominated months of its parents’ 

Concern some cultures agree on a set

Period a week perhaps many tell me

That’s too short when in my job I 

Granted leave for a funeral except 

For those most closely related a

Couple days would suffice the wake

And the funeral for cousins uncles

And aunts husbands wives sons and

Daughters you’d think would need more time

But they often returned and carried

Their burden in quiet solitude from time 

To time you’d get a request grandma was

Like a mother to me and two weeks 

Of grief were born well in the Caribbean

Sun was there no one so low they’d not

Use a family death to go golfing

I’m not talking about those off the wall

Situations or when an uncle’s sister-in-law

In California whom you didn’t write or visit

For years now must suddenly be memorialized

With two more weeks away 

You know when you’re being used 

But it’s not worth the fight

All that aside no amount of time

Makes up for a life finally after a year

You go through her clothes realizing

You can’t do this call in your sister 

Sister-in-law touching each item you

Knew how she wore it with this necklace

Or that skirt find a hair on the suit

Don’t know what to do with it

Stare too long brush it away

Wipe your eyes there’s really no

Point in me being here I’m in the way

Let me know when you got it all sorted

I’ll carry it downstairs but you can’t

I’ll bring up some boxes label them

For where they go I’ll get them in

The car tomorrow and take them around

We’re not going to garage sale any of this

If you want something no you won’t

Fit this give it all away I’d rather not

See the costume jewelry ever again

The good stuff I’ll save for the kids

My son’s possessions were simpler

A pair of fairly new jeans some socks

Incredibly dirty a fistful of scratched CDs

They thought better of giving me

The belt he used to hang himself

He had a small box of papers mostly

My last letters to him

c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150901 (renaissance man)

It was easier to be a Renaissance man

During the Renaissance when there wasn’t

As much to know especially math

Science history knowledge of the 

Classical Romans and Greeks filled in

What would have been allocated to

Anthropology Zoology parts in between

A guy could dash off a trifle 

In dactylic hexameter about the ways 

Of the gods nobles without interruption

In the time he would have spent 

Texting his loved ones or checking 

Facebook Salon Al Jazeera Huff Post

Except for those times when you’d grab

A sword to restore a balance of power

Among competing Venetian doges 

You have time to concentrate pen

An adagio for violas paint a chapel

Ceiling while coining clever couplets

Skewering the Pope and his courtesans

You could get a good job at any good

University no entrance exams no SATs

Just control your tongue around the prince

His fellows the same with his maidens

Try to stay healthy lots of fruits veggies

You don’t want to have gout no matter

How it’s the sign of noble breeding

Fencing will save you keep your waist

Trim vital when the rapier’s thrust misses 

By an eence you live to fight another day

As always it will help to be well-born

Or claim the fortune of a rapacious brigand

You’ll not be traveling on gallant steeds

Buying up art in the Orient on a serf’s

Daily allotment of mead and mutton 

The cost of keeping all the accordion

Collars pressed and starched would

Break a squire’s budget you’ll need

A camica doublet short kiltlike skirt

Hose better tights a dressy embroidered 

Jacket with long flowing sleeves 

To your knees the pointy shoes are so

Fifteenth century eat well grow strong

You’ll need to sashay about in all this

With a heavy necklace and still be able 

To unsheathe your blade without falling 

It takes practice stride don’t walk 

As due your bearing close the door

When you leave with a resounding bump

Or when you knock to enter with the butt

Of your dagger strike a comparable thump

Just don’t hit on the prince’s main squeeze

Stick with the ladies in waiting you don’t

Want to complicate life if you’re doing 

This at all right they’ll be falling 

All over you decked out in fashion 

Should they doubt say something in French 

Merd followed by some Italian command 

Mangia mangia and when you

 

Tell them about how the earth is not

Flat they’ll be lapping it up you’re

So learned they’ll sweetly exhale

What a romantic well rounded scholar they’ll coo 

You’ll get Renaissance Man

About four hundred years

After you’re dead

c. J.S.Manista, 2015