PO-Memories
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There were three of us to start with, but three would be too fewSo we canvassed the departments and added one or two From time to time we found another to take us up to sixWe drank a lot of beer, the group seemed a perfect mix The stakes were pretty low to match the…
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I’ve reviewed the places I have been If I ranked them, which of them would win Paris comes to mind, I’ve gone there again and againStrolling through the boulevards, riding on the Seine A city made for walking, my poor knees will attestIf you are a flaneur, then Paris may be the best Everywhere I’ve been…
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I was left just a boy when my parents leftNo brothers and no sisters, just a kid bereft I hadn’t any idea of the coming stroke of luckI scarcely new him then, my older cousin, Chuck He became more than brother in the life I ledA rock and a buddy for my tough times ahead…
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From time to time I’ve compared the places I have been If I compared those destinations which of them would win Paris immediately comes to mind, I’ve gone there again and againStrolling through the boulevards, riding along in the Seine A city made for walking, my poor knees will attestIf you are a flaneur, then Paris…
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My Chestnuts If I were a Horse Chestnut tree, I’d want to change my name I’d call myself a Lovely Chestnut tree, otherwise I’d be the same We admired those blooms of white over in the park, Still visible as we walked along as it turned dark But my greatest pleasure was what they gave…
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The Cement Plant in Alpena was a grey and ugly massAt the far north of town where most people would not pass There were three shifts so that the labor never ceasedGreat Lakes ships stopped by to feed upon that beast Huge rotating kilns were used to heat the limestoneMy father’s workplace, where lung disease…
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He was never Langdon, he was always known as Buck Meeting him in ‘59 was the greatest stroke of luck Just out of the Navy, starting toward my Ph.D. He just a little older on the Psychology faculty I had an assistantship at the Youth Studies Center I met him there; he would became my…
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Still Here Once it becomes a memory it seems it’s there to stay. I see that big radio sitting in one corner, the Sunday funnies all about the carpet, as are Daddy Bill and Jimmy. What’s Lil’ Abner done this week, where is Popeye going. Jimmy’s favorite was Alley Oop, a straight and narrow…
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Losing Hand How can one lose what one never hadHe was only five weeks oldOr so he was always toldHis teen-aged father couldn’t be a dad So the older couple living all aloneAdopted that baby still lying in a cribChanged his diapers, washed his little bibAnd raised that child to be their very own Were…
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Bill Smith Bill’s little house was just two doors down fromReinke’s store where he bought all his groceries.He lived alone and had a vegetable garden, so,given his age, didn’t buy a lot of food. He wasnot a slender man though, but well put together,tall, slightly bent, a white and bushy moustache. His brother, a little…
PoetJimHall 