.
.
.
"That's a leg."
"…A leg?" Looks awful big for a leg, Dad."
"It's his hind leg, his jumpin' leg."
"Oh, OK… You done with it? Can I start coverin' it, huh?"
"Sure, go ahead… Just remember, keep your paper wet."
"I know, I know. I'll bet he could jump clear over the house with
these legs."
"Uh, huh… I'll, just, bet he could, too; even with you on his back."
"Aww, Dad… He's not big enough for me to ride."
"Well, maybe if he was just a little bigger, you could. Insects are
really strong for their size, you know? Why, if he was this big,
(patting the boy on top of his head,) he'd be a hundred times
stronger than me. Hand me the pliers?"
"Here you go, Dad."
"Thanks, son."
"You think, this size, he could jump as high as a chicken?"
"I think so…"
"Could we eat him, too?"
"Well, some people eat 'em, now… even chocolate coated."
"Uugghhh, Dad… Can I go outside, now?"
"Yeah... go ahead, I'll finish-up."
"Thanks Dad."
The child grabbed a Mason jar from off the shelves,
made a quick trip through the kitchen picking a bottle
from the cubbard, and then, with hands full, shouldered
his way out the back door.
...And Dad, a short while later, after finishing up with
the project, dipped himself a bowl of good-old, vanilla ice-
cream; and could be heard, by the child and all grasshoppers
alike, outside, asking his wife… "Where'd the new bottle
of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup go, Hon?"
by m.l. farahay 9/30/99
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Young men, I tell you that, this was one good step up
a flight of rungs on a ladder in a direction, you know,
you should've never come down from,
for any number of reasons, first.
Now, you may ask, can I not forgive them?
Oh, I forgive them; in fact, I forgave them, almost…
immediately after each incident last.
It is just that, for now, I can not come to trust
their motives to be around me, anymore,
without adjustments… when,
they leave things to lay where they should not,
cause things to disappear and deny responsibility;
or worse, for their mother and me…
when they say one thing and have done another.
However, if they can, just, continue correcting their way up,
someway, I may be able to reach over and hold them like
I use to; when I was blowing opportunities of
making progress up my own shaky ladder.
Just make sure, as you climb your own ladders for happiness,
you set your goals to a standard worthy enough that,
when you reach the top, you do not find yourself alone…
Alone with unethically ambitious manipulators...
but with friends, family and loved ones of conscience,
who are not afraid, as they pray you to be,
to share of themselves unselfishly.
…But it is very difficult for me, now,
to have to make adjustments, to other's adult mistakes,
while I am, still, trying to correct my own…
You did a darn, good job on the house, though…
And I Thank you for that, sons.
by m.l. farahay 09/07/2000
.
Such beauty they had not beheld
In all their day's great light
It caught them unaware and swelled
Desire to share all nights
They felt each other's soul within
And bound with God's own bond
They vowed to ne'er forsake or thin
Those vows renewed with each new dawn
From this love sprang new adventure
To find a whole, new, world
All 'round and within each other
All their flowers unfurled
Consummated in love's sweet grasp
Beneath their earth's new moon
Two hearts to beat together cast
As one in love's sweet tune
Then just a month or, so, ago,
her full moon's cycle ceased,
and in her soul she came to know
the seed had there been creased.
…And heartbeats, they together felt,
were joined with whispers start
of a small, and quiet swelling
dwelling with it's own heart.
Now, she's as full as the moon
with beauty brighter shinning
divining the light of noon
three hearts to be entwining
Though Nature's way instills her sense
Concerns for pain and wretch
She's more occupied with present
…how far can all this stretch
While the trepidant mind of man
from joy withdraws in fear
of losing the beauty of
the two hearts he loves most dear
Knowing there's no guarantees
in her bringing forth sweet life
his fear grows silently conceived
till cries deceive his strife
and baby's musing noises
with mother's contented smiles
lift his spirit beyond choices
Now, he can run a million miles
by m.l. farahay 10/7/98
.
The first, in list, of what we find to sense,
With sight, we judge what's pleasing to the eye.
What pleases us may tend to bind our eyes
With ties more stronger than the greatest chains,
And draw us in to close the distance of
All those things that separate our senses.
If we are whole and open, we may drop
Such deep defenses and evoluted
Inhibition which, once, we groomed to save
Our children and ourselves from trauma's pain.
Such pain reigns on by gripping us with fear.
More dear to death is left this other fright
Which, works like witches' brew to paralyze
Our tongue, and eyes, and ears, and feet to hold
Us captive by our own defeats and lies
We tell ourselves about our worth and self -
Esteem… they fill our moral soul with doubt.
Until love routes it all to lead our hearts
And minds in blind aggression against some
Sixth, uncommon sense and fear of failure.
In color, shape, and our perception of
One's response, we choose to associate
All our best experience with this new
And favored pleasantness which hints of joy
To share some sweet elation, and beg for
More extreme familiarity with
All our other teased and hungry senses.
Pleasure comes in not mere stimulation,
But with just hope, creating something new
And beautiful to share with all our sense.
The strongest sense of love still reigns supreme
To ply in covert ways and sway our dreams
To need creating in reality,
By wafting in, without a clue to self,
All the season's reasons of instinctive
Drive's crying out… our animal abounds
Clawing at the bars of our frustration,
As Phaethon's pheromones stimulate
The keys to unlock the cage, we confine
Our love in, with some unkind, common lust.
The green monster of envy rides through us
All, in some small essence, as we first sight
What others have that, we, now, want so hard.
In some, unrestrained, it gallops wildly
With heavy hooves pummeling the youthful
Shoots of future hopes we, still, need to feed
Ourselves and children with to free desire
And fire imagination, love, and grace
To show, and tell, and help less disciplined
Acquire the means to rein their monsters in.
Social law's examples have no answers.
What's civilized is that which grows from love,
Love between mother, father, child, and self
And is nurtured to be fruitful beyond
The limits of each our familiar lairs.
For all that, we may hope for law to do
Is wave a flag at enemies of all
Our threatened and endangered families,
Till time turns love to mend us friends and blend
Our smiles in the eyes of all beholders.
By m.l. farahay 9/25/98
.
Highly educated people tell us;
When a young child's father is not around,
The child is less likely to be civil…
More prone to disruptive behavior.
Prehistoric hunters and gatherers
Must have had one hell of a time coping
With the behavior of their children,
When, and if, they returned from prolonged hunts.
Highly educated people tell us;
It is the nature of the child to be
Socially disabled and confused
If left to be raised with just one parent.
Sea-faring fathers, airline pilots, and
All others, with work taking them away
For days, and weeks, and months must pay the price
Of some undefined, mental anguish, now.
Precedents have been set by bureaucrats,
Behavioral scientist, and all those
Plus protective, social constructionist
Trying to reshape historic errors.
Children flounder in seas of confusion
Not from the number of custodians,
But from the tools, or lack there of, each has
To effectively educate their charge.
Successful practices, raising children,
Are not developed from the number of
Parents residing daily in a home,
Or even their availability.
Successful practices raising children
Revolve around the child's security
And the routine discipline focusing
Each child's attention, first, on what is safe…
Safe in the environment they are in,
Regardless of how diverse it may be
From yours or mine or anyone else's
Preconceived ideal from where they are at.
When a child is too young to understand
The consequence of its action to be
Potentially dangerous to itself,
Others, even inanimate objects…
When the child is too young to comprehend
The escalation of voice, or meaning
of mime, or verbal message to deter
the danger of their action, embrace them ?
The more gratuitous and more loving
The attention one imparts, just this once,
Will, inevitably, cause the child to
Repeat the action you have rewarded.
Who knows how the tigress knows just how hard
To nip or paw the cub to deter such
Annoying action, it playfully acts…
Or was her first attempt, so, successful?
Is it the immediate discipline,
Its severity, or the consistent
Repetition of the physical acts
Causing her cub to change its active choice?
It is all three, plus growing confidence
She imparts and gains herself providing
The physical needs before the mental
Education of instruction begins.
Humanity succeeds because we learn
From all of natures' kind what really works.
We flourish because we are able to
Temper natures' harshness with compassion.
Our sore failures, raising children, come from
Bureaucratic, social laws evolving
To restrict our individual choices
To discipline our children accordingly…
According to diverse environments
We are subjugated to raise them in.
We, individually, must choose what
Disciplines work best to instill our will.
Soon, we will not need scientific, lab
Developed clones for all humanity
To be alike and leveled to sameness…
Laws restricting choice will do it for us!
I decided, I'd rather be in jail,
A much more safe and protected place, than
In a home with five undisciplined teens…
So, I for all, chose to spank my children.
Now, as star-bright sun from east arises,
Those same teens, grown-up fertile and more wise,
Drop their, own, loin-spring off to be revised
By the incised disciplines of grandpa.
…And I wonder, now, where did I go wrong?
by m.l. farahay 9/25/99
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