Ode to Ms. Skittle

A Felineous Sonnet

By David Roth

© 29^th October, 2011

I sought my furry feline friend

to broach some highbrow conversation

to bring the matter to an end

to stall the fruitless tribulation

glare intense, her whiskers twitching

tail tossed like a metronome

she had me, held me, cast, bewitching

froze, immobile garden gnome

green eyes reach within as well

to seek the thing I ponder

hold me firm within her spell

relieved, and still I wonder

but then, I muse; I reason that

she is, indeed, a jelicle cat.

Necktie

By David Roth

© 28^th October, 2011

I begin each day

by intentionally

strangling

myself

with

sixty inches

of hand stained

artfully woven

intricately stitched

imported Italian silk

stretched taught like otter skin

on a Cherokee drumhead

turned and pulled;

cut at just the right angle

that the laser straight lines

of the weaver’s loom

now hang a perfect downward slant

of elegant gold, regal burgundy

and a microscopic dab of ketchup

in the middle most golden stripe

no known amount of dry

cleaning will

remove

ever.

Semper Fi!

By David Roth

© 28^th October, 2011

Sweat glistens as diamonds

on a brow the color of Belgian dark chocolate

while rod straight fingers of pristine cotton

snap a crisp salute.

He willed the trembling fingers still

a hairs breadth away

from the patent leather shine

of his perfectly tilted cover

and razor edged dress blues.

Later, when the echo of twenty-one guns

faded as the memory of a summer storm

and the flag draped wooden box was silent

beneath a chiseled slab of granite

and fresh bolts of sod tapped firmly in place

would the storm of emotion

that rocked him to the core pass

taking with it the fury of a thousand

sleepless nights beneath the stars

some unnamed ocean of sand

when like the gentle babble

of a mountain creek

would he find peace

even as the last of his team lay still

in the cold earth and setting sun,

he had kept the faith.

Semper Fi!

So That’s What It’s Like

By David Roth

© 26 October, 2011

Ain’t nothing new, ain’t no big thing,

slip on the ‘boks, my hoody and bling

pop tarts and milk

book bag and door,

maybe cut class, maybe hang at a store

Jarrod’s my Homey, ‘Quila’s my lady

gonna hang some, you know

nothing evil or shady

down to the Farm Store

iPad some tunes and just chill.

Should be in class, not here in the open

should be someplace else

someplace wishin and hopin

not hugging the floor, near the door

like a chore, while a wet patch spreads wide in my pants.

Come in wit a nine-mill,

fried on some head thrill,

angry and burnt out

pulling that piece out

shoulda gone to class.

I’m scared, I admit it!

that dude, he ain’t wit it,

don’t know what he’s seekin

I’m real, ain’t no peekin

my pants are still leakin.

Jarrod stood to confront him

fire one, punk, I ain’t jokin

got a hole where his head was.

‘Quila screamed, fire two,

that sweet face, cold and dead.

So that’s what it like

when the monster come out

wave a gun and start shouting

ain’t what livin’s about

It’s cold, I ain’t breathing, wet pants finally dry.

It's Not Too Early

Are you paying attention?  Do I need to send someone over and Gibbs-slap you?  (Do I need to send someone over to explain what a Gibbs-slap is?)  Go down to the lower right hand corner of your computer screen and click where it shows the time.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait, and unless you’re an even worse dork than I am, you won’t break anything.  I am, of course, operating under the assumption that you are using a Windows based computer.  I don’t have any idea what’s in the lower right hand corner of a MAC or any flavor of pad except the LCARS GUI based PADD.  You’ll either get that or you won’t.

So – you there yet?  Good.  Click the arrow on the right hand side of the calendar thirteen times.  Take your shoes off if necessary.  You (and your DeLorian)will have arrived at the right place – and time – when the calendar heading reads November, 2012.  If it reads September, 2010, close the calendar and start over again from the beginning, but the time use the other right.

Seriously, if it took you more than one try, you might want to stop reading here because if that confused you, the rest is going to be way over your head and frankly, you probably shouldn’t be involved in this anyway.

Now – are you toughing it out?  Did both you and your calendar (with or without the optional DeLorian) finally arrive at November, 2012?  Good!  Now wind your way to the second Tuesday of November, 2012, which will actually be the third Tuesday on the calendar because of the way it’s laid out, but don’t let that confuse you.  If the Mayan’s are right, none of this is going to matter anyway.

Your finger – or mouse pointer  - should be resting on November 13^th, 2012.  Got it?  Make sure, because this is important.  Apart from the face that the date is the 13^th day of the month, or that it falls exactly thirteen months from the day before yesterday, (and boy are numerologists having fits with this one) if you’re still with me on this, you are one of the people who need to be paying attention because this specific day, November 13^th, 2012, thirteen months from now is the second Tuesday of November, and you know that that means: in 1789 Ben Franklin wrote “Nothing in life is certain except Death and Taxes”, and in 2012 we will elect a new POTUS, again presuming we ARE smart enough to not re-elect the current one, and also assuming the current administration doesn’t cancel the election, a possibility not as far-fetched as you might think.

This is an important election.  Our future as a nation may very well hinge on the outcome of this election – if in fact Barry Soetoro doesn’t cancel it.  It’s an idea that the Demoratic Governor of North Carolina, Bev Purdue (not to be confused with the poultry people) likes.

And it’s not the only issue confusing the already murky waters.  Republicans can’t stop calling each other names long enough to agree to stop calling each other names, much less talk about solutions and agree on a candidate.

Are you old enough to remember Kennedy-Nixon?  People in this country were genuinely worried that the Pope would exert too much influence on a Roman Catholic president if he were elected.  No one seemed too worried about the prospect of a Quaker President.  Well how about one who may have to choose between the constitution and a fable about an archeologically and anthropologically improvable national history?  Even when the only alternative at the moment is a Kenyan born socialist whose political ties are closer to Muhammad than George Washington.

But, on the other hand, maybe the Mayan’s will have got it right, and none of this will matter in the end.

And even if they’re wrong, I take comfort in the words God gave a Jewish Scholar/Prophet held captive by Nebuchadnezzar over 600 years before the birth of Christ:

“Then Daniel went to his house and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter,  [urging] them to ask the God of heaven for mercy concerning this mystery, so Daniel and his friends would not be killed with the rest of Babylon's wise men.  The mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a vision at night, and Daniel praised the God of heaven  and declared:

       May the name of God

       be praised forever and ever,

       for wisdom and power belong to Him.

             He changes the times and seasons;

             He removes kings and establishes kings.

             He gives wisdom to the wise

             and knowledge to those

             who have understanding.

             He reveals the deep and hidden things;

             He knows what is in the darkness,

             and light dwells with Him.

             I offer thanks and praise to You,

             God of my fathers,

             because You have given me

             wisdom and power.

             And now You have let me know

             what we asked of You,

             for You have let us know

             the king's mystery.”

(Daniel 2: 17-23 Holman Christian Standard Bible)

All Hallows Eve

By David Roth

© 8^th October, 2011

The wind howls on in a frightful gale

while the naked trees sing a woeful wail

Jack-O-Lanterns wink, in a blink, deceive

on a chilling night called All Hallows Eve.

Children roam in packs going door-to-door

yelling ‘Tricks Or Treats;’ meaning ‘more, please, more’

in the growing dusk how they laugh and weave

through the creeping chill of All Hallows Eve.

There’s an eerie feel to the neighborhood

“Can we ask up there? Do you think we should?”

“That’s haunted house,” as they all believe,

so they pass it by this All Hallows Eve.

As the urchins pass all but unaware

of the horror lurking behind the stare

from the frosted glass with the spider weave

at the house they passed on All Hallows Eve.

For a hundred years, give or take a few

when the street was young and the house was new

there be monsters here, if you dare believe

that come out to play on All Hallows Eve.

The Brothers Cameron: An Opportunity for Resentment - Book Review

The two things I have the most difficulty reviewing are Romance novels – because I really don’t much care for the genre, even when it’s carefully couched in the well draped blanket of historical fiction, and work by writers I know personally – because whether I like them or not, and I DO this author, it’s just difficult to be objective when you know the writer.  You either want to dislike their work because you know but dislike them, or, as in this particular case, you want to write a rave review because you know and like the writer irrespective of his or her work.  It’s double jeopardy when it’s a writer you know and like writing in a genre you don’t particularly care for, and you try to be as objective and brutally honest as possible, which I do.

The writer in question is fellow Examiner Jesse V. Coffee, the Lexington Writing and Literature Examiner, CEO of Edin Road Publications, A.K.A. Red Haired Celt, my editor and publisher and my friend.  So I guess that makes all of this that rare triple play, and writing this review isn’t going to be easy.  And if 312 words can be taken as ‘long story short’, there you have it, and here I go.

I first read Jesse Coffey in a completely different setting for historical fiction, a delightful horror piece called A Wager of Blood.  Originally published in paperback by LBF Books and soon to be released E-book edition under her own banner of Edin Road Press, the author used the soon to be retired pseudonym of J.W. Coffey.  This was a pulse pounding read worthy of the pen of Stephen King when’s not busy covering Wooly Bully with his garage band and attending Red Sox games. But this is not about A Wager of Blood.  I’ll return to that when the e-book is released.

Let me tell you now about The Brothers Cameron – An Opportunity for Resentment.  The place and time are Edin-on-Norwich, England, 1567 A.D.  Stephan , the elder of Sir Douglas Cameron’s sons has been brought before Lord Joseph Turnbull, Baron of the shire, accused of the theft of silver from the shire’s church.  His accuser is Sarah Miller, with whom young Stephan is in love.  Lord Joseph is an evil megalomaniac with eyes set on wealth and power no matter how it is to be attained.  He has bribed young Sarah to falsely accuse Stephan.  As Baron of the Shire, Lord Joseph is jury, judge, and executioner by law.  One other thing.  He hates the Cameron family.  Stephan is stripped, whipped within an inch of his life by the soul-less Irish assassin known as Cieran, and left to die, or be found on the road to the Cameron estate.

Fast forward ten years.  William Cameron has returned from a lengthy tour of Europe, where he has seen the best and the worst civilization has to offer.  He returns to an Edin –on-Norwich which has changed little in his absence.  Lord Joseph is still the Baron, and if anything is even more evil and determined in his hatred of the Cameron family.  Here we meet the rest of our cast.  Mary, the young woman known by the Cameron family since she and William were wee ones.  The Lady Jessica is the recent ward of Lord Joseph, who has his eyes on her titles, lands, fortune, and, dare I say it, her innocence.  And through his willing henchman, Cieran, Joseph is not beneath murdering anyone who gets in his way.

The Brothers Cameron – An Opportunity for Resentment by J. V. Coffey is a rip snorting, swashbuckling whale of an adventure that far exceeds is intent of being a good romance.  It’s just plain a darn good read.  A splendid story, well told.  The only distraction I had was occasionally when Coffey, who  tells her story as third person narrative but from individual characters perspectives, loses me momentarily when she, with little more than an extra space between paragraphs, jumps back and forth in the linear setting of the tale.  Once you figure out where she is, it’s a smooth, if fast paced ride.

5 stars for The Brothers Cameron – An Opportunity for Resentment by J. V. Coffey, and Edin Road Press at Smashwords. Second edition © 2011 by Jesse V. Coffey   Originally published as The Brothers Campbell First edition copyright 2002 by J. W. Coffey First edition ISBN 978-0595261772

Tampa readers, and readers everywhere can find The Brothers Cameron – An Opportunity for Resentment by J. V. Coffey online at Smashwords.com in most popular e-book formats, and for their Kindle at Amazon.com

The Brothers Cameron – An Opportunity for Resentment is book one of the Brothers Cameron Trilogy.  Cover art ©2011 by Lorrieann Russell.

Interested Tampa readers can learn more about J. V. Coffey and her writing at Facebook and at the author’s web site.

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