Here is December
The month most remember…
As kids for presents
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Holiday downers
Depressed because it’s so dark
Winter solstice and light!
–
Looking for snowfall
Arctic freeze forecast for soon
Halo around the moon.
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Last of the month plans
Eaten up by high demands
Thanks–Being alive!
–
–Jonathan Caswell
MY WIFE’S CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
My wife when young found her thrill
Riding bicycle down Washer Hill…
Flying down that road
Angels are owed
Credit for preventing a spill!
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All these years, I thought it was dirt,
Like the road down to Aunt Myrt’s…
Had visions of rocks
Being avoided–no shocks–
Now she claims it was paved, not that adverse.
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She still says downhill she was flying,
Feeling free for the moment from crying…
Fear in her life
Cut like a knife,
But her love of bike riding–undying.
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Other moments on her bike were tense,
When she wiped out under an electric fence…
Which she did regularly
Until learning turns safely
From their driveway with much less suspense!
–Jonathan Caswell
OF CLAMBAKES…!
Shortly after the earth surface cooled,
When I was a boy…
Every summer it seemed in August
A clambake the fam’ly enjoyed.
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It would be in Ida and Andy’s yard,
A South Street, Douglas, locale…
The clams would soak in a corn meal bath
Overnight til the grit expelled.
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The cousins would dig a pit,
Light a bonfire filled with rocks….
When the rocks were good and hot
They’d put in the clam pots.
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Covered over with seaweed
The steam lusciously smelled…
Some of the clams were set aside
To be breaded and fried to taste well.
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Along with clams, they steamed up corn
On the cob that tasted so sweet…
With beer on tap and soda for
The kids, and coffee for later before sleep.
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We all brought something to pass,
A dish of salad or beans…
Sometimes ham or turkey would arrive
Depending on a person’s means.
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Uncle Andy (now gone and missed)
Might fall asleep at the ballgame…
We kids once named him the umpire,
But he worked hard, so could (him) blame?
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I don’t know why I didn’t like steamed,
I missed out on the best food of all…
Tasted them since then and they were great—
Just thinking of what I missed, that’s all.
–Jonathan Caswell
