patrickjegan

August 16, 2013

Epitaphs: Part III

What Think You? Well, here’s another epitaph for you to ponder. This particular one is very special to me. It is located in Evergreen Cemetery, Owego, NY. This is the town where I grew up. The cemetery was designed (like many in the 19th century) to be a place to wander, reflect or just admire…

August 9, 2013

The Girls of the Corn

The scene was something like the photographs of Dust Bowl Oklahoma. But there was so much current reality around me, it made a jarring juxtaposition. Fifty feet behind me the SUVs, the pick-ups and the Greyhound size RVs roared past on the paved road. A few feet in front of me was a nearly extinct…

July 28, 2013

Sliding Down the Road of Life

“Do me a favor, will ya? Stick with me on this. You’re the first to hear the story…I’ve only just finished giving the police the details and since I don’t write things very often, I need you to hear this…and remember all the little stuff. It may help me in getting my hands on the…

July 12, 2013

I Am Ice

I was one of the uncountable snow flakes that fell that day. Time was the same, it snowed, it rained, drizzle fell, fog burned off and the sunshine broke through the clouds. Before I fell to earth I had my last glimpse of the sun. Then all darkened with clouds and more snow. The sun…

July 10, 2013

The Poor House

We never lived in a poor house…or The Poor House I am going to tell you about in the paragraphs below. Our home was in a fairly well-to-do neighborhood on one of the more classy streets in my hometown. We had a garage and a 1949 purple Cadillac in the driveway. Our house boasted five…

July 9, 2013

Now Arriving…

[“Oh, yes, I remember it well.” -Maurice Chevalier] I do remember it. How often does a boy get his first kiss (and not from Mom) on an afternoon, after a remedial math class taught by a nun? My guess is that it’s not that often. However, that ‘kiss’ has to happen somewhere, sometime in a…

July 2, 2013

What Will Be Written About You?

“My Childhood days bring back sad reflections Of happy days so long ago. My boyhood friends and my own relations. Have all passed on like the melting snow.” (Traditional.) As recorded by Van Morrison. I have a gift for you. It isn’t wrapped in gilded paper and it does not have a magenta ribbon tied…

June 23, 2013

18. Drunken Steps

I’m sharing this poem because I think it says a zillion things in only a few words..like a true poem should.

June 23, 2013

Killing Me Softly With His Song

[WARNING: IF SAD SONGS MAKE YOU SADDER, THEN STOP READING NOW!] Before you shake your painted fingertips at me and call me “Mr. Doom and Gloom” (a girl-friend once did that), I’ll save you some time and energy. I have a great deal of Irish blood in my veins, I’m Black Irish and raised as…

June 1, 2013

A Jigsaw Puzzle

Hey, I took an art course once so I should know a thing or two about the visual and temporal renderings of the Great Masters as well as the Nouveau, Op Art or the trendy new Steampunk. So, to probe your right hemisphere (or is it the left?), here is a Multiple Choice Quiz. Please…