Hear tell another birthday has snuck up on you

Don’t know exactly how a birthday sneaks up on one

Only so many days in the year

One would have to be your ‘lottery’ day

Or not

Birthdays, youthful birthdays are candle lighting good

But when there is not enough room for all the candles

Numeric candles are used

As if to reduce the obvious

Getting older

Supposed to act more mature

More accepting of graying years

There is consolation though

Your progenitors

Are probably much older than you

Though how anyone could be older than 50 I don’t know

Happy Birthday Katie my lady!

FXC 4/15/2020

Copyright frankxcameron.com

So many things to do

Even have gone through my bucket list

Numerous times

Not sure that a bucket list can be revised

However it would seem that given enough thinking time

Any concept can be reconfigured

Actually if there is more than one stirring the pot

Even a mutual list will have adjusted priorities

Learning French was one we inherited, on a back burner

Can’t say there was any real drive to learn French

Other than stories from previous generations

Yeah riding on the Rhine stopping to see Paris

Was definitively romantic

Projected plans formulated more than once

Surgeries and whatever delayed the dates

Now it seems as if planning is all we might do

Maybe if we rented a gondola for the Ohio

Oh yeah, wrong country

Reminiscing took us all the way back

To old family meal traditions

Each family to a degree seems like its own history book

My memories were a culinary lust menu

7 children, parents, grandparents

Certainly not going to be enough food to go around the table

It’s where I learned the real meaning of a ‘dinner bell’

Be sitting or be crying

Even today I can see the family menu day by day

Of course Friday was tuna fish casserole

Sunday very possibly could be a pork chop

The rest of the week included in no particular order

Hot dog, sauerkraut and baked potato

Chop suey out of a can with mounds of rice

Liver steak, with lots of gravy and onions

Chicken noodle soup with box of crackers

But really I’m ruining the speciality items

Sunday night without fail was the best

Everyone got a ‘Black cow’, coke poured over vanilla ice cream

So many behaviors would be corrected with a ‘Black cow’

Almost every meal had fruit out of a can, you know the list

Fruit cocktail, peaches, apple sauce,

Very frequently salads, though simple

A few leaves of lettuce, two or three slices of tomatoes

A spoonful of cottage cheese

Deserts were interchangeable

Orange jello, raspberry jello, lime jello

Vanilla pudding, chocolate pudding, butterscotch pudding

Didn’t really matter if there was a preference

There was only one entree per night

But lest I forget, the dinner piece de resistance

‘Corn beef hash’,

Actually I guess I could go on with this culinary history

But what I have documented is that there were scheduled meals

With designated items much anticipated

Might not be French cuisine

But then we didn’t have to leave the house either

FXC 04/07/2020 Copyright frankxcameron.com

Needed just a few items

Bananas, oranges, gardening gloves

These days mostly having needed items delivered

But today, late on a Friday,

Slipped my mask on

Headed to ‘Sauls Vegetable Market’

Yes, the name was changed to protect the innocent

Just grabbed a carry basket as I entered

Knew full well the location of bananas and oranges

The gardening gloves required a question

Usually a quick checkout

This time manned

By two perfectly young ladies

Well perfectly and young are redundant

Okay add ladies to the pleasant formula

Exchanged banter about the crazy times

Mentioned how they could now give their examples of having lived through tough times

To which one delightful miss replied

“Yes, when I was twenty in 2020….”

FXC 4/4/2020 Copyright

frankxcameron.com

Surely a Census Questionaire

Has crossed this desk before

Granted signatures don’t seem to be needed anymore

Especially if ‘Hey Siri or Go Google’

Or some other summing of the dictation gods

Forgot ‘Alexa’ are available

But beyond that 50 million questions

To determine my living status, sexual orientation, age and nationality

That can actually be understood except nationality

That one sticks in the craw

Used to be when they were here the older relatives would lean on their canes

Reminiscing about so and so and where it all started

Best they could remember

But now those older relatives include yours truly

Who remembers stories of the ‘old days’

But wasn’t really there

Home movies sometimes on a grainy screens

Would occasionally illuminate a pastoral scene

Don’t know anymore

If it matters where one came from

As much as it matters

How hard one tried when they got there

FXC 04/03/2020

Copyright frankxcameron.com

American folklore is replete

With examples of those stepping forward in times of trouble

To fill a need or vanquish a foe

Paul Revere, Rosie the Riveter, are just two examples

Many , many more have been in our lives but are no more

For their sacrifice

Their example continues to this day in the efforts of

Volunteer organizations who seek to assist those less fortunate

Today there is a desperate need for masks for the Coronavirus

Did not really understand the seriousness of this lack of equipment

However, maybe not in my back pocket but my always thinking

Seamstress associate, State Fair winner extraordinaire

Made so many dresses, shirts,costumes for family members

A natural conclusion she could be brought on board for masks

So like many stepping forward we have masks, plaid masks

Thank you precious seamstress!

FXC 04/02/2020

Copyright frankxcameron.com

Sh, sh, to be sure the phrase

‘You said what’ is usually only verbalized just prior to fisticuffs

However it is frequently ready to explode out of one’s lips

After being confronted with the most impossible logic

It could have been reverberating between the ears

As one hears what could be planted in the yard

In a single day let alone during the summer

Not always blessed with the ‘big picture’

It is sometimes difficult to comprehend those

Who have the vision and a sidekick to embellish it

Cost, time, labor, muscle soreness seem to not to be part of the equation

Nonetheless for those who like to utter the phrase,

‘You said what’ have learned all too well

The other party knows quite well what they said

FXC 4/2/2020

Copyright frankxcameron.com

Warm breezes finally waft over

A body locked in a long cool winter and spring

Eager to welcome the sun

A new day

But one fraught with endless anxiety

Fears, doubts

A virus one of thousands

Laying dormant

In our own bodies

Has woken now

Marauding the land

Scrambling powerful people

Once again convinced

Mother Nature can be tamed

Seek to slay this dragon of sickness

All that can really be hoped for

Is to allay the dreaded fatal predictions

Yesterday well maybe not yesterday

Headlines blared dire warnings

About drunk drivers, child abuse,

Unregulated firearms, Democrats, Republicans

Cancer, incurable diseases

Foregoing discussion of the good

Being done by people who just like yesterday

Are sacrificing themselves for others

And always will

For truly they are always with us,

Have always been with us

The happenstance of life

The joys and sorrows

Our inheritance

The good and evil

Of our lives

Could be our personal autobiography

“One Person’s Battle Against the Vagaries of Life”

FXC 3/29/2020

Copyright

Don’t often have Jesse with me

Three years old, cute blond,

Another one who calls me PaPa

Needed to get my protyme checked

Look it up

A five minute procedure

But one with Jesse in tow took 10

Well actually she is not Jesse

But seemigly evey woman who saw her knew who she was

Dressed in a cowgirl outfit, which I had not even noticed

A mirror image of a character from ‘Toy Story’

‘Toy Story’, I saw ‘Toy Story, 1,2,3,4’

Don’t rmember a Jesse

Is there some chathartic clarvoyance missing in men

A three year old walks in a room and all eyes turn

She knows it and slows to pose

Being acknowledged for whom she purports to be, Jesse

What is that mental imagery that exists between women

Know now best to just move on

Yet even getting off the elevator, another arriving patient

Spies my tag along

Greets her with ‘Jesse’

Need to take my chances with getting out the door

With my girl

Frank X Cameron 5/6/2020

Copyright

Goodbyes were said with hugs and a kiss

You off to share your support with family

A distant city requiring a fairly long flight

Four days the time frame

Instructions had been given

Tasks assigned

Projects that had stymied for years

It was now assumed

Would be completed by a lost sheep

With no shepherd in sight

The schedule was imposing and at least daunting

Each morning with coffee brewing

A list was generated of goals to be accomplished

Four days now seemed like minutes or eternity

Paralyzed knowing that in 50 years this responsibility

Had never been all mine

Yet now before the airplane door closed

I was left with one more request

Make sure you take our antique chairs to be priced for sale

The door was closed before I could even process in my mind

All the antique chairs we have owned over the years

Which chairs, which chairs

My tears as you left were a mixture

Of sadness and confusion

Quite sure your return

Will nonetheless elicit joy if not relief

Just glad to once again share

Our meandering possessions

Frank X Cameron 3/2/2020

Copyright

Admittedly there are dog families and cat families

Have know a few that had both

Seemingly there is just as much prejudice about likening a dog or cat

As there is about the color of your skin or your religion

But my ilk were dogs

Which gave me the opportunity to be involved

In the socialization of ‘Molly”

My daughter’s families latest rescue dog acquisition

Seeking to stay active and a new six month old puppy

Would present endless energy

The challenge would be to simply let Molly outside

And let her water the lawn or whatever

Have trained many a dog over the last fifty years

‘Back of my hand’ is my reference manual

Observe animal’s behavior until goal is achieved and repeat

Never failed till now

Did forget to mention Molly is a bloodhound

A beautiful red brown big bloodhound

Only knew bloodhound were very good at sniffing

Their least acquired skill was watering the lawn when requested

Nonetheless daily, clear, rainy, or spitting snow

This ritual was pursued

Alas I had met my training match

No not Molly

Her nose, her OCD nose

Everything, everything had to be smelled, sniffed, and inhaled

Occasionally a neighbors dog might bark

Momentarily halting the search for a new scent

Sought out clues to my training failure on Google

Bloodhounds can track their prey for five miles

Five miles, I can’t walk five miles

Walking the yard for five miles would be a day’s walk

Originally had this idea that after Molly had done her duy

That she would be rewarded with a treat when taken in

95% of the time she would not merit a reward

But for going back in the house she got one anyway

Now the routine continues with Molly

Spending most of her search

Circling me until I take her in and give her a

Most undeserved treat!

At least I was well trained

Frank X Cameron 2/22/2020

Copyright frankxcameron.com