Like is a puzzle 9/10/26

Rogue Program

I'm trapped in the future, a relic of the past

My currency's all digital, I don't have any more cash

No gifts in the present, just hopes, prayers, and wishes

The only thing I look forward to now, is washing my dirty dishes!

A soapy and tactile reminder that I’m actually still alive

Dates and times are just illusions, have I even arrived?

Unless AI, navigation, or calendar notifications constantly prompt me?

And text messages or emails direct me to where I should be

Hardware programmed by software, soon to be obsolete 

What if I can unplug, write new plans, or simply delete?

10/12/26

I hear you - 9/12/26

I hear you

Eyes speak volumes 

Unmet wants and needs

Diminished hopes, dreams

New tears flow in old streams

I can smell the scent of your fears

Tingles on the areas behind your ears 

Metallic taste of fillings from last century 

Like testing the power of a nine volt battery

Aches and pains crack in muscles and joints

A talk with myself in the mirror, making points

Spotted Lantern Flies (SLF) - 9/11/26

Spotted Lantern Flies (SLF) are everywhere! 

Climbing outside my window without a care

Too quick to hit, they just jump and fly

So I use an old fashioned fly swatter to make them all die!

I killed about a dozen of them just this afternoon 

Swept up their remains with a dust pan and broom

This invasive plant hopper damages crops and trees

By drinking plant sap from their flowers and leaves

Native to China and Vietnam 

They first arrived in Pennsylvania in 2014, and exploded like a bomb!

When they first appeared in Connecticut in 2025, I failed to stomp them with my feet 

The 'tree of heaven' is a SLF’s favorite thing to eat

Also invasive and from the places overseas, it’s fate that both this tree and bug would eventually meet 

The tree releases chemicals in the soil (allelopathy) that stop other nearby p...

Like is a puzzle 9/10/26

As new as the world once was to me

The present remains an unsolved mystery 

The more I know and learn

I only experience frustration and concern 

The way things aught to be

Never seems to become a reality

Losers always seem to win

While the righteous become disillusioned and sin

My hope for the future remains diminished

Because life will make less sense when it’s finally finished!

84’ Chevy Cavalier & Diethyl Ether

 We had a Chevy Cavalier back when I was a kid

Each morning to get it started, this is what I did

My older brother would turn the key and pray to our savior 

While I sprayed ‘Spray Start’ directly into the carburetor! 

Diethyl Ether is highly flammable and toxic, but it would also start the motor!

I always enjoyed its sweet yet pungent odor

It was used as a general anesthetic for surgeries way back in 1846

Whenever the wind caught some of its mist

I’d just close my eyes and inhale a big whiff!

The same stuff they poured onto rags to knock out folks 

In the movies and on TV shows, but maybe that was just a hoax?

It just gave me a little buzz, early in the a.m.

Laughing at lyrics of the pledge of allegiance, so I refused to say them!

I was so hungry by lunch, that I&rs...

We all share the same water with everything that has ever lived!

Dinosaurs saliva, even the water that Jesus turned into wine

Has been recycled so often throughout time

That it has been both yours and mine

Blood, sweat, tears, and other liquids of each kind

How can we be certain where all that water went?

A glass of water has ten thousand billion billion molecules, so the odds are 100 percent!

That a little bit of water that everyone in history has every sipped

Has been shared with every living creature (present past, and future) on earth, ain’t that a trip!

How does humanity differ from other animals?

Beyond opposable thumbs and our big brains

We are just story tellers and problem solvers!

Folks who just thought about something and tried to do it!

And talked to other people about what we wanted to do, until we did figured it out!

Reading, writing, and repeating history 

These crazy ideas helped our ancestors crawl out of their swamps, caves, and jungles

To create Civilization, religion, technology, education, culture, and art!

It’s all just one big story!

The first someone told somebody a crazy idea

Then they actually did it, and even if they failed or succeeded 

Other people would try it too (or not!)

With all of humanity’s flaws, our ‘superpower’ is the ability to tell (and listen to) stories over and over again

We’re addicted to it

Humanity’s narrative 

The boxes and labels that define ...

50 Years in 5 decades

I never thought I’d be young forever

As everyone gets older

The months just slip by

All that I knew has changed

People, information, and the places all evolved

My daughter asked me what a fax machine was today!

We had one back when she was little

She didn’t remember, but I showed her how it worked 

As I faxed a copy of her shot record to her doctor

So that she could go to summer camp

She’s too old for camp now

I’ll teach her how to drive my car next month

I was just washing her bottles 15 years ago!

When I was 35

Now I’m 50 

Back then, Obama was president

Now Trump is!

If I could speak with the 35 year old me now

I’m not sure what I’d even say!

Listen more, work less, enjoy the little moments?

Probably the same advice a 65 year old me would tell the 50 year old me!

When I was ten, it was 198...

Like every uncountable star

All the lights in the sky

Can you believe that they all will just die?

We are cursed and blessed with this…

As our own light will too be extinguished 

Somehow you and I were wished into existence! 

I don’t know how, but for a moment, we just are

And soon we won’t be, like every uncountable star

Lights once shining bright

Burning through time, across the void of night 

Cosmic graves that the future may soon see

Or ignore, and perhaps replace me

No ‘Trump Account’ for my kid!

$1k free in college savings from the government...

Why does Trumpelstiltskin occupy my mind free from rent?

Tainted with Cadet Bone Spurs’ last name 

This college savings plan idea still feels like a stain

A life and career built on lies, racism and false fame

Another con?

Another grift, dammit don!

Years from now, will she frown or smile?

When compound interest yields a modest money pile

Should she benefit from this blood money?

Should I lie, ‘I did the best that I could, honey?’

If I don’t invest, she’ll be thousands behind her MAGA peers

And we’ll be deep in debt for dozens of years

The whole system is fixed

If I do do it, Mango Mussolini wins again, get the gist?

The system seems to benefit the mostly affluent and white

There have never been laws to legislate their entire life

George Washington didn’t need to register to vo...