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The Orange Whale

12/2/2025

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Picture
What would it be like to be a whale surrounded at all times by salty sea
water so big you don’t even know how big yet eating tiny things you

don’t even know their names just eat them because they come in front
of you I can’t imagine it’s a very happy life and in spite of what I hear

contentment might be possible of course and contentment is so hard to
come by maybe that should be called happiness now that I think of it

I have always felt close to whales and especially blue whales not so much
humpbacks because they look sleek and powerful and also have ridges and

warts under their chin not ugly warts just warts I always liked blue whales
because since very young blue has been my favorite color I do like orange

as well though it’s not as useful as blue I wish there was an orange whale
and now that I think of it why not orange is not a normal color like blue or

red I get the shivers thinking about a red whale but an orange whale would
not draw so much attention for example as a red which would bring people

from all around the four corners but an orange whale could bring happiness
to all the drab whales who would see him and think wow an orange whale



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My Wife

12/2/2025

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I view my wife as I would a wild beast.
The only morality that may be attached

​or applied to her actions is her internal

morality, a natural construct. She may do

things I don’t like; it’s none of my business.
If she wants to tell me about it, I listen. It’s

Interesting—just not the reason I love her.
That one, that’s a mystery I haven’t solved.

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Paradox

12/2/2025

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Picture
No rain in eight months,
now deluge, came home
to water main shut off
because forgot to pay bills
but with this pair of ducks
paddling away in a pond
that yesterday was bone dry.

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Order

12/2/2025

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Picture
Image by Dieter Martin from Pixabay
You see what’s happening,
But aren’t easily amused.
If you signed up for this,
There was no dotted line,
Or what resembles order.
It’s as though you can’t tell
The bottom from the top;
Sideways is all you know--
Perhaps, at least, nowadays.
You’d pay a small fortune
To peer into the future.
Yet in your present state,
You’re past any expiration date--
Part of the walking wounded,
Who don’t hesitate to run,
The first chance they get.
So where’s a detailed map,
When you most need it?
How to get from here to there,
Without a prescribed route,
Guiding your every move--
Point by point by point.
Why even bother traveling?
Tomorrow, a moving van
Arrives at your apartment,
Collecting random thoughts.

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A Glimpse of Beauty

12/2/2025

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​​Time raised me to adore you forever,
but see how you wheedle your way to me.
I eat your hair for my breakfast,
crunch on your eyes for my lunch
and chew your body for my dinner.
Time cooked your bum like potatoes,
and sprayed them with a tube of ketchup.
I suck my tongue before pouncing on them.
From the crown of my hair to my toes,
from the tip of my nose to my twin lips,
from the pit of my stomach to my fingers,
I am a crazy epitome, insane, thumped down.
I swallow the hog of long and short nails,
now, irons fill my stomach like a rock;
I eat sand and pebbles crack me up;
I swallow rocks like a volcano
and now I speak the tongue of mountains
even valleys sprout in me like a forest,.
What is my offence apart from loving you?
It's the craziness of our era that I should be mad
as the side effects of being deep in love,
a man swooping down to guzzle leaves,
as soon as they fall off their mother trees,
a basin of broken bottles and brass,
and a sucker of shards of gruesome glasses,
pins and pointed needles wrestle in me,
filling me, slicing me, oh the glory of it!
like a valley for dumping factory waste
I swallow them all without a vomit.
No doubt, you’re a woman of a round face,
with a huge chest like an umbrella roof,
brown and curly hair, soft and liquid lips,
whose eyes scream like car lights at night.
Yet, I don’t see the beauty of those things
that do not consume me but what I embezzle,
a lion, a tiger, standing in my doorframe.
Those who see me say that I’m a miracle
to survive the silent stitches and internal bleeding,
or for having no grisly bleeding at all.
Rejoice, my dear, rejoice in this season,
It’s great you’re a body and I’m your choice.


Picture

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If I Could See Far

12/2/2025

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Picture
If I could see how far you carry your body,
my life would be one long, endless prayer,

When it can no longer stand this evil lurking,
head high and shoulder high with the light,

How much price you are ready to pay,
when your heart has broken into lumps,

Shedding the blood streaming from your bones;
if I could see in the cold mirror of the sky

What troubled tomorrow holds in store for you
or if tomorrow is among the cold calamities

Whose end has become the needle in my eye;
if I could toss my cards on the sliding ground,

Or watch the crystal glass for a poignant prophecy
into the colours of your night and day

And the contour decorations of your afternoon;
if I could ask questions like a crying child

But receive answers like a grieving adult;
if growing up means reaching the salty stars

Where your destiny sprawls like a lush landscape
or a droll drawing by an amateur best artist;

If all I could do was search the gallery globe
for a glimpse of glory packed on a solitary ship,

Which sails on the Atlantic Ocean in the morning
and is about to anchor in the evening.

When your eyes are yellow, your heart is red,
then let the sparrows sing, the squirrels dance,

And let the seagulls squeeze their bodies for grief
If there’s no God to order your life for a turnaround.

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The Interchange

12/2/2025

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Picture
“It looks like the human race is finally coming to an end!”
the rat said to his friend, who responded, “What makes you think so!?
The smartest of us have predicted this for thousands of years,
and it still hasn’t happened!”

“Well, just look at what’s going on!” the first rat answered.
“War, disease, famine, drought, murder, suicide, and mayhem
wherever one looks. I have to believe that it’s never been this bad!”

“You need to read more human history!” the second rat replied.
“It’s always been like this. And, in fact, there have been periods
when it’s been much, much worse. . .”

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Poetic Justice

12/2/2025

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Picture
“Human life doesn’t seem to have any meaning--
each of them just muddling through their existence!”
the rat expressed to his friend, who responded,
“No truer words have been spoken! Not to mention
how we are treated: killed in traps, poisoned, and hit
with blunt objects for no other reason than we don’t
look like them, smell like them, nor act like them.”

“Brilliant analysis!” the first rat responded.
“If only we could put rat poison in their drinking water
and alcoholic consumptions!”
​
“That would be poetic justice!” the second rat replied,
“but unfortunately poetic justice is such a rarity
in a world like ours. . .”



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Oblivious

12/2/2025

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Picture
The young couple kissing by the curb
as if the moment would never end.
And there goes the old man in threadbare
clothes convinced his luck will change.
Even the pigeons walking the sidewalks
among us, weaving in and out through
the smallest openings, have confidence
that they’ll be the only ones left standing
when it all comes down without warning.
The author is Bruce Gunther.
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
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In That One Dream

12/2/2025

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Picture
Even pigeons could read my mind
as I walked without destination along
the sidewalk of the big city; the hot dog
vendor looked like Jack Nicholson.

The mystical canyon of skyscrapers
loomed, and Plato passed out copies
of his writings, anxious to share
his life’s work with anyone interested.

No one in their right mind wants what you’re selling,
someone said as he passed, so convinced
of man’s fallibility that nearby faith healers
and positive thinkers grew silent and anxious.

And the dark clouds hung full and heavy,
threatening to rain for the next 40 days.

A cleansing would do us all good, someone
else said as we formed a line behind Noah’s animals.

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