Reader, FIRST read this poem;  "I flew to the castle/ on pterodactyl wings ..." / "What comes next? / Turn the page!"  NOW replace the word WHAT in line three to "WHO comes next?" That's what this issue is about CHARACTERS and their STORIES.

 

ALICE LIDDELL (Inspiration for Alice in Wonderland)

Alice Liddell

for someone so small

you sure own

adventurous bones!

 

THE OUIJA BOARD COLLECTOR

He collected

Ouija boards

but they kept

shifting around.

 

THE MINISTER OF TEA AND SALT

I am the Minister of tea and salt.

You bow down to me or you get naught.

A potentate most exalted

with bags of tea and rocks, salted.

Bring your bland food and bring your water.

See if I'll grant you one or the other.

I am the Minister of salt and tea.

You want to advance you go through me!

 

THE SHEPHERD OF THE ROCKS

Living alone on the icy barren coast

80 miles from any other one,

he led a simple spartan life

of walking, sleep, and food.

 

The weather was frigid. The soil was scarce.

No trees just a little moss.

He got a beard and revelations -

and became the Shepherd of the Rocks.

 

He'd traipse among the sharp worn flock

and bring back any strays.

And corral the ones that wandered off

into walls he'd watch each day.

 

He carried a staff of hard dried wood

that whacked with a piercing knock.

the only sound over the breaking waves

from the Shepherd of the Rocks.

 

THE ARTIST'S ASSISTANT

The assistant carried his master's paintings

as they travelled from port to port.

He dreamed sometimes that the bag was God's

and he was one of his many helpers.

And during creation, he would do as commanded

and pull from the sack a slice of stars,

or a sun and moon, or a herd of clouds,

or a mountain range colored blue,

a ribbon of rivers, or a mirror of ocean,

or a forest filled with the songs of birds.

And when that day's work was done,

he'd tie up the bag and carry it on.

 

THE GHOST OF KAFKA

Kafka came to me

a ghost in a dream.

I told him how much

the world loved his work.

"Which ones do they like?"

"Them all," I replied.

He thought for a moment

and scrunched up his face

and told me to tell them

"When they become ghosts

then I'll give thanks!"

 

THE MONK

One spoon

one bowl

and still both

hands are full

 

THE DRESS DESIGNER

I designed a dress

made out of maps.

It directs the eye

where to look.

 

THE STORYTELLER

This rogue Doctor

had a cabinet of noses,

a drawer of ears,

and a bowl of eyes.

He'd build up monsters

out of clay parts

and oiled iron

and bolts and gears

and send them out

to roam the woods ...............

Children go play.

 

THE BAD POET

I met a poet who wasn't very GOOD AND

his verse was what they call WOOD-EN

and to be frank as a writer he SHOULD-N'T!

 

THE WATER PITCHER COLLECTOR

He filled his house with water pitchers

in hutches in every wall.

Lighting struck and started a fire

that engulfed every floor.

But as the shelves began to collapse

the pitchers would tip their spouts.

And the water pouring forth

would put the fires out.

 

THE ARCHITECT

The spider studies

the lace curtain.

 

THE MAIDS

In the chapel

they dust the pews.

Up rise dust mites

that linger in the light.

Then after all

the dusting is done,

they settle ever so

slowly back down.

 

THE WOMAN IN THE ELEVATOR

A woman smiles

as I enter the lift.

The car rises up

and I feel a tug.

 

THE ASTRONOMER

Everyone standing

is crowned by stars

 

THE MASTER PHYSICIST (Creation Myth)

The Master Physicist set down the ground rules,

3 pages of equations that looked like ant trails

etched on gold, hammered-thin, paper.

He wadded it up. Threw it out and away

where it began to float, and inflate

until it blew out all sides of the box

and indescribable explosion followed

and the universe raced out into every void

And escaping night was overtaken by

the newly created, advancing, first  light!

 

THE ANALYST

I don't know what's inside of you.

 

I don't know what magical powers you have

that you may not be aware of yet;

that someone, something, or some event,

or some place, or some vision, may

someday draw out of you

now, or tomorrow, or in the future.

 

I don't know what fate can spin

and release from within you

 

THE RECALLER

Ah the days

of hula hoops

when we were all

little Saturns!

 

THE CHILD PAINTER

"The snow is blue," said the child.

"Color it white," said the adult.

"But it's night," said the child,

"and it's winter and dark most of the time."

...

"Snow IS blue!" said the adult!

 

THE MUSEUM IMPS

Sculpture busts

beware your foes!

they steal in the night

and chip off your nose.

They stalk the museums

in search of stone!

Sculpture busts

beware your foes!

 

THE PENGUIN

I took a picture

of a penguin.

He had a look

of contemplation

as he studied

me from afar.

"Shark or fish?

Fish or shark?"

 

THE ACROBAT

Standing on his head

he could lift the world

 

THE ALIENS

far in the future

miles down the road

toasters are used

not to toast

but to launch ships

to explore other worlds

at least that's the story

that I was told.

 

aliens landed

and began a search

all through my house

the cupboards and such.

 

as they explored

they talked of the weather

but explored the oven

and drooled at the butter.

 

strange that their

technology is such

that bread stays jamless

and uncooked.

 

THE TWINS

These twins

built an empty frame.

Then each morning

each takes a side

and combs their hair.

 

THE MOB

We as a people had had enough!

"Let's try as a jury and also a judge

all the cartoon 2D bunch;

rope them and their shenanigans,"

shouted the crowd, every one.

 

"Time to be serious when things are dark,

time to go to work and pull a plow,

time to clean up after those who draw."

 

The characters in concert said, "Phooey to that!"

and sent raspberries to all in earshot

and drew up multiple musical instruments

and began their symphony of caterwauling

and antics of zingey merriment.

 

The people outraged, started to attack

swinging blunt erasers this way and that,

 

But the cartoon Characters formed one line

that drew a monster 1,000 feet high

and began to march on the country side.

 

Off fled the real-ies out of the land

never to bother the cartoon-ies again!.

 

 

THE BIOLIGIST

I didn't want to

pick the flower

so I plucked

 it's nearby shadow

 

THE MAN WITH FRIENDS

He owned a jacket

with a thousand tears.

Each of his friends

sewed up a seam.

A jacket of friendship

that' he'd wear

in good times or lean.

 

THE VISIONARY

I awoke in a vision on an open plain.

The only thing around me was the Eiffel Tower.

some voice in my ear said 'you've mispronounced it.

It's the Alpha Tower in the shape of an "A".'

 

Then I saw out of the mist

a work in progress, a buzzing place.

Men working on a Beta Tower,

a massive iron "B" shaped structure.

 

And to my left the Tower of C,

and D, and E, and F, and G...

My inclination in detecting the pattern

was to find omega 'Z" and be done with it all.

 

AND ALL THE REST

In the moonlight

we are all moths

     *      *     *

 

CHARACTERS and SAYINGS ABOUT THEM

She was one of the tall straws!

Do be a fan. Don't be a blowhard.

My shadow and I sing duets.

You don't have to wear a suit to act like one.

The Hulk had the best lines!  (TV review).

Even with water he couldn't grow rust.

Who decorated this place, the bomb squad?

He's out to lunch and not paying the check.

I've decided to live in the bookstore and just visit my home.

Lady, that's not a purse, that's luggage!

Jack Frost wanted to marry; but there was always a chill in his relationships.

Humpty Dumpty had shell shock

Comment on Photo: I used to look much younger.

Every person is two people; the person you meet at first and the person they turn into.

Rauschenberg's best work was his erasings.

I had a slinky but no stairs!

 

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Musea is -Tom Hendricks, 4000 Hawthorne #5, Dallas Texas 75219

tom-hendricks@att.net, Musea.us, hunkasaurus.com, musea.wordpress.com

c. Tom Hendricks 2010