Transcendental Sonnet #1095:
Hallowe'en Hush-Hush

with a bonus (parenthetical) line: it turned out fine

Awakened by the telephone this morning
By my youngest with unusual designs
After the ring the alarm bells of warning
Sounded as they punctuated caution signs
Or were those just the church bells outside my door?
I should have been there should have gone there before

It is hard to be a liberal father
As this way the job takes some thought
While conservatives finding this a bother
Teach their children what they were taught
Parenthood passes and pisses right through them
Questions are answered with orders: just do them

I cannot disclose the details lest his mother
Find out from these pages and call Teddy's brother

(Or worse send his sister: no secrets resist her)



+Steven Curtis Lance

Copyright MMIV Silke LLC

Parenthetical?
Don't you mean 'Parentethical'?

Of course, (speaking for myself),
parent-ethical is an oxymoron.

But I think that's roughly half the job of being a Dad;
(not the 'oxy' part, but the latter, I'm afraid.)

and being a Dad really is a half-job anyway,
always unfinished, always unfinished.

Scary stuff.

oooohh....ooooohh!
Boo!

Don't like ringing noises in my head either! So start the day with two bottles Rum for each child and one for yourself also, as all problemata is eaiser to tolerate under the weather than within it!
And children are only gifts: So if that doesn't work just give em back!

Nice work as always Steven...but I'm glad it's your job!

Love Jasper

Hmmm....Very mysterious. Hope everything's okay!

~Much Love~
Megan

Thank you Shawn R, Jasper, and Megan.

Megan, everything's OK. Teddy is the most wonderful son anyone could ever have, and I am proud of him, and also of his brother Stevie II and his sister Maria. Liberal fathers have to make choices, and I made the right one, as did Teddy himself. I am blessed with great kids.

I should also mention that Silke and I have never been closer nor more in love. I am blessed with the most wonderful wife anyone could ever have, and I am proud of her too.

I really am "The Lucky Little Bastard."

Megan, I'm glad you're here; there are some weird things going on hereabouts, of which I want no part. I am steering clear of whatever it is, and writing a sonnet. Good to see you on the board. You're someone on whom I can depend, and I do depend on you.

Only a father who has teenagers can fully appreciate how wise teenagers are and how much we can learn from them. You turned out to be a rock-steady moderator, and Teddy taught me how to play poker and troubleshoots my computer problems for me. Stevie II shows all his friends my new book (which, no surprises here, got voted down by half a dozen Hallowe'en-tricking "sock-puppets" yesterday; btw, if you know of anybody sympathetic, could you get them to vote me up again a bit? So many shenanigans on the Internet, even there, even here. *sigh*). Maria quit drinking years before I did, and is an inspiration to many; she's not a teenager anymore, but she was a good one.

All my love to all of goodwill.

Let's all get along and behave ourselves upon these pages now, and please keep the shenanigans in your bedrooms (or wherever) and off the poetry board.

I think we are making progress here. Let's just all stay cool. I look to the next generation for inspiration: Silke herself is a generation younger than me, and Megan is only eighteen. My three kids, 21, 19, and 14, are some of the wisest people I know. Sometimes we older people can be such fools ("no fool like an old fool?").

This is the poetry board; write and share poetry here. That's what I'm trying to do. That's why we started this place. I'm going to go and finish my Transcendental Sonnet #1096 now. Be cool while I'm gone. As both a father and an old teacher, you know, I "have eyes in the back of my head," I can tell when you're making mischief, so please, be cool. Especially you non-teenaged mischief-makers of a certain age, that age of uncertainty which we share, we bear; may we always wear it wisely and well.

Respect and solidarity.

I'm so glad things are going well for you and Silke! I'm here for you guys. Or, if not here at all times, you can always e-mail me if you guys need anything. Keep on writing and living the good life, Steven! You guys deserve it; everyone does.

~Much Love~
Megan

whose knocking on my door?
Whose ringing the phone?
Whose shaking me awake,
why cant they all just
LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

hehehe...your poem is great, just reminded me of how I used to have a fear of the phone ringing, PHOBIA actually. I would get all tense and panicky when the phone rang. Thanks to caller ID and Zoloft, I am much better when there is a ring of the phone or knock at teh door!

love ya!