Memories of Perry, Iowa,
By an American in Calgary, Alberta,
American Thanks Giving, 2002

by Gary Gene Ford ___ 2002|November

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SHOULD I GIVE THANKS ...?
    Didn't I already do that
In October?

Ah! But in my Childhood,
    I was there ...
    in very middle
America!

The Wonder, the fear, the End of Life
    Approaching like A Killer
    I cannot see,
makes me pause ...

What will I be NOW,
    That many of my hopes in life
have crashed long ago?!

Such is the course of events,
  with strings attached,
  come fallen down,
like Kites which once proudly
  kissed clouds and strained
  to the Blue Vault Above,
tangled together
  from just ...
a sudden gust of wind!

All is NOT well,
  But still 'All is Well' -
  as well as we each can make it -
if we remember to try!

Life unfolds ...

I ate my boiled dates with a cup of milk,
  no Turkey for me, my wife works now,
  cleaning peoples' homes, my sons
  and daughter work too, and study,
but I only sleep and dream and vegetate,
sometimes wringing letters from my fingers,
  maybe then to glue together some poems,
  from the cobwebs of my mind,
  from my once more living
  once undestroyed self ...

Yes! ...

I do also think a bit
    of Spheres and Points,
and let my friend Jentje
    do the Hard Mathematical
    and the Nimble Programming
    on the Quest
I pushed him to make,
    some fifteen years ago,
like a stay-at-home
    amazed by Jason
    against Numerical Demons,

While I only can watch amazed
    as his programs unravel
    the instant coffee secrets
    of a sphere with 23 points,
which like crawling paranoid ants,
    must each seek
    to separate themselves
from the dread images
    in the mirror ...
    from each other,
as space on a small small world
    will allow ...

Then I dreamed of my childhood past
    in a letter relating it to you,
    but forgot all about the Buzzing
    of Cicadas,

or
    the Ominous Abombinous Beauty
    of High Contrails from B-36's
    with H-Bombs in Bomb Bays.
    flying high on Cold War
    Mid-Continental Patrol,
in Cold Stratospheric Skies ...

As seen from time to time,
by me and my child friends,
in the Immense Blue All Above ...

But we looked with awe and
    astonishment,
Not realizing the Potential Deaths
    Of Millions were flying so high
Above our heads and thoughts ...
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