News & Articles

Delightful column

To Harry Drabik,
I found this article delightful and thank you for taking us readers with you! A worldly and fabulous cruise is not feasable for me at this time, so I really appreciate being led around on a free tour on the deck of a ship, between snow-shoveling sessions and cursing at news content on television.
Amy Anderson
Duluth, Minnesota

The Easter Weather Blues
(To the Tune of “White Christmas”)

We’re having another white Easter
And it is making our spirits low
The sidewalks glisten and children listen
To hear the snowplow on the road.

I’m dreaming of a green Easter
Just like our Aprils ought to be
With flowers blooming and robins singing
And our white Easter a long past memory

We’re having another white Easter
And it just does not seem quite right.
May your Springtime be green and bright
And may Easter day never again be white.
Valerie Kozlovsky
Maple, Wisconsin

The Emperor of Echoes

In a gilded room of mirrors lived Donald Trump,
Who dined on applause like a permanent bump
Of sugar and smoke,
Of half-finished jokes,
And facts that dissolved when he tried to lump.

He sharpened a crayon and called it a sword,
Declared war on a map he himself had ignored.
The oceans were “wet,”
“The best wet!”—and yet
He’d argue with rain till the clouds got bored.

He hired a chorus that only said “Yes,”
Then fired the echo for a mild “I guess.”
Each thought was a spark
That died in the dark
Before it could dress itself up as a guess.

He juggled with nouns but dropped every verb,
Made chaos feel normal, and normal absurd.
A sentence would start,
Then wander apart,
Like shopping carts loosed at the edge of a curb.

He built him a ladder of ego and air,
Climbed high on nothing and planted a stare
At logic below —
“Too slow!” — don’t you know?
Then tripped on a thought that was never quite there.
And still in that hall of reflective delight,
He crowned his own shadow the king of the right —
For when you’re the source
Of your own cheering force,
Even silence can sound like you’re right.
M. Arnold Bowen
Duluth, Minnesota