BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
A HAIKU POEM
Jean Isobel Myers
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Ahoy all writers
Let’s set sail, “swinging the lamps”
Steady as she goes…
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ADDITIONAL READING:
January 31, 2012
December 30, 2011
December 14, 2011
Christmas: A Time for Furnace Fires
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
A TIME FOR FURNACE FIRES:
CHRISTMAS AND THE START OF WINTER WEATHER
Fran Welts
Intro by Carolyn Cornell H olland
The following post provides a warning to every family at the beginning of the cold winter weather and the start of the heating season.
It is also a warning to all who decorate their homes for the holidays.
It’s 4:30 a. m.
After just a brief night’s sleep your two youngest children ages one and two, waken you from a deep sleep. For no particular reason that you can discern.
You feel somewhat irritated—after all, it’s the Christmas season. The double holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas have overwhelmed you. Money is short. Time is tight. There’s a long task list.
Your feelings of resentment over losing your sleep escalate…your stress level rises as the youngsters show no signs of abating their activities.
They can sleep in once they return to bed. You can’t. You have to work.
What’s a parent to do?
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NICK
These might have been Nick’s thoughts when his two youngest children, ages one- and two-years-old, woke him in the wee hours of the morning. His wife and five-year-old son remained sleeping.
Perhaps to soothe his escalating irritation, Nick stepped outside his family home in a small Missouri town to smoke a cigarette in the wee hours of the December 6, 2011, morning.
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FRAN
The holidays bring out the best in most of us.
What wonderful social gatherings, food flavors we never before tried, people we meet for the first time, gifts we give, gifts we receive. It’s a joyful time when you can almost believe in peace on earth.
But there is a downside, a downside that is often preventable but that sometimes just happens.
Fire. Tree fires, house fires, kitchen fires.
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NICK
Suddenly there was an explosion. Nick ran into the house to find that the explosion had wakened his wife Kelsie.
What was that? she asked.
I don’t know but it shot out of the house! Nick responded.
Seeing smoke and flames coming from their back room, Nick and Kelsie grabbed the three boys and ran to their car. They made it in the nick of time.
If Nick was resentful and irritated that his two youngest children had awakened him in the middle of the night, the feeling soon disappeared. He began expressing gratitude about his early morning awakefulness and alertness.
It allowed him to save his family from a sudden fire.
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FRAN
Christmastime fires are almost always caused by forgetting to water the tree, by overloading a circuit with too many strings of lights, or by plugging the lights into faulty wiring, which can cause a quick fire.
Christmastime is also the start of the cold weather that winter brings. House fires often start with a faulty furnace.
My family had a rude awakening of this fact when, at six o’clock in the morning on December 6th my nephews Missouri home exploded, blowing out all the windows. He grabbed two of his sons, his wife grabbed the baby and they ran outside just before two more explosions occurred. The explosions, resulting in a fire that reduced the family home to ashes, appeared to be caused by a leak in the furnace. It allowed gas to surround the furnace. When the furnace kicked on it exploded.
They lost everything, then again they lost nothing since their family is unhurt and “things” are replaceable, people are not.
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NICK
“It sounded like someone had threw a grenade in the house, and it blew everything out the window and everything, and I went running back into the house, and the wife was already up off the couch like, what was that? I go, I don’t know but it shot out of the house!” Nick says.
Nick and Kelsie then saw the smoke and flames coming from the back room and got the three boys out and into the car with little time to spare. “I didn’t even have time to go in and get my mom’s urn or nothing,” Nick says. His mother died just four months ago.
“I’d say my mom was on our side by having our two kids be up, because I’m a hard sleeper, and if I got woke up by that, the reaction time would have been a lot slower than what it was,” Nick says.*
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FRAN
They lost everything, then again they lost nothing. Their family is unhurt. “Things” are replaceable, people are not.
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The family has received emergency assistance from local agencies
They had no insurance on the home. If you’d like to make a donation, Nick King can be reached at (417)259-4716.
Their boys wear sizes 5T, 2T and 24 months.*
SOURCE
* http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-manes-family-loses-home-and-everything-inside-20111209,0,462213.story
July 27, 2011
A Barhop Who Lived in Lagrange
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
A BARHOP WHO LIVED IN LAGRANGE
G. David Schwartz
A barhop who lived in Lagrange
Decided that his life was quite strange
And sipping a beer
He said “It’s quite clear,
That no one looks forward to change”
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ADDITIONAL READING:
July 23, 2011
The Bludgeoned Skull
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
THE BLUDGEOUNED SKULL
G. David Schwartz
The bludgeoned skull,
The face raped by torture
Which gleamed like dark roads
Against the window legend
Saw you jump and hurl
All objects at hand
Towards a (more…)
July 20, 2011
Mixed-Up Mergatroid
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
MIXED-UP MERGATROID
Norma Leary
Because it was raining cats, bats, dogs, frogs, and unsung rug-bugs in Scootertoot Circle, Bow knew he couldn’t play outdoors this Saturday afternoon.
As he was wondering what to do on this rainy day, his dog, Scuttlemutt, ran to the door and began barking.
“Someone’s coming,” Bow thought. Although Scuttle refused to talk, get a job to earn his food, and spent most days sleeping or going in and out, he was great at announcing visitors.
Sure enough, Bow heard ‘rat, tap, rap-a-tap-tap.’ “Knock, knock, who’s there?” he called.
“Boo.”
“Boo who?” asked Bow.
“Quit crying and let your rocket-rider regal-alien come in. My waterproof skin is getting water spotted and might shrink,” was his answer.
“Hi Mergatroid, what’s up?” asked Bow, opening the door.
Mergatroid put on his pouter outer space face and said, “I used to be far, far up until our Starazoid King saucer-shipped me here to study and write about your Untied States history.”
Needing to correct Merg’s state of mind, Bow said, “Cool it, Merg. We’re United, not (more…)
July 16, 2011
The Writer’s Dilemma
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
THE WRITER’S DILEMMA
Joe F. Stierheim
Number of words; number of pages;
how much is a novel worth?
What value the symbols on the page?
What is the measure:
the likes of the market’
the current style?
Too long for some, too (more…)
July 13, 2011
Pinto Man
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
PINTO MAN
Mark Sliwa
The television and VCR were on the blink. I’m a firm believer of selling things while they still work or move. A newspaper ad and I was $700 richer.
Three newspaper days later my brother, Brian, said, “Hey, look at this. A 1977 Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV. And it’s only $700.”
God forbid keeping that money in my pocket. At the time, my brother and I shared an apartment in Raleigh, North Carolina and the vehicle for sale was only one town away. Being a mechanic, he convinced me to take a look.
One should always be wary of vintage Italian cars. Remember what Fiat stands for: (more…)
July 9, 2011
Testimony of a Rich Miser
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
TESTIMONY OF A RICH MISER
Ernest Williamson III
though you loved me
in the inner sanctum
of wayward kisses
moist (more…)
July 6, 2011
A Beanery Writers Group Homage to Bob Sanzi
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
A BEANERY WRITERS GROUP HOMAGE TO BOB SANZI
Beanery Writers Group
I looked for your car when I arrived at the June 24, 2010, Beanery Writers Meeting.
I hadn’t heard…You were gone.
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Bob, you left too soon. Some of us needed to learn more from you. It’s hard to believe that you only joined us on June 12, 2010. At your last meeting, June 10, 2011, you were so excited about the new car Nancy bought and allowed you to drive to the meeting.
We all heard your gruff, commanding, voice, and experienced your unique bombastic manner, at the first Beanery Writers Group meetings you attended. Some of us questioned whether we could tolerate you. You were opinionated, certain you were right, and felt you had to talk and talk and talk to push your point, even after everyone had “gotten it.” You were so certain you were right.
Your identity was enmeshed in cars—you were quite animated and willing to share a multitude of car stories. After all, you were a car guy who even amused us by turning a prompt on the Kentucky Derby into a car piece. You didn’t seem to understand that (more…)
Feeling Safe
Tags: Addictions, All, All posts, Commentary, Contemplation, Daily life, Fear, Feeling safe, Latest post, Life, Lifestream, Lifestyle, Misc., Miscellaneous, Musings, Op Ed, Opinion, Reflections, Safety, Society’s cycle of fear, Thoughts
BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE
FEELING SAFE
Joe F. Stierheim
Everybody—everything—in the universe wants to feel safe.
It is a very simple matter, one that should be surprising to no one. Yet it is a concept that is often overlooked, misunderstood or misused. Often we find it amusing to not feel safe. For instance, we spend a great deal of time, effort and money in stories, movies or games that scare us. We call this entertainment. Volcanoes, tidal waves, civil unrest, wars, crime, hurricanes and chainsaws are all part of the scenarios. When the entertainment becomes real, we don’t like it and so we spend a great deal of time, effort and money to see that such things don’t happen or in hopes of escaping them.
It is a fact that in our present society, very few of us feel safe. Endeavors to compensate for that take many forms. One of those is (more…)