Monday, August 13, 2018

Joan McNerney writes

How Trouble Grows
 
Trouble is patient
hiding around corners.  
creeping through shadows  
entering without a sound.


It starts as a seed blown  
by careless winds and  
covers your garden with  
foul brackish weeds.


Or sparks from a match  
spread over fertile ground  
becoming flames speeding  
through the long night.


Trouble knows where you live.  
You cannot hide from it.  
Gaining a foothold, growing  
fat feeding on your flesh.


Watch how trouble grows  
inch by inch, molecule  
by molecule coursing  
through your veins.


Trouble begins as a whisper  
day by day growing louder.  
Stronger than your heart beat 
becoming a thumping drum.


Soon you will forget  
there was a time  
when trouble was  
not at your side.
  Joe Btfsplk -- Al Capp

1 comment:

  1. Joe Btfsplk was a recurring character in Al Capp's "Li’l Abner" comic strip (1934-197) who was always seen with a black cloud over his head and was known as “the world’s worst jinx” since bad things would happen to everyone around him. His last name is pronounced by placing the tongue between the lips and blowing to produce a sound similar to flatulence -- in other words, by "blowing a raspberry" or "making a Bronx cheer." (Blowing a raspberry comes from "raspberry tart," the Cockney rhyming slang phrase for "fart" that dates back to 1890; a Cockney is a working-class Londoner. The "Bronx cheer" was 1st voiced by New York Yankees fans to show their disapproval; Yankee Stadium is located in the Bronx, which contains the 5th-poorest congressional district in the US.)

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