WILDLIFE AND HABITAT

With a heart full of love for nature

it is not hard for me to see,

with wildlife habitat dwindling

it will soon come but memory.

Immigrant population now crowding

still our government brings in more,

searching for homes, resource and food

we can bid wild land goodbye for sure.

Thought I could make a difference

purchased a hundred acres in one spot.

With the advice of several agencies

made a pond, planted trees, food lot.

Noticing within a few short years

my efforts had gained me naught,

what game the poachers didn’t steal

my surrounding neighbors shot.

They killed hawks, owls, ducks, heron,

coyote, coot, marsh hens, bobcat,

shot squirrel, crow’ spike horn, doe,

and squint my old pet blind muskrat.

Trapped skunk coon my project doomed,

captured turtle’s for soup while laying eggs,

shot blue jays, doves cooing their love,

stole mushrooms in sacks and bags.

Broke the beaver dam opened the lodge

this flooded turkey nesting flats,

washed out trees eroded stream banks,

floated old garbage down in mats.

Liberal game laws killed the red fox.

Extended season killed the last pat.

Everything that leaves my acreage

is shot, stomped or car crushed flat.

Never time to fish my private pond

but someone found time for theft.

Bullheads, three frogs, one old snake

I find is about all that I have left.

Spray programs for moths and weeds

killed off butterflies, bees and bat,

left me one old crippled grasshopper

and Im gonna try and fish with that.

The law refuses to get involved

D.N.R., D.E.Q., Police all under staffed,

seems I’m never on the winning team,

but the one who gets the shining shaft.

I’d put my land in conservancy,

save the flowers and trees so grand,

but with my luck new laws would pass

granting developers theft of such land.

Long as big money runs our government

little chance in saving, public and private land

for wild life, recreation or natural resources.

HEREAFTER/GOLDEN YEARS

As I near the end of my golden years

when my soul from body vacates,

I ponder over the Hereafter life

many questions to me this creates.

Some say we meet departed friends

inside of a beautiful golden gate,

will this include their old friends?,

many of them I could not take.

I wonder if married more than once

you meet your departed wives up there,

which one of them will wear your ring,

or up in Hereafter don't they care?

Will our souls be dressed or bare?,

I hope at least we wear a shroud.

Of course we could conceal our selves

in the silver lining of a cloud.

Will I know how to play a harp

so I can join Hereafter's band.

Shall I be fitted with silver wings

that obey my flap command?

Eight million years souls have winged

their way to join Hereafter's throng,

I hope Hereafter has a lot of room

to crowd, push, and shove is wrong.

Now this barely tips the iceberg

of the many questions I behold.

What will Hereafter's climate be

chilly, warm, wet, hot or cold?

CHESTER MOUSE

  This tiny mouse peeking out you see,

  once lived in a hole on a forest tree.

  A hole so small it could just turn around,

  still safer than nesting on cold ground.

  A bird house hangs on a tree not far away,

  the birds had gone south for a winter stay.

  Chester peeked in the house, lots of room,

  he best move in winter will be here soon.

  The birds left a nest of feathers and sticks,

  Chester added leaves, made a feather tick.

  Out of moss and bark made a roomy nest,

  then settled down for a long winter rest.

  Miss mouse came to visit his new home,

  soon they were married no longer alone.

 They spent the winter snuggled and warm,

  spring six little mouse children were born.

  I end this poem before the birds return,

  evicting the mice may be their concern.

  In the meantime things are going well,

  the birds may find a new place to dwell.

PYRAMID SCHEME

Born in nineteen twenty eight

been around a good many years,

may I relay a little history

how a small town disappears.

It was a friendly little village

never the need to lock a door,

most all run a grocery bill

at Mom and Pop's general store.

Was a quiet pleasant little town

what community could ask for more,

then the merchants sought a plan

certain to make their income soar.

If the village had more people

they would purchase at our store,

why! our income would triple

with population three times more.

The gates were thrown wide open

signs and brochures welcomed all,

it's your land of milk and honey

if you answer the beckoned call.

Growth was slow at the beginning

each passing year picked up steam,

soon peaceful life and solitude

was a treasured long past dream.

Soon schools and jails overcrowded

real estate priced out of reach,

demand for roads, sewers, ditching,

debt hangs on the county like a leach.

Heavy traffic, fast food and malls

burst our county at the seams,

crime and dope is on the increase,

long gone, the peaceful scene.

Need for rules and regulation

require paid enforcement staff,

County subsidized permit fee's

justified by modern math.

It's our tax free enticements

that fill our industrial park,

when forced to pay a living wage

most fold up and then depart.

Waste disposal's overflow

more pollution day after day,

a left turn requires traffic lights

or an hours wait you’ll pay.

Who reaped the dollar harvest?

Not those who first rolled the ball,

was the greedy corporations

who grabbed the profits from it all.

There are those who still can’t see

the pyramid scheme is but a sham,

if we only had more people

we could recover from this jam.

The sacrifice of our small village

by far to high of price to pay,

those who can still remember

wish the land turned back to hay.

I saved a piece of earth's heaven

working two jobs for many years,

after I’m gone it won’t take long

to meet the subdivision shears.

The sad truth. . .

Exceptions to every rule, we have two factories

started, run, owned, and operated by home town

families still with us who have operated to the

benefit of the community for many years.