Jack Robinson

Bellingham, Washington

Jack is my nickname, for John. I am 90 and wrote my first poem at age 86, as a hobby, achievable by one on crutches and legally blind, I am a high school graduate, and served in U.S. Marine Aircraft Squadron in Nicaragua. Some Great Depression jobs were: building fire roads for the U.S. Forest Service; ordinary seaman on a Great Lakes freighter; on 12,000 pound hammer crew in a steel mill. I was married 54 years to Ellen Haynes (deceased). We had two children, Bonnie and Daniel. For me, rhyme is poetry's heartbeat, without rhyme, poetry is prose.

DAUGHTER

She was so beautiful, sitting there,
Joking with that laugh that tinkled,
Unaware that that was her mother's chair,
Where--that laugh, never got old, or wrinkled.

How this can be is a mystery
Neither science nor religion can figure out.
Both computers and brains work on electricity.
But act differently--after a blackout.

Computers cannot reprogram automatically.
But that laugh is preserved in --another, human.
The manmade machine works mechanically.
God made that other woman.
Brags about computers are interesting.
But, how long has that laugh--done its thing?


LUCKY US

Your body is a remarkable thing.
It makes life interesting.
Surviving youth's fling.
it produces offspring,
and is self-repairing.
It can dance, sing, and wring
a living, from most anything.
Though with age, it loses zing,
Its mind can cling --
To everlasting spring.


ODE TO A GOLDFISH

This sad sequence came as aftermath
To the day I gave my goldfish a bath.
She was so happy. There was nary a scowl,
as she got her rubdown with the towel.

Then, into the water she slid -- in the nude,
to swim. A vision of piscatorial pulchritude.
I do get sentimental about a fish so ornamental..
And I knew: for her to flourish, I must properly nourish.

But a dead battery in my hearing aid made me unable
to read the "dog food" label on the package on the table.
That's how I made the mistake,
I fed her that --instead of fish flake.

Soon after, my "Goldie" began to look moldy.
Her gold seemed old. Her scale was pale.
She gasped for water! She began to fail!
She stopped swimming! She wagged her tail!

That dog food had gone to the fish's head.
She now thought she was a quadruped.
Trying (with imagined hind leg) to scratch her ear,
She fell and killed herself-- fractured posterior.

The bathroom's hallowed hush was shattered by the toilet's flush.
I made sure that my fish's memorial ceremony
Had all the dignity--of burial at sea.
And above the toilet will hang forever--this eulogy.

All poems Copyright © 1997 Jack Robinson. All rights reserved.