CIVIL WAR’S TWO SKEDADDLES

  

On a quiet kayak ride with a single wooden paddle

We came upon Beaufort of the Great Beaufort Skedaddle

Yes the Great Skedaddle was a civil war battle.

But the Great Beaufort Skedaddle took place on a day

When the white town of Beaufort in a panic ran away.

When they learned a Yankee general had made plans to invade,

So, every white landowner fled to escape that raid.

Those plantation owners left for good it turns out,

Leaving thousands of Gullah people newly freed, no doubt.

And they stayed on in Beaufort and the cotton plantations

Forming towns of freed slaves, the first in the nation.

On those fine Sea Islands down Georgia way.

                        

A Couple More....

Making Short Work of Long Thoughts

Short poetry's considered a prize 
When one has to quickly memorize. 
but why bother then
picking up that pen
when there's no space to philosophize

Being

'To be or not to be' said a poet far greater than me

But these days the question arises and  

You begin to wonder--
as your friends start to wander--

that mysterious yonder... 
It's something to ponder. 

Your lifelong afterlife belief

Is supposed to grant you some relief

As you contemplate your end alone

And you wish a certain someone would telephone

Or maybe text

about what's coming next

But instead you just struggle to be.

A Weakness for Rhyme

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse

fed ex comes along with a volume of verse.

It’s no surprise really, you ordered it twice 

Ignoring the first time Amazon's advice

To check your order before your funds you disburs’d

Hence the volume received the first time around

While probably a nice one with contents quite sound

Did not have the power the latest one had

To inspire these stanzas truly so bad
Alas, that rhyming urge you've once again found.

This new book has made you really quite weak, 

Because nowadays  you no longer speak

without thinking and taking far too much time 

to make  like Ogden Nash via some twisted  rhyme