Wonders of the Whirled

March 24, 2010

I guess similar to a few blogs ago, this little missive was the same process a blog awhile back. The only difference being, the headlines changed as did the words or poem at the end here. To refresh memories, I had read more than a few headlines months ago; this poem, like that one, the headlines and topics were borne anew.

Taking you back a little bit, the year was around 1975 or thereabouts. I was living in a pretty old house at the time. The landlord who was about sixty plus years old was raised in the house. That will give you an idea of its age, and in this instance its condition; not a remodel.

The structure of the house was already falling apart and close to collapse. The only thing holding it up was a few gross of almost rusted through square nails. Holding up one corner of the house was an old black iron, wood stove. Rather rebuilding the foundation the stove was shoved underneath the house for that specific purpose.

There was no plumbing in the kitchen. I found this out after about three years when the sink drain was not working properly. The faucets needed replacing as well. When looking for the trap that goes to the following drainage; there was no following drainage. Looking further is when I found that everything drained into the dirt below.

Anyway, just reading the words at the end here, reminded mme of an old newspaper I had read after finding it underneath decrepit linoleum I tore off one of the floors in that same old house. The newspaper found was a full issue of a September, 4th, 1924 San Francisco Chronicle. There was also part of a September, 4th 1925 issue.

September 4th, oddly enough or coincidentally perhaps, is mmy Birthday. Needless to say both had turned a copper brown with age. A few of the pages edges were torn as well but it was quite readable. The ads were the favourite and the funniest parts to read. The histories of products and the related photographs were hilarious.

I had stored both newspapers. When moving to the rez in 1994 and almost completing building mmy house, I had searched for and found those same newspapers. I wanted to decorate the walls of the bathroom with them; something I always wanted to do in a bathroom.

Mind you, I’mm sure you’ve seen rooms with old newspaper wall paper except for the fact that the wallpaper was new; mmine wasn’t. Very carefully, I had glued the old newspapers to the new bathroom walls then sealed them in place with a quality, long lasting sealer.

I had applied the front pages first. Amazingly enough those big, black, 72 font sized headlines of the old newspapers exploded with the war in the Balkans. Yes, that’s right. Just about the same time I was installing the wallpaper, the same kind of conflict was going on in the Balkans again. Only this time it was the more modern Mr. Bad boy Milosevic and all his war crimes rape and pillage soldiers of fortune.

Pretty strange, I’d say. This tells us again that, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The wallpaper was conveniently place in front of whoever cared to flush their eyes while leaving their last favourite drink or meal to the workings of a different flush.

Wars have began, ended, began and didn’t really end in the first place in more than one part of the world. They seem to flame up again and again. For too many reasons on both sides, they continue for not only decades but for more than a few centuries; and maybe thousands of years. Like they say, history has a way of repeating itself.

That’s why the title of this blog has the lovely title:

Wonders of the Whirled

Birds flew – Chicken fear
Earthquakes dawn threw dusk
Warning’s flood - tsunami sphere
Hurricanes, fright gains – bussed

Terrorist blasts, E coli pales
Glow bill’s warming – rising gas hails
Nuclear threats – town slide’s mud passed
Famine’s hunger, sorghum’d mass

Cocaine diss charged – securities beach
Subtropical depression, attack schedule’s leak
Shock ‘n awe can’t touch the caves
Intelligence designs or deficits in trades

Borders crash play no room at the in
Race with migrant’s pace, desert’s brim
Need id alcohol - oil’s prize fright
Stars, war’s news, spewed sea saw’s blight

Military tact-tricks charge at gaits
Lands mines, mine’s lands bicker wring states
Economy sheds – Dows drop - rise sin
Cultures clash width doubt with in

House past Bill stood left to write
Rock, it’s fired, threw window’s spite
Odium’s crime rash, border lines shill
Dough nation ask tray - spacecrafts hill

Trains Co. lied in - bike paths kill
Infants dying, hiked mass swill
Prison flights shoot pile it’s unfurled
Their’s the glue lambs - Wonders of the Whirled.