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Patris's avatar

If you haven’t kept that bloody razor somewhere I will be disappointed. What a story - mark Twain could have written it. That it is autobiographic takes it to another level. A cautionary tale that we learn from, even if only adjacent through reading it. I can smell the cooking and the freedom of being young when we can still learn from our mistakes (or arrogance) (same thing).

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Weston Parker's avatar

Patris, I wrote this last night. I truly have no idea what's going on here.

I don’t know who this poor bastard is but he popped into my head as I drifted off to sleep and had this to say. Who am I to refuse this man his last rights or his last confession or whatever the hell this is. I can only hope he goes to his end with a lighter heart, unless it's Trump.

Some Good Times

“It’s time”, said the warden

as a large key clambered about

an even larger steel ring

and then rattled around

in that loose lock worn

by centuries but kept

well lubricated.

There for a while

it felt as though time

was on my side

what with the appeals,

the stays, improbable pardons,

possible commuting sentences,

(there was talk of a mistrial)

broken up nicely by

meals, exercise, library time

and the sleep

of the nearly dead

or soon to be.

But I was wrong.

All of the above

legal argle bargle

seemed a great deal

like the kind of

deus ex machina you find

in a hurriedly completed play.

Perhaps it was

a tad underfunded.

I truly am not surprised

my drama is wrapping up

this way. It was a shit show

even during act one

when my lying

became so fluent,

so effortless, so pervasive

that only rarely

did the truth ever bite

me in the ass

and that was because

I had only a

passing acquaintance with it.

From there it was

but a short hop

to scorn for anyone

with truth on their lips.

Oh, but we let them suck

on that pacifier while we

relieved them of their candy.

We felt they had it coming,

because that kind of ignorance

always comes at a price

and we required their tuition

to be paid in full.

We considered this

time well spent even

before class was begun

(then promptly dismissed).

Crime does pay and quite well

on an hourly basis, but

unfortunately, here I am,

with my ill gotten gains

hidden god knows where,

fresh out of time.

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Patris's avatar

Well I must comment the way I do talk:

This is fucking brilliant, Wes.

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Weston Parker's avatar

I just wish I understood it better. It's just so strange to have something like that arrive and have no clue about its origins. A little creepy but I do feel sorry for him.

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Patris's avatar

Maybe the reason he told you.

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Patris's avatar

Chills right now rereading it.

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Weston Parker's avatar

Thanks Patris. I am just beginning to get the hang of these things. Maybe they're essays, maybe short stories, maybe they're just chapters, I can't say but it is strange but that after the long drive to Arkansas to see my cousin's son get married, I simply couldn't wait to get these early carpenter years stories out of me. Strange.

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Patris's avatar

Follow that spark, Wes. (As you must have back then.)Wonderful story for many reasons. Truly

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A. Christine Myers's avatar

A most memorable Thanksgiving! I'm glad you survived to write about it! ;-)

As a cook getting ready to prep stuffing in the morning, the idea of chestnut cornbread dressing is entrancing...

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Weston Parker's avatar

I borrowed that bit from my mom's cooking. Mom also did oyster stuffing and several times we smoked the turkeys, very moist.

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26thAvenuePoet (Elizabeth)'s avatar

Weston Parker, Genius Entrepreneur: The Early Days

What a glorious mess.

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Weston Parker's avatar

It was such a glorious mess. And that is why I say that if were do indeed learn from our mistakes then I should be a bloody genius.

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Jessica Rath's avatar

I almost fainted, reading this autobiographical piece! And then I got all confused when I read the comments and "Some Good Times". I thought "I wrote this last night" referred to Sunday Essay #3. Which made me read everything once again. And I'm grateful for that; I figured it all out (duh! I must be a bit dense this Sunday), plus your stories certainly deserve to be read more than once. Absolutely lovely.

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Weston Parker's avatar

That was funny and I promise not to pull any more weird out of sync comments that can mess up an otherwise decent post. and thank you Jessica for the comments.

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Stanley Wotring's avatar

Funny, especially because it’s autobiographical.

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Nov 19, 2023
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Weston Parker's avatar

That is so true. Russell Baker was a writer I really enjoyed along with Art Buchwald. They had a column they shared, so they each published every other day. Baker wrote a really fine book, "Growing Up". He said when he was growing up families were much bigger, with 5-7 kids very common. Granted he was born in 1925, like my parents. He also said "kids were more plentiful then, a lot less precious."

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Nov 19, 2023
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Weston Parker's avatar

Yeah, we had those things as well- great Uncle Emil pulled a pot of boiling potatoes on himself after he survived a coyote climbing in the bay window while he was sleeping in the bassinet. My grandpa Paul, at 8 years old shot the coyote as his paws we draped over the edge of the bassinet. This is the kind of crazy shit that came in the generation before, so my shenanigans were from a tamer world, as I see it.

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