Stories of the Current Times
Recent Poetry
of
Thomas Theodore Welborn
Hard Lessons
Yesterday God saw the faces of yet more children killed
Motionless “collateral damage”
As if all asleep, but eyes open and bodies ruined.
Their future, their dreams, extinguished by fire.
By death for sale in ‘free markets’
Where mountains of ‘capital’
Accumulate…Soaked in blood.
Blood soaked mountains of money. Blood money.
And the ‘mountain men’ of ‘capital’
Sit in sanitized plush villas by the sea
Trying to think of ways to increase the conspicuousness
Of their wanton consumption, and of better ways to kill…
They cannot help keep a big smile from crossing their faces –
As they watch Israel try to
“Teach them (Hamas) a lesson”
And as Hamas responds in kind… because both are going to need
More weapons now…more missiles, more rockets, more bombs…
That smile keeps getting bigger…But God is not smiling
And when God looks at the Capitalist in his sanitized villa
He sees a blood soaked villain…
A despicable wretched foul servant of Satan,
Consuming the flesh of children, drinking their blood from wine bottles.
God see them as they are,
And once long ago His child spoke to them a warning:
“It would have been better to had never been born
Than to harm one hair on the heads of children”.
Thomas Welborn
08/01/06
Innosense
When I was six years old
By the teacher I was told
To “pledge allegiance to the flag”
And so I said those words
Each day…”liberty and justice for all”
I was your average boy
Back then I didn’t think too much about it
Even images of Vietnam
Of torn, bleeding boys in soldier uniforms
On the TV news
Did not stir me then –
We went out and ‘played’ army
We ‘played’ at killing
Cause we were raised to know unquestioned
That’s what Americans do!
And we were raised to know Americans
“work hard!”, though
They now allowed us a ‘mere’ 40 hour week
In the land of opportunity
With that daily recital of “Liberty and Justice…”
And as I grew I learned how generously
They gave us the Bill of Rights
Guaranteed as long as those rights don’t interfere
With their pursuit (or hold)
Of/on power and wealth
I didn’t even know at the time who
Martin Luther Kings Jr. was
Or how truth and justice
Could be twisted, even reversed
When JFK was killed I remember everyone crying
In my second grade class
We were crying because they killed our President
We should have been crying for ourselves.
Thomas Theodore Welborn
08/29/07
The Road Not Taken
Yesterdays a memory
Tomorrows but a dream
Today we chose the road we take
With nothing in between
We can’t go back and change it
No matter how we try
In our minds we re-arrange it
But that is just a lie
So we’re stuck with going forward
As still as we may stand
We are traveling through the universe
To a far and distant land
On a journey to the future
That emerges from the past
How we got here we can know not
But it seems we have a task
To become that which has brought us
From the slime to mortal man
By such ancient evolution
According to the plan
Not by accident we flounder
Toward a light dimly perceived
Nor is it any wonder
How we’re easily deceived
For the gift of free will’s freedom
Means it’s up to us to choose
Between what’s truly good and evil
When there’s everything to lose
Through the doors of possibility
We open with our mind
We can find the way to freedom
If we’re loving and we’re kind
For the secret we’ve been missing
Is the key to heaven’s door
Cause you know if ‘ere we find it
There will be peace forevermore
But it’s not within the treasures
Here on earth that we all hoard
It’s the way of truth and brotherhood
It’s by love we’ll be restored
To that garden where it all began
A heaven that’s endured
If we take the road that leads us home
Our happiness assured
You see the reason we were put here
Was to become our very best
But to be it you must see it -
Only then we pass the test –
And from our journey we can rest.
Thomas Theodore Welborn
08/27/07
For My Dad
From here to there- the story of a life
No one knows the reckoning
The struggles and the strife
No one knows the love that dwells within a heart
But if you’re talking about my Dad
That’s as good a place to start
Fetching water from a well
Coal for heat in cast iron stoves
To the outhouse in the cold
An orange was a treasure trove
Kerosene for lamps at night
Summer’s heat soaked through and through
Sometimes supper was a little slight
Sometimes no money to buy new shoes
His coal miner Father did what he could
He bartered and traded for most of their goods
His Mother’s love was always there
And in simpler times a child had few cares
For despite being poor, he still could see
That dirt cannot soil a man’s dignity
And ragged clothes do not express
The character within one’s chest
The fire within was burning bright
And he always knew he’d be alright
And so he grew into a man
Tall of stature and strong of hand
Within his world he carved his place
“The Big Deal” they called him for his talents on base
For sports were always his love and dream
And but for luck who knows what might have been
But he moved on, to the factory life
And fathered three kids, by his first wife
She is my Mother and I their first pup
But after three years their marriage broke up
He joined the army and we moved back home
To be near her parents and raise us alone
He remarried twice (Mom did when we’d grown)
He moved to Chicago, a long ways from home
And that was our life to be from that time on
We’d see him some weekend and then he’s be gone
Seemed nothing could fill the hole that he left
Though we knew that he loved us it was something like death
Each time he would leave, re-opened that hole
In him as well – more than we could know
But he started a new life and fathered a new son
With his Arkansas wife, up near Lake Michigan
And there he lived out his life, seeing us when he can
Thirty-five years in a warehouse took its toll on the man
He retired in his sixties to be Grandfather Curt
Still tall in his stature but far from the dirt
And despite being stubborn and mean now and then
He was the most loving man, right to the end
For suffering illness took him at seventy one
And none can replace that big son of a gun
He was a good man who gave all that he could
For family was to him what made life so good
And I know that he knows
that we love him still
That we’ll always remember-
They called him “The Big Deal”.
Thomas Theodore Welborn
09/04/07
Forever My Mother
For the countless hours you cared for me
For the million times you soothed my woes
For the endless trials and tribulations
I’ve caused you, more than I even know
For the sleepless nights you rocked my cradle
For the long days toils to buy our bread
For the reasons you chose to raise us alone
For the Christian light by which you led
For the gift of a loving, safe, and happy home
For the toys at Christmas we took for granted
For the trips to your parents in Logan County
And the love of the earth that in me you planted
For the care of old Spot when he got constipated
For the freedom to rebel and to find my own way
For my first drum set and the band-room basement
For your patient understanding at the noise when I would play
For our first color TV, air conditioner, car
For never having to haul coal or water from the well
Unlike your parents and you before us
We sure had it ‘swell’
For the heritage of Sandsprings
We are ‘pioneers’ at heart
For the dignity of those called ‘Grise’
There’s no better way to start
For the pain of childbirth you endured
To bring me into the world
For the pains borne of your sacrifices
For your children were your world
For all these things and countless more
These words express my gratitude
That flows up from my very soul
Each time I think of you
For I’ve been blessed among mortal men
An Angel twas my Mother
But more than any words can say
Was her love, a gift, beyond any other
Unconditional, never failing, always there
Complete and perfect was the love she gave
A treasure beyond time and space
So Forever will I honor her
Forever my Mother, most dear.
Thomas Welborn
08/22/07
Marta Ann
Can you measure a heart?
When the love within
Belies its external dimensions
When the sum is more than its parts?
That is my sister encapsulated
Part Grise, part Welborn, all heart
A heart so overflowing love
She could not help but spend her life
Giving…
Loving…
Caring…
Sharing.
Uncounted selfless sacrifices
Of charity and kindness
Freely flowing from love and faith
And the hope of giving happiness
Giving happiness and love
To everyone and everything
That beautiful amazing heart touches
That is my sister, Marta Ann
Encapsulated.
Love.
Thomas Welborn
08/16/07
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Theodore Welborn All rights reserved.
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