Long johns

Bursa is low, buy long johns, winter will be cold. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann 9/28/2015

Laundry 2

It was a promising Monday morning, so I hanged our laundry on the cloth line in the backyard. Then came rain. I guess I didn't wash it properly. Copyright © Marie Neumann 5/18/2015

Ignorance

I pull a plow each Spring in the same fields. This is what I know. I drag a harrow from the beginning of the field to the end and back. I also wear flaps over my eyes, when we go to town, because I am afraid of heavy traffic. Cars are speeding on the left and right. It's better to do not know, how fast they go. Ignorance is such bliss Copyright © Marie Neumann 5/15/15 POW! assignment

Computers

A little book was published. Our two computers broke down. It must be a jealousy, I think. Don't be silly, computers are just machines. They don't have feelings and don't think. A repair man is going to explain to you, what happened in technical terms. Computers are working again. For how long? I hate to ask. "You break each computer I am giving to you." I know. They are worse than shoes. I break down a pair about each year. "You have to see what is behind." "O.k., you see it, it's your task." Copyright (c) Marie Neumann February 2015, Pottsville

Rock

Rock-n-roll group is performing on the Town Square of New York City. Hard rock is rolling, music vibrates, echoes from the buildings, drums shoot their decibels to the skies and fall back down. Noise is deafening. After the concert people leave the square, half of them lost temporarily their hearing, it is night and they are looking, where they parked their cars. Wearing neon pink T-shirts brings them together, helps them to find each other and navigates them to find their way home. The concert was a fundraiser for breast cancer research. 5/9/2015 POW! assignment

A tree

A little seed of a maple tree fell between our fence and a neighbor's shed. For first couple of years I even didn't know about it until it grew above the cement base. It kept growing and getting stronger and larger. “The tree will disturb our fence and grow into the shed.” The neighbor couldn't not move his shed, and beside, the tree was on our property, so it was I who should do something about it. First years I trimmed the branches and cut the tree to the height of the fence. “I think it has it and it will die.” It didn't. It continued to grow above the neighbor's shed. Now I began to thing something about it, because the tree meant trouble. So I took off the fence and cut the tree down to the cement base as far as I could. What was left was only a little stump. I put the fence back. Guess what? Next year green tree was growing up again. It became a personal war between I and the tree. I kept cutting leaves and branches to deprive it of its vital sources – and the tree kept growing, little bit crooked but growing. I took off the fence again, cut it down, left as small stump as I could and used all house chemicals to be sure the tree will die this time. I placed the fence back. Next year it was the same story. I lost the battle with the tree. I moved out. 5/9/2015 POW! assignment

Prayer

Dear God, thank you for letting him to be in my life. He is the nicest guy I know. Our walk was just too short. I'll appreciate if I could enjoy him more. In the case he will have to go, don't let him to be in pain for long. Amen

Writers

Those writers
will get into
your soup
just to gather
news.
Their eyes
are lit
like Christmas tree,
soaking in whole atmosphere.
She is delighted:
this is real.
I am nervous,
fumble with a zipper
of my valet
trying to get
money out.
I am a fly
buzzing under
a magnifying glass.
I need my privacy.
Little voice whispers:
if you want
your privacy so much
you shouldn't write.
I'll tell you
you are in trouble
now
and you asked
for it.
So, get your
slice of pizza,
eat and suffer.
Copyright (c) Marie Neumann
3/16/2015

A sparrow

A Sparrow picks little sticks for his nest and repairs what was damaged by Winter. Mrs. Sparrow cleans and directs her husband: here will be our bedroom and nursery. A dining room we are going to paint yellow. We still use outdoor toilet. Two sparrows cuddle in the nest for a night and Mr. Sparrow asks: how many eggs are we going to have this year? I don't know yet. I'll begin to lay eggs tomorrow. Copyright (c) Marie neumann 3/9/2015

General love story

Young man meets a young beautiful girl. Why young couple? It is first time, it is new and fresh. I don't mean a crush, or a puppy love, even though they can leave deep scars. Why not more mature couple? Like a man meets a man, a butch meets a beautiful woman? It is the same, it is not new and it repeats, and it repeats … No, think about circumstances: how do they meet? On Internet? Wait a second. It is arranged. Spontaneity is missing. So they meet at football game, where her brother plays a quarterback. He likes everything about her, especially how her head tilts, when she listens, and she is smitten, too. Now we can start to build a plot. They can not marry right away after the school. A novel will be too short. They have to build their carriers first and then have children. Some enemies? Oh, yes. Plenty. We can start from the beginning. What is popular in these days? He meets her in the bar. She is drank and he gets her sober. No. Give me a nice love story. Nothing to complicated and difficult. It is a love on the first sight. They are usually the best, because they leave a lasting impression. They go to the same college. They share their lunches, sweaters and cigarettes. After a graduation they move to the same town. His carrier, or her carrier? So they compromise. Now you can see, how plot thickens. They live in an apartment, save money and build their house. They also get married after the last brick is laid. Wait a minute. We are in America. O. K. The house is built in two months. They produce a couple of children. Then he gets laid off. The roles reverse. No, we want nice love story. He gets another job across the States, so they have to move. Yes, grass is greener on the other side of mountain. It's a life and life means change. The end of the story. Is it stupid? I wouldn't be admitted to a class for creative writing. What the heck. I like to write. I like it very much. Copyright © Marie Neumann 2/11/2015 POW! assignment 2/11/2015 POW! assignment

Spanish

I lived in a state where over half of the population speaks Spanish.  "It would be nice to understand and speak Spanish."  I volunteered at a local university for a course: Spanish for beginners. Professor told me, "It'll help with your English."  Sixty years old woman sat between two decades old, fast thinking students, and many of them already had some Spanish basics. I didn't.  "Como se Llamas?"  "Hola! Como te Llamas?"  "Me llamo es Maria."  I knew that I would have a moderate reaction that I planned to replace with a hard work. I immediately bought a textbook and CD, and the first evening was listening to the CD and was studying the first lesson.  The next day my colleague showed me an article. The article was in Slovak, and I volunteered to translate it over the weekend to the English language. The article was about the lab report, where they were teaching a ram to live on urea. The report read like a detective story. I did not know how to translate all ruminants stomachs into English so I translated them as the first stomach, second stomach, etc. I was sorry when the ram at the end of the other wise successful experiment died. I had fun to translate the article, but what I was to do was to learn Spanish, so that I could answer questions without thinking. I should also prepare myself for the second lesson. I went to Spanish class, but I was ashamed of myself. That was my last hour of Spanish.  Miserable ram - and to make matters worse it passed away.  Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Stephenville, 2007

Stage fright

Standing in the lime light? I have a stage fright! I was taught to pick one friendly face and talk to her. Yes, I could do that, but I prefer to sit on the back, listen and watch. In the small circle sometimes I get an urge to talk. Sometimes I even make a sense, other times I make a fool of myself. No, thank you, I'd rather listen today. To be famous? What for? For an idea to wish to be famous. Patting on the back, shaking hands, to be on TV screen and nervously pulling too short skirt over my knees … I have a strong accent in English. If you will excuse me … Lets get over it and then to go to a restaurant and have a quiet talk over meal. Pizza? Pizza will be fine. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann January 2015

Ask.com

Where did my files go? Ask Ask.com. It has it all. What happened to Norton protection? Ask Ask.com. It knows it all. Where is Google and Google Chrome? Ask Ask.com. It will mock you all. How to get rid of Ask.com? Well, computer will have to go. 1/14/15

Water

Water bubbling clear water running over the reeds and rocks. Little brook hurrying to the river. Cold water in the Spring flooding meadows changing them into spongy squelchy surface creates a lake. I am looking from the forest. I know I can not cross in this time of the year. Water owns paths and once dusty roads dominates water clear powerful water. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann 12/8/2011 Pottsville, 12/8/2011

Wet dog

Wet dog walked in the rain to the village of Wet Dogs. "My wealthy aunt lives there. She owns her own dog house. She might have some leftovers to eat she will share with me." The aunt sleeps on a straw bed and has her own blanket. The blanket is full of fleas, like the aunt. It doesn't matter she is on the chain. She gets to eat for barking. "I know how to bark. I hope it will stop rain soon. I would like to get to Wet Dogs dry. She might find me a job," the dog was dreaming about. Doggie, were are you going? You are not a pure bread dog, you are just common mongrel who crawled to the pub's cellar for the night. "Just to get dry, so I could keep walking to my aunt in Wet Dogs." During the night a robber got in to the basement. The dog barked, he was loud, and hold the robbers' behind. The pub owner came down and turned on the light. "You are some kind of the dog," he praised a canine. "You cannot stay in the cellar. I have a dog house after old Stella you may stay." So the dog didn't arrive to his aunt in Wet Dogs, he stayed in Good Deals town. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann 2013?

Baseball

Berks Bards and Fightin' Phils start a game; a pitcher whacks baseball bat, wham, The ball flies. One, two, three base. Who is going to win this game? Upper bleachers are breathing on my neck and my hot dog falls on the row in my front. Coke follows. Nobody noticed. This is called the game! Copyright © Marie Neumann Baseball Poetry contest 2013

Christmas spirit

I wish to dress Christmas tree, listen to caroling, and to see Betlehems, in Trebechovice would be number one, and I don't wish to do any Christmas shopping. I didn't bake any Christmas cookies this year, because I have got discouraged with my failures of previous years, and I miss that (I mean baking and not failures). I didn't scrub whole house clean and shiny (and the house misses that) and I feel its, somehow, still dirty. We listened to some carols we decorated the house, we cooked Christmas dinners, exchanged little presents and the Christmas is gone. Copyright © Marie Neumann 2012 – finished 4/1/2015

Lucky day

My car didn't start in the morning, but I didn't expect anything else, because it didn't start yesterday afternoon either. I have AAA membership so I called them. This kind of situation is a reason, why I am the member. It angered Jack, because he wanted to take a look at the car first. AAA man arrived shortly, jump-started the car and told me to take it to the garage. I took off so quickly I didn't sign his paper and didn't call the garage first. A car mechanic told me to leave the car there. I hope AAA man was successful to calm down Jack - at least little bit. I decided to walk home for the same reason. In the mini-market I purchased a small coffee and drank it on my way home. Nobody was home. Jack's hand must be getting better, because he was able to drive his car and left to do some shopping. This is his way how to handle stress. During the day we didn't see each other much. On the evening we decided to go for ice-cream. We locked the house with the keys inside. A hidden box with reserve key forgot its code. Luckily we forgot to close a window on the second floor. One neighbor has a long ladder and second neighbor lets us to borrow their nimble boy. The kid unlocked the house from the inside. On the way to get ice-cream we almost collided with another car. Fortunately Jack understands some bad Czech words and was able to stop. I do not know if it is good, or bad, that Jack understands some Czech words, but I better to watch my language now. When we were paying for ice-cream we found out we both rewarded the boy. It was the kid's lucky day as well as ours, because without his help we wouldn't be able to get to the house. The ice-cream was good. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann 2012

Blba

Kdo mi trha jablicka? To je nase Ancicka. Procpak by je netrhala, procpak by se namahala? Jablicka jsou zdarma, Anka si je uz proda. Za dolar, i za ruble, take za korunu, ja uplne kaslu na Marunu. Kdyz je blba, tak at dava, ja jeji jab'ka beru rada. Dej Maruno, dej, nic se nemeskej. Copyright © Marie Neumann 11/22/2014

Man with a dog

In the little house behind a brewery, in the little, tiny, narrow street full of little packed up little houses, lived one veteran. Why veteran? He was to young for regular retirement. Where did he served? When I will say he was a military. I will be cross with military folks, when I will say he was an ex-policeman, I will get it from policemen ...He hold himself straight, so he was somebody, and he was the veteran, because he served his time, so he could retire. And do not interrupt me, because it is not so important; important is, that he have had a beautiful dog. A German Shepherd. It might be a sheep dog. No, he wasn't a sheep dog. How do you know it? They have curly fur. Are you making it up? No. How they look after sheep all the time, their fur began to be curly, too. First a tail gets curly, then legs and a chest, and whole dog is nice and curly. Of course, the sheep like such curly dog and treat him as their own kind. So, it wasn't the sheep dog. What was his name? Rex. What was the name of the man? I do not know. He didn't tell me. And this man and his dog were walking outside all the time. Rex was skinny as shingle and smart like dickens. Are the dickens smart? I do not know. It's only such saying. It's English word, you know. I would like to say something else: a town was full of grey squirrels. Squirrels were everywhere. They were begging at people's back door and people were buying peanuts for them and the squirrels were sitting on their hind legs, holding a peanut with their front legs and eating it. They were cute. The squirrels walked electric wires from one house to the house across and above the street, they were crossing the road, and the cars were stepping on the brakes. "My Gosh, I do not want to run over the squirrel, I would have to think about it whole day at work, and I would feel like a murderer." Suddenly there were not so many squirrels around. They didn't jump from the tree to another tree and didn't cross the street. First they disappeared from the street where the veteran lived. Then he began to walk his dog father and farther and everywhere they went the squirrels began to disappear. "There are not many squirrels this summer. All of them disappeared." People were saying. Then the man and his dog showed up at the cemetery and all squirrels which lived there were gone. The man began to show up at children's playground. One little girl said: "The dog was trying to climb a tree after the squirrel." "Did he succeed?" "No. He was only jumping at the tree, and the squirrel was high on the branch, and then she jumped to another tree and another tree, and she was gone." The squirrels also disappeared from the playground and adjacent areas. "There are not many squirrels this summer." People were saying. Then the man with his dog has showed up in the street behind a church. The squirrels also vanished there. A boy, about ten years old, who lived in that street, he was such a fearless kid, said: "The man feeds squirrels to the dog." "Aren't you making it up? Did you actually see the dog to eat the squirrels?" No, but the dog has such hungry eyes, when he sees the squirrel." "Phleese, tell me, how he eats them: with a tail, hair, bones and all?" "I do not know. I think so. He is not going to skin the squirrel first." "You must be kidding. Lets follow them." The boys went next day to look for the man and his dog. They were gone and the squirrels were gone as well. Why the man was doing this? He has to train his dog first. Maybe he didn't have enough money to feed himself and the dog and he loved his dog very much ... How many squirrels a day can such a German Shepherd eats daily, what do you think?" "Two, or three ..." Think, he eats three meals a day. I would say three." "The dog is so skinny ... He doesn't catch the squirrel each time and also has to be careful, so will not get caught." "He trained his dog well." "Yeah. The dog is well trained. They understand each other well: the man and his dog." "Do you think the dog catches the squirrels also for his master?" "Maybe." "Does he also eats squirrels?" "Yeah. He skins them, sells the pellets, and he cooks a stew for himself. He also shares his meal with the dog." "No, the dog already ate his share." "Listen, isn't it against the law to catch the squirrels?" "No." "Lets post a sign." "We don't want you and your dog in our street." They hanged the sign on the post and people signed it. The man and his dog didn't show up anymore. The squirrels returned back to the street after some time. Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Written in Czech 2010. English translation 2/3/2013 Pottsville