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