My Poems

My Snow Loving Cat

Can't you see the big snow flakes coming down                                                 The wind is blowing the snow on frozen ground                                                   Sitting at the door are you wanting to go out                                                             How loud the word no do you want me to shout 

It's piling up real fast making big snow banks                                                     Staying in this warm house you should give thanks                                                One paw out that door and you would quickly disappear                                                      Wait until the Mr. plows a path to make the way clear  

Please stop fussing while I wrap you in this warm sweater                                   And you may not like it but this hat makes it even better                                Your the one snow cat that wants to go out in this blizzard                                   It sure would make me happy if you would just reconsider 

Author Eileen Clark 2022 

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My Poems

Your Neighbor The Squirrel

The squirrel will dig a hole deep into the ground                                                               Making sure no onlooking predators are around                                                         They will dig very deep to hide their nuts and berries                                                          Then zig zagging up a tree fast as their legs can carry

The constant moving of their bushy tails often attracts                                                                     So that running pattern confuses all the dogs and cats                                                  Keep those feeders filled when the temperature gets low                                     Squirrels won't have to dig for their stash in the snow

A great deal of time is spent digging, chasing and eating                                                    Fall is busy preparing for winter they'll soon be greeting                                                         Take some time to notice the antics of the silly squirrel                                                                A whole new interesting activity in your life will unfurl

Author Eileen Clark 2022

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My Short Stories

Boots In The Snow

When I was eight I walked to school in the city of Hartford Connecticut every day with my two older brothers Bernie and Dick. We walked on the cement sidewalks and the rule was, never  step on the long crack that separated each sidewalk square. Some of the large cement squares had many cracks in them so it was a real difficult task to keep moving and not step on one of them. You had to keep moving along fast, you couldn’t take your time checking ahead before you put your foot down. You just could not step on one because you would really hurt your mother, that’s what we honestly believed. Quite silly don’t you think, well maybe not all the kids my age played this game.

Our winter boots were always black and for a girl I considered them to be very ugly. We all had them, black up past your ankle rubber boots. Little girls did not have red blue or pink boots back then like they sell today, or possibly it was the not so financially well off  kids that didn’t have boots in colors. Thing is, I don’t even remember seeing them in the big department stores. We did most of our shopping in the Sears & Roebucks catalogues and I never saw any pretty boots for kids in them either.

The boots had snap type clamps from the middle to the top and often because it was too much trouble or we were just lazy, we never buckled them up just slipped them on and off we’d go.

I loved to walk on the huge high snow banks along the side of the road where the plow’s piled it up after clearing off the roads. It was fun trudging along on those banks pushing one foot after the other down, my whole leg would be swallowed up into the snow. I had to work hard to pull my leg up and out of the snow wiggling my leg back and forth to pull it up only to clump the other foot and leg down almost to my hips into the snow bank again.

We never gave a thought about the fact that walking on these snow banks was very dangerous and any time we could slip off falling towards the road and oncoming cars would run over us, we would have been killed!

Sure enough it was bound to happen, one day up came my foot with no boot!  I quickly looked down the hole that my foot was buried in only to see snow. Of course snow will fall back into the hole as my foot comes up. I frantically searched, pulling snow away with my freezing red numb fingers. I was in a terrified state by now, still pulling snow away from where I thought the hole might have been to where my boot still just might be, all the time knowing I was as good as dead, I couldn’t find my boot. 

Yes, my father would kill me when he got home from work. In matters like this, my mother would not kill me, she just got sick. Here’s how it would go, ” I’m sick, you have made me sick over this, I just can’t take any more, now I am sick.” It was right after the second world war and we were poor, everyone was poor for a while in that period of time, so I was not going to get a new pair of boots this winter.

My feet were going to freeze every day back and forth to school, and in the play yard, and in my backyard, and at my girlfriends back yard, all winter long, frozen feet, and of course I did get the spanking from my father that night when he got home from work. He had a brown leather strap hanging on a nail behind the kitchen stove. He made it at his workplace.

My spanking, my mother reminding me that I was indeed killing her, and my feet getting wet and very cold every day, I feel I was duly punished and never walked on snow banks ever again, ever.

On the school shoes the soles would separate because in time the rubber would wear down to the thread and the thick thread holding the two pieces together got exposed and would disintegrate. With every step I took it was flop flop flop, it was embarrassing!  My father would glue them together, put a clamp on them, holding them very tight over night so they would be ready to wear the next day. That glue job lasted about a month then came unglued. Mom would say live with it.

Author Eileen Clark

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Art & Artest · My Poems ~ Others poems

Ice Skating

Children Skating Painting by Percy Tarrant
People love to go skating, across the ice;
It may be rather chilly, but it’s just so nice.
People wrapped up in coats, gloves and scarves,
Share each other’s company, and also some laughs.
                              ~*~
Fairy lights twinkle, up in the trees nearby.
Excited eyes sparkle, and spirits are high.
Across the rink, the skaters twist and twirl;
On the ice, their skates create ornate swirls.
                           ~*~
Novice skaters hang on, tightly, to the side;
Their nerves, with smiles, they try to hide.
A good sense of balance is vital, to stay upright;
Wibble-wobbling about, some people lose the fight.
                               ~*~
Some skaters execute some amazing moves;
That they are old pros, they can easily prove.
Some people hold hands, as they skate around;
Taking in all of the exciting sights and sounds.
                             ~*~
The skaters’ noses and cheeks glow, rosy pink,
As they make their way around the huge ice rink.
Some of the first time skaters, tumble and fall,
And they just can’t seem to get the hang of it all.
                             ~*~
It’s a festive experience, which is hard to beat,
And, for many, it’s an exciting winter time treat.
To go skating, at an outdoor rink, people wait all year;
It’s an activity, guaranteed to bring some festive cheer.
Children Skating ~ by Percy Tarrant ~  1879-1930
My Poems ~ Others poems

My Girls Stay In!

Elmira Mustafina
Cat on a Night of Snow 
 *
Cat, if you go outdoors you must walk in the snow.
You will come back with little white shoes on your feet,
little white shoes of snow that have heels of sleet.
Stay by the fire, my Cat.  Lie still, do not go.
 *
See how the flames are leaping and hissing low.
I will bring you a saucer of milk like a marguerite,
so white and so smooth, so spherical and so sweet —
stay with me, Cat.  Outdoors the wild winds blow.
 *
Outdoors, the wild winds blow, Mistress, and dark is the night,
strange voices cry in the trees, intoning strange lore,
and more than cats move, lit by our eyes’ green light,
on silent feet where the meadow grasses hang hoar —
 *
Mistress, there are portents abroad of magic and might,
and things that are yet to be done.  Open the door!
 *
Poem by Elizabeth Coatsworth                                         

*

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My Girls ~ Little Girl & Dixie

Painting by Elmira Mustafina