Pass me the hot Cheetos
while we Netflix and chill

Order the pizza
while I get a refill

I'll choose the movie
And you pay the bill.

The prize, just keep your eye on the prize. The buzzer sounds as I stuff my face, not daring to lose this race. Hot dog after hot dog, I don't slow down. Victory is in my sight, there's no stopping me now. The buzzer dings, my hands held high in the air. I've won, completely fair and square.

though just a patchwork poem of different lines,
this sonnet shall begin my journal still.
it lacks in structure, not in rhythm or rhyme
and serve it's purpose i am sure it will.

"a journal?" you may say, and ask "what for?"
and i reply "i got bored on a plane"
my grandfather suggested that the lore
that university brings should be lain

within these pages, if i ever write
these out on paper which i may just do
once i return from durham and alight,
this metal bird that brings me there unto.

i don't recall how many lines to add,
though with this quad i think i shall be set
my future works will be more thought ahead,
and probably not from inside a jet.

all things considered, i quite like this poem,
and if my father asks, i'd surely show'im.

I used to sell rocks and scapegoats
to cosmonauts and government officials.
I made my way in geodes and NDAs.

Don't break it!
(The crystal or the non-disclosure)

There once was a captive giraffe,          
Who escaped from the city zoo,  
But with this newly found freedom,
He wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Bustle overwhelmed his senses,
‘Till he finally found some lawn,
But the trees were scarce and fragile,
With dried leaves barely hanging on.

Flooded with options and self-doubt,
He let out some ironic laughs,
And returned back to the same zoo,
Back with all the other giraffes.

In a world where waves crash and pirates swagger,
Some ladies swoon, and their hearts stagger.
Take the warning like a siren’s call.
A lesson to heed, fair ladies all.

Pirates seem badass, but they’ll break your bottle of ***
And give you sass.
All their charm is behind a smoky haze,
By knocking over the oil lamp, they set the ship ablaze.

They’ll hug your hips and say they like women curvy.
But beware they might give you more than scurvy!
With their roguish charm and a wink,
You find them alluring. They’ll have other parts of your body besides your heart burning!

Fishermen may be lame, but they’re steady as a reliable game!
They keep their poles and bait out, waiting for you to reach out.

So sit by the fisherman and lean on his shoulder, sigh a breath.
As you two stare at dawn’s rise, life has new depth.

Back in the bad old days of my youth
When I found myself isolated and alone, unemployed... friendless
Had nothing to look forward to
And a body full of pains
I was sitting out in a back shed one day... despairing
How had things come to this I asked myself
And what could I do?
My life had really gone off the rails...
Now I had these two young pet cats 😺
They were my best friends and confidantes
While I'm sitting there... busy despairing
One of the cats comes in and jumps up onto my thigh and quietly just crouches down there
And closes his eyes
It's like he's saying "I'm with you in whatever you're going through, you're very important to me"
It interrupts all my despairing, I smile and think it's rather cute
And then... then the other cat appears, he comes in and he does the exact same thing
He jumps up onto my other thigh and crouches down there and closes his eyes
It's like they were saying "You belong to us, you're our best friend, we don't like to see you unhappy, we're here for you, we're with you in this"
I had to smile, even laugh to myself
I thought it was like God was sending me these animals to cheer me up
To tell me not to give up
That there was still hope in this world/ this life.

The two cats were tomcats
When one of them grew older he went wandering looking for a female probably (wasn't neutered)
He got killed on the road, knocked down
The other developed some kind of mange and would go around crying
In those days people were poor, they didn't spend money on animals
My Dad eventually got sick looking at him and hearing him cry
He threw him in a bag one day and doused him with water
Put some sticks and stones in it and threw him in the ditch (it was cold Winter time)
For the next couple of days and nights you could hear the poor animal crying
Until at last, there was silence
(It was like that scene from the Silence of the Lambs movie
When the young FBI agent recalls her childhood memory of hearing the screams of the lambs).

They were there for me but me, I wasn't there for them.