Category: Columns

by Ernie McCray

One often hears
how dull life would be
if everyone was the same
but I beg to differ,
thinking non-braggadocious-ly
that it would be flat out cool
if everybody acted as I do,
like woke up everyday
and, no matter what else they did that day,
took time out to read,
to pet a dog,
and wrote some prose and poetry,
some of it for a progressive blog,
and listened to and danced to
some music that allowed
them to breathe in the day soulfully and deeply,

by Ernie McCray

I was an only child
and what has been said
about folks like me
is that we are likely to be spoiled
and lonely
and selfish
and go about life without social skills
and all I can say is
I didn’t get the memo
about any of this
because I, when I was a kid,
was too spoiled
as a billionaire
would be to being broke and on the skids.

by Ernie McCray

I hadn’t been paying too much attention
to these NIL* deals
college athletes have at their disposal,|
how well they’re compensated
for having their name, likeness, and image displayed,
but I was just reading how
some of these jocks
are making millions of dollars
and I say more power
to them

by Ernie McCray

Lallia Allali,
a friend of mine,
was removed as the chairperson
of a committee
that advises San Diego City Schools
on programs and services for English Learners –
for posting a graphic on social media
that portrayed Israel as the killer of babies,
and I must say
that’s not a vision
I would ever use
as an expression of my views
regarding the war
that’s raging
between
Palestinians and Jews.

by Ernie McCray

As the world spins
seemingly out of control
I find unfolding in me
the kind of wishes
one would make at a wishing well
in a fairy tale,
wishing that
Secretaries of State
in America’s states
will rise early every day
and stay up late
ensuring that
a former president
who is filled with hate,
like a rattle snake
overflowing with venom,
will not be a candidate
in his or her state,

by Ernie McCray 

I’m remembering
walking up a stairway
in Amsterdam
through narrow doorways
looking into nooks and crannies
in Anne Frank’s hiding place,
an annex attached to a home
where she chronicled
in a diary
that stands as a gift to humanity,
the trials and tribulations
of her people,
Jews,

by Ernie McCray 

I ran across
a picture of me
and two of my closest friends
growing up,
and I thought
of something I read that said:
“You can be friends with people
for years
and it could take years
for you to realize they were
never your friend”

By Judi Curry

Let me start by saying that there are many different kinds of “victims.” Some are extremely serious; some are annoying; some are worthy of complaint to the right people.  Some “victims” find relief in many different ways.  This “victim” – me – hopes to find relief by writing about a situation that festers as each minute goes by.  I realize that some of you will think I have blown this completely out of proportion; others of you will scoff at my feelings, but I, personally, will feel better and, at this time, that is all I can ask for.

I am known as a “jammer” amongst my friends and relatives.  I have 18 fruit trees and make jam year round.  Some I sell; some I give away, and an awful lot we eat.  I pride myself in the varieties I make, and have yet to find someone tell me that the jam was not tasty.  I love trying new fruits and wines; and even mark potential calendar days to begin a new batch.

One of my most memorable jams is my mango. 

By Ernie McCray

I read somewhere that
“A salary is the amount your employer
pays you to forget your dreams.”
And my take on the idea is
are you kidding me,
with some of the poorly paying jobs I had early in my life,
sweeping and mopping
and buffing and dusting
in between
wiping tears from my eyes
and cussing?

by Ernie McCray

There’s a meme
that reads
“Be the things
you loved most about
the people who are gone”
and when I think about it
I can see that
I’ve been doing that all along,
keeping the spirit of lost ones alive –
through how I live my life,
|going back to my teens

by Ernie McCray

I turn on the TV
and I hear the news
that Hamas
had taken the lives of
hundreds of Jews
and my eyes teared
and like dust being vacuumed
my breath was sucked away
just thinking that human beings
can treat each other this way
putting them in harm’s way
as they listen to music being played
and then I became equally dismayed,
knowing that Netanyahu’s
retaliation to this horrible display
of heinous madness
would be more deadly

by Ernie McCray

The seventy
and eighty
and ninety-year-olds
and beyond
compose a generation
whose days,
after so many yearly journeys
revolving around the sun,
are moving on,
yet,|
though their days will be done,
along with their memories
of a war that was won,
the ending of Jim Crow shenanigans
and marches in the street
for peace and justice and equality
that faced firehoses and snarling dogs
with bared teeth
and so many things –