PCH Sweepstakes,Duping folks since the 70s

Beware of Publisher’s Clearing House!

My father has been gone since 1981

In commemoration of him

I entered Publisher’s Clearing House, $5,000 per week

For Life contest because the deadline was December 30^th

His birthday

What a wide awake nightmare!

I’ve purchased only a couple publications

And a bunch of random stuff that seems great

In the moment and regrettable ten minutes later

I would love to not worry about paying my bills ever again

But now I know I will probably not win because even though

They claim you do not have to make a purchase to win-I am

Exhausted from resisting-and playing their on screen “scratch offs”

And accumulating points to buy more stuff!

I cannot take it anymore

I am going to unsubscribe and

All that happened was their marketing scheme

Worked (temporarily) on me

The truth is Pop entered for years ever hopeful

He went to his grave never winning

Come to think of it, I have never met one person

Who won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes-

So, I am asking, just out of curiosity, if you are a PCH winner

Or know someone who has won

Please let me know!

They claim that they’re going to drive up to my P.O. Box

With flowers and a great big check- my question is: How will they

Know when I’ll be there?

Maureen

Maureen, Maureen, what a beautiful lady

You have one babe on your arm

And another inside

You just keep strolling down life’s

Rocky roadway

You’re so independent that I

Gave you a ride…

You missed your bus, and it was

Almost raining

I heard you curse the powers that be

But I could tell that you weren’t defeated

Some how I knew that lady is free

Your child trailed behind you

Not wanting to walk

But you kept on going

Unwilling to talk

That poignant scene, warmed me inside

And all I could do was to offer a ride

Well, you said your man left you

For another, matter-of-fact, like

Please pass the tea

I realized from hearing your story

That people are free as

They wish to be

Maureen, Maureen, what a beautiful lady

You have one babe on your arm

And another inside

You just keep strolling down life’s

Rocky roadway

You’re so independent that I

Gave you a ride…

True story. Witnessing Maureen's courage inspired me to get out of an oppressive marriage.

Chance meetings really can change a life.

raintreepoet 

                            

                                     

My E.R. Doctor

                           He was tall and mustachioed

                      with wavy wild hair, grey eyes

                     that saw all of you

                Despite my pain, he put me

            in a lather…

                                  He had a competent touch as

                               he felt my ribs, walking his fingers

                           up to just below my throbbing

                        breast

                                   He spoke softly as he gave

                              the diagnosis

                         I was given an instruction sheet

                    (Thank God) because I

                 did not hear a word he said

                                               

                 I do have an opinion about that:

            They should screen heart throbs

          out of medical school!

                          I mean, how is someone who

                      makes your heart skip a beat

                 gonna save you?

 From Love Roulette, the chapbook.

He Was Rich… I Chose You

He was rich and I was young

He’d built castles

I had songs unsung

He bid for my heart with words

And gold

Since I was young, it felt cold

You were of swarthy stock

Handsome, swashbuckling

Large of cock

You promised nothing, but

You were there

For some foolish, biological reason

I began to care

After years of drunken beatings

Cruelty stunning passion’s glare

I realized his offer valid,

Into numb space I now stare

Gone am I from both of you

Recognizing good from true

Would I but chose the easy way,

Be writing this poem today?

Rain Knight 6/22/99

In recognition of Dorothy Parker’s angst.

Ricardo and Eddie

           

We were walking by a vintage clothing Shoppe, my friend and I when

A stellar pair of Tony Lama boots called out to her

Actually, it was Ricardo, the left boot, “Hey Babe!

Look at you-tall, leggy gorgeous redhead- come over and

Give us a try on- the other guy’s name is Eddie, I am Ricardo

We think we’d like you to take us on a walk

Grace, I said, he’s talking to you!

She laughed, Shall we? As she pulled open the door

A bell rang and a smiling shop owner said,

May I help you?

Grace said, I’d like to try those on.

Ricardo burbled, excitedly, Did you hear that, Eddie?

That beauteous babe may be getting us out of here

Eddie said, Anywhere but here, Ricardo. I miss Austin!

Oh, Stop it, Eddie! You miss OKC, too and every

Podunk town that cowboy rode a bull in

Be here now! We’re in Vancouver and life is about to

Get a whole lot better-we’ve been discovered!

If we’re lucky, no livestock will ever crunch our uppers

Or dang near pull our heels off again!

If this lady decides we fit, we may get a softer life

I got news for you, Ricardo, city sidewalks ain’t pillows

No, but if we’re lucky, she’ll

 walk us on some soft trails

Oh Ricardo, you’re such a dreamer…

Grace said, Oh they fit perfectly, I’ll take them!

We walked out smiling and heard Ricardo say to Eddie,

Dreams do come true, Eddie…

Ya just got to believe they do!

On the occasion of my friend Grace’s newly purchased grey Tony Lama boots,

Rainy Knight reporting.  January 2014

Brushing my teeth with hair on fire...

Okay, I'd like to talk to you about computer ineptitude and why I am
still single after all these years
For me, dating services do not seem to work
I get in and get flooded with responses
I freak out and I start hitting delete
I know it's a numbers game, at least
that's what I've been told
but when you have an ADD kind of mind
you cannot stick with the tsunami of responses
long enough to make it work and
when you get 500+ responses to a bio in
which the only photo is of you brushing
your teeth with your hair on fire (the computer
took this photo and I have no idea where the
fire came from!) you begin to suspect that none
of the people responding are real, so you keep
hitting delete and then you try to unsubscribe 
from POF, but there is no way to contact them
so you're caught in a spiraling vortex of forever
responses much like LinkdIn that you have never
been able to get rid of either and
you begin to wonder: Is somebody somewhere getting
paid for your ineptitude  on the computer? Have
the computer hacker nerds figured out a way to hook
people in and collect from advertisers for held hostage
participants?
Why can't I unsubscribe from a service (supposedly free)
that I no longer want and never really understood how
to use in the first place?
In the scheme of things I suppose this is a tiny ridiculous
complaint, however, any annoyance even the miniscule
like dripping water can pose the threat of madness
If anybody out there knows how to unhook me from this
irritating niggling annoyance, please respond...before
I go stark raving hysterical.

raintreepoet, reporting.

Have you seen a good movie lately?

    

I saw two movies over my Christmas break and

Even though the settings were in different centuries

There were several commonalities, mostly addressing

Character.

The Big Short was about the economic crash of 2008

Brought on by a few devious players who had a brilliant

Scheme to get rich no matter how much it affected the

Rest of the world as indeed it did.

They told a few well placed lies (fraud) and the rest is

History. The story as you may recall does not have a

Happy Hollywood ending, but it is educational in an “I

Told you so” kind of way.

The second movie The Hateful Eight takes us back to the

 1800s when stage coaches were the common mode of

 transportation and folks were a little more rough and tumble

 than is usual nowadays. Quentin Tarrentino writes a brilliant

 scheme to fool the second stage coach of hapless victims and true

to form makes everybody join the blood bath.

The money motive/Greed is comparable to The Big Short

except back in more gritty times, folks did not mind shooting

to kill if somebody got in their way.

I would like to say that “When we know better we do better”

but all out destruction simply takes another form between the two

centuries.

One thing about the 1800s is that if somebody shot you, you

could see who it was and shoot back.

In 2008, the sneaky snakes who collapsed the world economy

with a few flourishes of the keyboard were invisible to the

people whose lives were devastated and who never knew who

(specifically) was responsible!

I highly recommend both movies; each told a good story and

the stories were driven by colorful, gnarly characters.

Raintreepoet, reporting.

P.S. Happy 2016!