May 2023
Bio Note: I am a retired professor and school teacher, publisher of Spectrum magazine and host of Saturday Afternoon Poetry in Pasadena, CA. I grew up in suburban Monterey Park, CA and now live with my beautiful wife in the back house of a duplex where the rent is low because of who I know. I enjoy searching for music I've never heard before on the internet and record a show every Monday with some friends called FIND MUSIC, which you can find on YouTube. My poems are my diary and journal, and if you enjoy them, my blog lists my publication achievements.
Space Journeys
My mother kept
my earliest drawings
of Fireball XL5,
a rocket ship from
a television show
I don’t remember.
A few years later,
I thrilled to Thunderbirds
human-like puppets
who awkwardly sauntered
to their numbered vehicles,
one even went underwater.
Then came the actual
NASA moon landing,
I became an at home
researcher who shared his
discoveries at school with
mimeos for my classmates.
But when I grew to an adult,
life gave me the opportunity
to get onto a rollercoaster,
screaming like my girlfriend
and vomiting not far from
the ride exit, end of dream.
Have you ever...
...tried using a key
instead of a quarter
to unlock an Aldi
shopping cart?
...shoplifted $1,000
of Legos from Target,
not for "family members",
but to sell?
...worked for Grubhub,
made a measly $6.69
on a delivery that
totalled $25.47?
...left a restaurant,
paying for your meal
on your way out, because
you didn't like your relatives?
...shot down a Chinese
spy balloon since that is
your job flying a fighter jet
from a Carolina air force base?
I have done none of these Google-able
things, yet I have been on the front page
of local 20th century newspapers twice,
once as a Barnes Park teenage turtle racer,
and again in the El Monte bus station
performing poetry in a safety jacket
to waiting riders about French toast,
street football, and spring love
©2023 Don Kingfisher Campbell
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL