The Blanket Stories Project

The perfect stocking stuffer for poetry lovers and/or rivalrous siblings: Blanket Stories! To order, visit amazon.com or http://raggedsky.com/books/48-blanket-stories

Author: Karl B. Somers

Title: Brother

~~~~~~~~~~
Brother

We played as small boys. We went on adventures together. Our father brought us to the sea. We walked the swelling beach of grey at Sandymount in Dublin, we walked the long wall at Booterstown. We played tennis against each other, matches set up by my father, with a prize of a can of coke. My brother always won, he was the golden boy, the one with all the blanket. His trophies covered the mantle piece showing everyone how great he was. "Why can't you be like your brother?" a mother asks. "I am me, different, not interested in the trophy world."

A painful teenager walks the swollen streets with leather jacket thick. A protective layer and records under arm of loud music to listen to at home. I AM ME. "Why are you so sensitive?" my mother asked on the broken morning. The cold made me think differently.

As the light moved slow against the crumbling wall at dusk, my boots heavy and thin soled, I break and cry and don't them see. My brother has the blanket now, all of it, he has pulled it to his side and I am in the cold light of the broken town, broken down but walking in a direction and that direction is now my life.

Today's poem is available here:

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/susanna-vollenweider.html

Blanket Stories: Poems: Susanna Vollenweider Blanket Stories: An Art and Poetry Project by Richard Jochum, Ruth Zamoyta, and Ann Teed

Today's poem is available here:

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/marion-tucker.html

Blanket Stories: Poems: Marion Tucker Blanket Stories: An Art and Poetry Project by Richard Jochum, Ruth Zamoyta, and Ann Teed

Today's poem is best viewed on our website:

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/loli-tsan.html

Blanket Stories: Poems: Loli Tsan Blanket Stories: An Art and Poetry Project by Richard Jochum, Ruth Zamoyta, and Ann Teed

Author: Charles Rossiter
Title: Have You Noticed

~~~~~~~~~~~
Have You Noticed

Have you noticed, people who claim to be frugal
by voting against funding for pre-schools
will vote to fund more prisons?

Have you noticed, when abortion was legalized,
twenty years later crime rates fell?

Have you noticed, raising the minimum wage
has virtually no effect on unemployment?

Have you noticed, Australia's strict gun laws
have greatly decreased gun violence there?

Have you noticed, universal health care
frees people to change jobs?

Have you noticed, the planet is warming?

Have you noticed, as the old saying goes,
common sense is not so common?
~~~~~~~~~~~

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/charles-rossiter.html

Today's poem is best viewed on our website:

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/william-radabaugh.html

Blanket Stories: Poems: William Radabaugh Blanket Stories: An Art and Poetry Project by Richard Jochum, Ruth Zamoyta, and Ann Teed

Today's poem is best viewed on our website:

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/jb-pravda.html

Blanket Stories: Poems: J.B. Pravda Blanket Stories: An Art and Poetry Project by Richard Jochum, Ruth Zamoyta, and Ann Teed

Author: Carl Palmer
Title: Aerophobia

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aerophobia

Toddlers play together,
one white one brown,
rolling a red matchbox car
on the airport lobby floor.

Their young mothers watch,
one with curly auburn hair.
One wears a white head scarf
smiling approval across the aisle.

Fellow travelers soon forget
delayed departure worries,
and transform into a community
as they watch the children play.

Two businessmen abruptly arrive,
glare disgust towards their wives,
move family and belongings
to opposite sides of the room.

The boarding call finally announced,
relieved passengers gather bags
and proceed in line down the ramp
while the babies continue to cry.

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/carl-palmer.html

Author: Raymond Murphy
Title: Love Turns the World

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love Turns the World

Love turns the world.
Compassion, just a pinch,
bolsters meaning in
life.
Greed drives hatred
propping brothers
against brothers.
Desiring
much more, than less,
taints Earth's humanity.
Values no longer,
diminished.
Killing, bloodshed, violence,
towards the vertex
of this skewed
pyramid.
Why cannot
ruthlessness end
and love spread?
Why can't we give?
Because
in return,
we receive
something greater.
The best gift of all, more
desirable
than what any
thief can
pilfer or
heist.
~~~~~~~~~~

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/raymond-murphy.html

Author: Shane Michael Manieri
Title: My Father's Kind Knife

~~~~~~~~~
My Father's Kind Knife

Printed on my blanket, soldiers
marched up and down
wearing helmets and camouflage, rifles on shoulders.
I’d hear the beat of their buttstock
as their weapons marked the spot.
I didn’t live in a wasteland
but a minefield.
He was going to show me
who was boss,
train me with his kind knife.
When I cried out
from my bed I’d hear: Be a man.
Oh father, next time you storm in
eager to dog and train me,
make my army come alive.

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/shane-manieri.html

Today's poem is best viewed on our website:

http://blanketstories-poetry.blogspot.com/2013/12/karyn-mackenzie.html

Blanket Stories: Poems: Karyn Mackenzie Blanket Stories: An Art and Poetry Project by Richard Jochum, Ruth Zamoyta, and Ann Teed