Hello, Mr. Vegetarian! – A Riddle

There are two of us, if you want to compare

You can’t tell the difference, even if you stare.

One of us is bigger, but you won’t see it live

Since we never are together, even if you strive.

**

The only way you could tell is the way we talk

Otherwise, we are the same, when we eat and sit and walk.

Maybe one of us is slightly bigger, but that is hard to tell

Only one thing is absolutely clear, we all are pretty swell.

**

We only live of plants, herbivores we’re called

We normally are calm, unless we’re badly galled.

We spend the days with family, we eat, we sit, we sleep

And when there’s something happening, we can cry and weep.

**

We are plucking flowers, we pay court to our girls

We give them pets and kisses, because we can’t give pearls.

We use tools to help us get to meals

We have two legs, and two arms, but our ladies wear no heels.

**

We all live on one continent, in warmth and sun we thrive

Some of us grow in the swamps by the desert, that is where we drive.

The others live higher in the mountains, still warm and nice

We wouldn’t change it where we live, for no treat and for no price.

**

We look peaceful and also lazy, but hey, make no mistake!

To protect our loved ones, we fight, we kill, we break!

We’re strong, and big, and underestimated on the first glance

But threaten us and our families, no man can stand a chance.

**

We’re nearly extinct, our kind is endangered, which is sad

We’re worth being saved, believe me, without us the world goes bad.

The Earth is cruel, a place of miracles, currently our dying, it is stalled.

Who are we? Yes, you are right, Gorillas we are called.

*****

(Copyright, August 2022 – Aurora Jean Alexander)

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.com

An Empty Shell

There are times when I feel hollow

When times drags out the shallow days

The sun, it shines, provides the warmth

That shows the normal summer ways.

**

Surrounded am I, by furry companions

And people in whose house I live.

I do, what I can, not to be a burden

But I don’t know how much I still can give.

**

I’m feeling blue, and worse by the hour

I feel forgotten, like I don’t matter at all.

No work, nobody who gives me a chance

To prove my worth – I feel useless and small.

**

There’s one person in this world who fills my life

With warmth, with smiles, and with some joy

But even he, goes forward and back, undecided

I feel hurt and humiliated, like a toy.

**

All I need is some success, a chance, some energy

Make me smile, talk to me, and make me feel alive

Currently, I feel alone, in a huge building, my thoughts an echo

Don’t leave me here with only myself – I need to thrive!

**

Maybe I just wither, unloved, undesired, forgotten and alone

If I just disappear, nobody would care if I slowly fade.

Leave the sunlight, go into darkness, enjoy the moon.

go into the night, accompanied by only shade.

**

Maybe it’s not the non-chances, or sadness that are killing

Maybe it’s not neglect, or sadness that trigger fears

Maybe it’s more, maybe it’s pain, hurt and loneliness

That make me drown in an ocean of tears….

*****

(Copyright, Aurora Jean Alexander, July 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com

A Smiling Acquaintance – A Riddle Poem

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I live in the Americas, in Central and the South

I am a happy mammal, with a constant smile upon my mouth.

There are two families of my species, named after our feet

And also we are different, in what we hunt and eat.

**

Eleven thousand years ago, a few of us were living on the ground

The size of elephants we were weighed in tons, and not with pound…

But the arrival of humans made us easy targets, eaten and extinct

What stayed was our mini-version, the one that smiled and blinked.

**

Also, we are easy target, that means we moved us to the trees

Where we do all, eat and sleep, and slowly move, breed and pair and sneeze.

We don’t have much energy, we don’t do well with others too

Normally, we all are loners, unless we are playing peek-a-boo.

**

We haven’t much developed lately, we stay frozen in our form

We smile, we eat, and we move slowly, to us that is the given norm.

Once a week we might come down from our favorite living tree

Fertilize the soil below it, before climbing up again to be.

**

Our fur is brown, sometimes beige, always straight, and never curled.

We are breeding a very special, unique moth within the insect world.

Our name comes from our movement, sluggish, lazy, very slow.

The name is program, you might guess, we are a ‘sloth’, that is to know.

*****

(Copyright, Aurora Jean Alexander, April 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com

Spring Is In The Air

This one here, it is for Lisa

And she knows I’m teasing her

I’m glad you finally woke up

After winter went out in a blur.

**

The past weeks when it was colder,

you were tired and also sad.

But when the sun came out today

I almost thought you had gone mad.

**

Suddenly you turn from a grumpy,

tired lady, within only a short whirl,

in a colorfully dressed and beaming

almost dancing teenage-girl.

**

The outside world got more attractive

And I can see, you’re breathing life!

Go on like this, dear friend ‘in crime’

And soon enough you’ll be a wife!

**

But joke aside, it does get warmer,

We all should laugh more, and should smile.

It’s spring time, a very special season,

To feel refreshed, and show some style.

**

The world awakens, first blossoms grow

Birds are singing, happiness we can find

All over the place, so let’s agree,

We love to leave the cold behind.

*****

(Copyright: Aurora Jean Alexander, March 2022)

Picture courtesy of Pixabay

A One Of A Kind Spy – A Riddle

I’m considered beautiful, and also shy

I can be hidden, still watch you, like a spy.

My eyes are big, my features strong

I’m still not predator, don’t go wrong!

**

I am very fast, I won’t pry

But be aware, I cannot fly.

Just when I’m threatened, then I go

But far too often, it’s useless, though.

**

I’m useful to nature, and still I’m prey

Wolf, bear, cougar, what should I say?

They all look at me like food

That fills the belly of all their brood.

**

You can find me all over the world in different size

My life can be peaceful, but that comes with a prize.

I’m not protected like so many these days…

And that’s why I wander on different ways.

**

My babies are tiny, and should you find one on your lawn

Please, don’t feed them, they are my spawn.

They’re cute, I know, but if you intrude

I’ll leave alone, and they’ll be screwed.

**

I’m sure in the meantime you have an idea about me

Well hidden, beautiful, shy and I love to be free.

I would say, by now it should be clear

It’s no secret, I am called, a deer.

*****

(Copyright Aurora Jean Alexander, February 2, 2022)

Picture courtesy of Google.com

Winter Time 2021

This year, for no apparent reason

Winter is a special picture in my head.

Remember these older Christmas paintings?

A landscape with thick snow, all spread.

**

I see a house on a snow-covered hill

It’s not daylight, but neither is it dark

The houses’ window are enlightened.

Warm shimmer lets the snow there spark.

**

In front of the house there is a fir tree

Festively prepared for the Holy Night.

It’s winter time, it’s Christmas time

The candles on the tree shine bright.

**

I can imagine the smell of cinnamon

Apples, oranges and gingerbread.

Warm and cozy is the inside of the house

Preparing for Santa Claus’s sled.

**

After a vivid daydream I went searching

For the picture that ruled my brain.

I felt nostalgic, a little childlike

And there it was, with no extra strain.

**

The ‘painting’, close to what I pictured,

Radiates warmth, and smiles and Christmas flair

I can almost hear the laughter

And the smells fill the happy air.

**

We all should pause and should remember

When the world’s in trouble as it is.

That nothing is more important, than respect,

Compassion, love and peace.

*****

(Copyright: Aurora Jean Alexander, December 2021)

Picture courtesy of Kohls.com

ODE TO A GREEK GOD – Written By Marla Todd

Ode to a Greek God

A story by Marla Todd

I’ve been 6000 years at the top of my game. I knew it was too good to last.

I’m having breakfast on my deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean with the perfect amount of salty warm breeze drifting over me. A beautiful redheaded woman is still in my bed and I can still feel the warmth of her skin against mine. Fortunately she’ll be gone in an hour.

Anyway, I’m having coffee and some amazing cheese and apple pastries my son dropped off this morning. I’m also checking out a box Pan had dropped off with the pastries. That’s my son Pan, the famous happy-go-lucky satyr who dances through the woods making merry. That’s over. He settled down about 150 years ago with a wood nymph named Gloria and they’ve been keeping domestic bliss ever since. I never thought I’d see the day. Anyway, they were cleaning out some closets and found some stuff I’d swiped a few years ago. Thirty-four years ago to be exact.

It looked like I’d gone into the backpack of a college girl. I’d been in college mode that year for a change of pace. I was young, buffed and blue eyed and a killer smile. Female heads all turned in my direction.

In the box was a silver hair clip in the shape of a flowering tree branch, a delicate sexy lacy cream-colored underwire bra size 32C, a sea shell and a folded up piece of college ruled notebook paper. I unfolded the paper and read the words that would change my life.

It was a poem. It was in a round girlish script written in blue felt tip pen. No name identified the writer. I started to read, expecting the usually silly girlish babble about the meaning of life, teen angst and the horrible nature of never being understood. What I read was something else entirely.

As I stood upon the steps,

Halfway between the land and sea

The messenger god Hermes

Came to me,

Swift footed and bright

But somewhat overtaken

By his cousin Dionysus’ last visit

He brought me a message

And I read it through his blue eyes

“I bring you myself” he said.

No answer came from my lips

Except a kiss,

Which spoke very clear.

Oh happy was I,

When hand in hand

Under the stars we ran

For my mythical Hermes

Turned into a man

I took a gulp of coffee and stared at the poem. A poem about me? People had written poems about me, of course, but this was personal. It was a poem about ME, not a god of tales and lore but about ME, Hermes. It was about ME.

This girl knew me. I mean she KNEW me. She knew who I was. How? I never let on to any mortal to who or what I am. Never.

She wrote me a poem. It wasn’t a great poem. It wasn’t even a good poem. It wasn’t epic. But by my father Zeus, it was tender and sweet, full of the promise of love. It was happy. It was from her heart. A heart that considered me more than just a good body and maybe a great fuck, if I did indeed fuck her. I know I must have kissed her. I must have made love to her, because a girl who wrote the poem would never just fuck a guy. She’d have made love to me in a way I should have remembered, but damn it I couldn’t remember a thing.

CONTINUE READING HERE

Autumn 2021

It is the time when days get overcast and cool

When the leaves on trees change from green

To yellow, rust or brightest red

Unless you live in Southern California, I mean.

**

But even here trees lose their leaves

Prepare for the colder wintertime

The world gets tired after a vivid summer

Some rest more often, write, or read – or rhyme.

**

The ocean’s breeze feels cold by now

And so does the sky which’s overcast.

Sometimes even here, we expect a few raindrops

Sometimes I wish the rain would last.

**

Occasionally I miss the third of four seasons

As others have them on the Earth

Before winter comes and fall prepares

Everything for the new year’s re-birth.

**

I always thought, here in the land of eternal sun

I’d never be cold, freeze or even wear long sleeves

But I was wrong, and I search for my fall clothes

Once I see the trees and watch the falling leaves.

*****

(Copyright, Aurora Jean Alexander, October 2021)

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Picture courtesy of Google.com

Nature’s Touch

This gentle light, won’t do me harm

It’s nice, caressing, keeps me warm.

The sun, what does it stand for?

It’s our universe’s heart

In life, it plays the biggest part

Do I have to tell you more?

**

The wind, the moon, they all depend

On our light, with no start, or end.

Nature is the biggest power

It influences all around

Sometimes quiet, sometimes with sound

The human, animal, and the flower.

**

The smallest things, that’s what I learned

Are worth so much more than what we earned.

Beauty is not in a model’s face

It’s not in artificial things

It’s not in princes, queens, or kings

It’s in an angel’s loving grace.

**

These few words, how can it be

That they mean so much to me?

They touch my heart, they calm my fears

They hold the love that’s in my heart

In my soul they play their part.

But most they comfort me and dry my tears.

*****

(Copyright: Aurora Jean Alexander, August 2021)

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picture courtesy of Google.com

Summertime – Sunshine – Warmth

Finally, the time is here

a time awaited, full of fear.

Can we ever again reach

out to others at the beach?

**

But finally we are in luck

we’re loading car and also truck

It’s time again, we join the fun

enjoying water, warmth and sun.

**

We can dine-in without a strain

enjoy our friends and chat again.

Precautions, they are needed still

But all in all, life is a thrill.

**

Positivity and laughter can be seen

to swim and walk, I am too keen.

We waited too long, we thought it lost

But finally, we all can defrost.

**

Enjoy the warmth, enjoy the heat

go out, swim, meet friends and eat.

Time runs fast, and before in gear

you’ll read an autumn poem here.

*****

(Copyright: Aurora Jean Alexander, June 2021)

Picture courtesy of: Google.com