The Tookany Review
Fall/Winter 2005 Poetry written by Cheltenham Adult School Workshop Participants
poems
In this issue
David Bell
Edited by Deborah Fries
At this
time, the Tookany Review
is only accepting the work of
writers who are enrolled
or have been enrolled in
Cheltenham Adult School
writing workshops.
For
more information about
writing workshops offered by
the Cheltenham Township Adult School, contact:
Cheltenham Township Adult
School
1414 Panther Road
Wyncote, PA 19095
Phone: 215-887-1720
David Bell
Three poems
Boxes
Traveling by the boxful in cars, and trains, and
buses, and finally, elevators,
like so many paperclips bent to the same shape,
interchangeably shiny and bright
they spend their days in a cube within a cube
within a cube
among the other office supplies.
Their culture, their jargon,
even their uniforms
are strange to me.
What would happen if the men stopped
wearing neckties
and the women
stopped painting their faces?
Would I still get the phone bill?
Sonnet
Though sixty winters wallow in my wake,
And seven hundred moons have riz and fell,
Think not that I’m too old to pull the rake,
Or schlep the morning water from the well.
Most folks still think me witty and urbane;
I feel as fit as fellows twice as new.
Sweet memories of youth are fresh as rain,
Though what I had for lunch I’ve not a clue.
So if you see me driving in my car,
And I perchance have left the blinker on,
Waste not your pity on me from afar;
You too will share this fate before too long.
It’s time for me to go now, if you please;
Should someone deign to help me find my keys.
Disaster Relief
Water rises,
energy crisis,
it’s a national emergency.
On vacation
from the nation,
diminished capacity.
Spin docs on Fox, FEMA
schemer on the rocks,
no accountability.
Category seven,
film at eleven,
close-out on SUVs.
All hail Halliburton,
one thing is certain,
gross profits for the oil industry.
Does arctic drilling,
Have to be spilling,
from sea to shiny sea?
David Bell
is a Glenside-based, professional writer of non-fiction,
looking to release the poet within. These are his first attempts at poetry.