The Waters of the Mersey

View of Liverpool from the Ferry in a postcard posted 1908



Another view of the ferry a few years later, in a postcard posted 1916 -- the Liver Building and the Dock Board Offices have been built.

Compare these two old views of the Pier Head to a dramatic modern view of the Liverpool waterfront by Kev Keegan available by clicking on the title of this blog posting.

Donna and I will be in Liverpool on Saturday, October 8 to board the Ferry Across the Mersey at 12 noon, as arranged by my friend Liverpool photographer Gerard Fleming who happens to have an exhibition opening on October 13 which we will unfortunately miss. We will be there to spread my late mother's ashes in mid-river as allowed by Mersey Travel -- the ferry will stop for such ceremonies. Such family events are, I am told, popular. . . you have to book ahead, which we have done. I hope it will be good weather for this emotional occasion. I am trying to contact some of my cousins to attend the ceremony which will be a non-religious occasion. I do know some friends will be in attendance.

My mother Yoria C. George (September 27, 1920 to August 24, 2010) was the daughter of George Thompson Matchett and Sarah Elizabeth Matchett. Her uncle, George's brother, was the Liverpool comedian Billy Matchett, born William Charles Matchett (1889-1974). From a bookseller in the Midlands, I have just bought the following tuppenny theatre program from February 1944 that lists Billy Matchett "The Mirthquake" among the performers at the Pavilion Theatre, Lodge Lane -- a theatre where as a lad I saw Uncle Bill perform in the Fifties (he was the red-nose comedian between some scenes of scantily clad girls). In case of an attack by the German Luftwaffe, the program notes, the audience is free to leave but the show will go on. What resilience! The old British fighting spirit! Billy was a World War I veteran who served with distinction in the Liverpool Scottish Regiment in France.



Journey to the Mersey

It's my mother's 91st birthday
and her ashes wait patiently
to make her final journey

by the front door
in a cloth sack with
the green logo "Dignity"

-- the funeral home chain's logo
offers a modicum of respect. . .
she will journey in my suitcase

through airport security as I
get ready to slide her ashes into
the peaceful Mersey waters.

Journey onward, Mother
journey forward in time
although you've left us,
you are always in our hearts.

Christopher T. George




My mother and father on their wedding day, St. Anne's Church, Aigburth, Liverpool, February 22, 1945



St. Anne's Church, Aigburth, Liverpool, photographed by me, May 2007

Yoria's Ashes

After a year of death,
we have an appointment

on the Mersey ferry
at 12 noon; Yoria's ashes

repose now in the closet
in their plastic urn,

ready for the final
journey across the ocean.

Age just shy of ninety,
she looked so small

when I identified her,
a personality shriveled,

rendered nut-size -- my
heart shrank in turn.

Now I will carry her
to the muddy Mersey,

ready to accept Yoria's
ashes -- the same river

that bore us to America
almost my lifetime ago.

Christopher T. George

Studies of Lichen and Church Windows

I posted the above photographs at the Yo Liverpool forum with the following message:

Considering that you guys can post pictures of Arizona wildcats and Fazakerley kestrels, and so on, these photographs of Baltimore lichen might seem a bit tame. The lichen were on photographed on a rotten branch that came down either in the recent storms or conceivably with the East Coast earthquake we had last week.

And who says things aren't exciting round here?



Ballet for 9/11

Like Cirque du Soleil acrobats
flourescent yellow hardhats balance
on scaffolding by the big rose
window of the National Cathedral,
safety net flying above them
to catch the bits and pieces
dislodged by the earthquake,
in this nation battered by
hurricanes, economic despair,
readying for 9/11 remembrance,
sprucing for the beauteous eternal.

Christopher T. George

*********************

Finding the Lost Liverbird

For Jonathan Wild

You emerge from the soot-dark crypt,
from the dust of centuries,
into the Liverpool daylight --

powdered brick, shattered glass
in traceried windows,
in bombed old St. Luke's.

Yet hark: high above,
in a cracked pane
still flies the Liverbird!

Christopher T. George

You can access the thread "Liverpool's Lost Liver Bird - Unseen till now......." at Yo Liverpool started by Cadfael (Jonathan Wild) through the title to this blog posting. Jonathan is responsible for the website on Liverpool's St. Luke's Church which was bombed in 1941 and has been kept in its bombed out state as a war memorial to those killed in the city during the Blitz. As Jonathan explains, after taking a recent tour of the crypt he happened to notice a hitherto unnoticed small pane of remaining stained glass high up in a usually inaccessible part of the church, that contained an image of Liverpool's famous Liverbird.

On the Trail of Jack the Ripper

This fall is going to be a busy time for me in terms of my activities on the Whitechapel murders.

I will be appearing at the Whitechapel Society convention in London on the weekend of October 1-2 (Whitechapel Society convention) where I will speak on "Early Theatrical Depictions of Jack the Ripper."

At the end of October I will give a talk at the upcoming "Jack the Ripper Through a Wider Lens" conference at Drexel University in Philadelphia on October 28-29 on the same topic of early dramatic portrayals of the Ripper, and be part of a panel discussion on the case. See http://drexel.edu/honors/conferences/jtr.

Here is information I've received from Drexel conference organizer Fred Abbate on what I will be contributing to the conference:

"I'm really pleased to tell you that your outline as a panel participant at our Drexel University Jack the Ripper Through a Wider Lens Conference has been accepted. The panel topic is 'Images of the Ripper' and we know your presentation on early theatrical depictions of the Whitechapel killer will be a great contribution.

"Paula Marantz Cohen, my co-chair for the Conference, and I really look forward to seeing you in October. For your information, we have paired you on the panel with John Curra, Professor of Sociology at Eastern Kentucky University, who will speak on 'Seriality, Sexuality and Murder: Jack the Ripper as Folk Devil.'

"I have no doubt that the dialog will be extremely interesting. You should plan to speak for 15 or so minutes to allow as much time as possible for questions and comments. Since the deadline for submission of papers is September 6, we will certainly let you know if we install a third panelist."

I will also teach a short course on the Ripper case in the Kaleidoscope program at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore in late October and early November (catalog available for download through the title above).

THE MYSTERY OF JACK THE RIPPER

The Whitechapel Murders that occurred in the Autumn of 1888 in the East End of London continue to fascinate new generations. Although the crimes constitute the classic "cold case," it seems that annually new suspects and theories are proposed. Yet, no one has yet managed definitely to identify the anonymous murderer known as Jack the Ripper.

On Evening One, I will evaluate the known facts of the murders. On Evening Two, I will examine the different theories and theorists. On Evening Three the class will discuss the enduring legacy of the Ripper murders and the portrayals of the crimes in novels, movies and stage plays, and try to come to some conclusions about what the murders were and were not. Who was Jack the Ripper? Warning: not for the squeamish. Powerpoint images will be projected that will show the murder scenes and the corpses of the women killed, and the mutilations caused by the killer will be discussed in detail.

Three Sessions $75
Thursday, October 20, 27, and Wednesday, November 2
7:00–9:00 pm

Apply:

Roland Park Country School
Office of External Programs
5204 Roland Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21210
Or call with credit card information, 410-323-5500 ext. 3091

Finally, I have a new blog on the Jack the Ripper case at http://blog.casebook.org/chrisgeorge/

Return of the Bugle Vines

On my Marc Train journey between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. to go to work, I always look out for the bugle vines that grow wild along the trackside. They always come out with their distinctive orange blooms in the very hot weather. Well with temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit in this region, they have really been burgeoning, as you might imagine! Now across the street from where I work at 12th Street and Maryland Avenue, S.W., in D.C., there is a small plot of land next to the railway line running to Virginia. Some highway workers were there working some months ago to upgrade an offramp from Maine Avenue, a major expressway just south of my work headquarters. The workers had a works office on the plot of land and they cleared the scrub including the lushly growing bugle vines that cascaded down from the stone walls beside the tracks. So I was afraid that the vines might be gone for good from the location. A few weeks ago, however, I noticed the vines starting to spring back up, and yesterday I noticed blooms there for the first time this summer. See the above photographs. Enjoy.


A Tea Party Republican Flips Obama the Bird

If our government defaults,
Mister Obama, it will be your vault--
I will disavow any guilt
as debt-laden to the hilt,
the U.S.A. screeches to a halt.



In the Halls of Congress

Makes us sick to think
we are once more on the brink
as disaster looms
and Congress endlessly talks
in the same stuffy rooms.



Watering the Lawns of Congress

As temperatures soar to triple digits,
the Capitol grounds crew unleash fountains
of water that arc over lush grass; it mists

above the sod as lawmakers haggle over
a looming government default: pressure-
cooker politics while we the public teeter
on the brink of losing Social Security.

Water mists as the sun rises
above the Capitol dome,
creates a rainbow.

Christopher T. George

Key Lime Pie in the Thunder Grill, Union Station, Washington, D.C.

Key Lime Pie in the Thunder Grill, Union Station, Washington, D.C.

I've slurped my two double Harvey Wallbangers,
am now sipping espresso with Key Lime Pie,
unwinding after another hard day's edit;
the train to Virginia rumbles beneath

the booth, rattles my pelvis; at the bar, guy in
orange sports gear, "Jesus Walks" on back, chugs
his beer; older geezer with swarthy skin cozies

up to a dame. He looks like... 'cept he couldn't
be him, could he? The guy heads the CIA, for
chrissake, is nommed for Secretary of Defense.
His lady friend has her hand on his thigh.

Christopher T. George




Juice Train

From Florida, all the way up the East Coast,
the Juice Train lumbers daily up the line,
squealing up the silver track, mile by mile,
O, Tropicana, O, so wholly holy Americana!

I watch the juice cars screeching up the line,
each car emblazoned "Tropicana", graffitied,
all that steel and juice, clanking and rankling,
O, Tropicana, O, so wholly holy Americana!

I borrow time from my duties, putting commas in,
taking them out, to watch through chainlink
as the Juice Train groans again up the tracks,
O, Tropicana, O, so wholly holy Americana!

From city to city, from mile to mile,
the Juice Train grinds on up the line:
O, Tropicana, O, so wholly holy Americana!

Christopher T. George




The Tropicana Juice Train can be seen YouTube if you click on the blog title above. When I went down by train to Charlotte, North Carolina a few years ago for the rehearsals of my musical on Jack the Ripper, my train followed the Juice Train on its journey southward.

Abraham Lincoln's Opera Glasses and Assorted Ripper Artifacts.... The Facts

An article in today's Washington Post discusses a pair of opera glasses that President Abraham Lincoln supposedly had in his possession when he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C., on the night of 14 April 1865. The opera glasses are due to be offered for sale at Sotheby's auction house in New York next week along with a rare letter in Lincoln's hand of 1864 as well as a letter of Robert E. Lee and a flag from the Birkenhead-built Confederate blockade runner C.S.S. Alabama. See the link through the title above which will lead you to the article on the sale by Washington Post writer Michael E. Ruane.

The trouble is, although the same opera glasses have been sold for sizeable sums before ($22,000 in 1979 and $424,000 in 2004) and are now expected to reach as much as $700,000, as the article relates, there is no proof that they are actually President Lincoln's opera glasses. They are described as German manufactured opera glasses of gilt metal and black enamel. The story is that a Union officer discovered the opera glasses in the middle of Tenth Street after the mortally wounded President was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he would die hours later. Captain James M. McCamly of the 70th New York Infantry found the opera glasses and believed they had belonged to the chief executive. But did they? Sotheby's auction catalogue notes, "As Lincoln was being transported, the opera glasses--perhaps still in Lincoln's hands, perhaps tangled in his clothing--fell to the street." As if that is exactly the way it happened. But isn't it just as conceivable that the binoculars were dropped by one of the hundreds of theatre-goers in the audience disgorging from Ford's Theatre in the chaos of the aftermath of the assassination?

That the opera glasses would still have been clutched by the President after he had received the first attentions of doctors inside the theater seems inconceivable despite Sotheby's auction catalogue musing on that possibility. Captain McCamly's great grandson, in researching the story in the later 1960's heard about an opera glass case found in the Presidential box, and believed the opera glasses belonged to it. But, according to a National Parks Service employee, it appears out that the case belonged to Mrs. Lincoln--and her opera glasses are accounted for, though are now in private hands (the glasses case itself is on display at Ford's). Hmmmmmm.

This situation calls to mind a number of instances in Ripperological studies in which various artifacts have been said to have featured in the case. Recently, a poster on the "Casebook: Jack the Ripper" message boards has been claiming that they found a knife that figures in the case--a knife found by Thomas Coram after the murder of third canonical Ripper victim Elizabeth Stride a number of streets away from the murder scene. Also of course there is the broken "Jack the Ripper knife" in the possession of veteran Ripperologist Donald Rumbelow that was said to have been found at one of the murder scenes. Well, maybe. (It appears to be a fact that there was no knife found at the most famous Ripper murder scenes.) The alleged shawl of fourth canonical victim Catherine Eddowes is another dubious "Ripper" artifact that comes to mind.





A few years back, a seller on ebay offered for sale a pocket watch that was inscribed with the name "Dr. Francis Tumblety" and that was said to have belonged to Irish-American Ripper suspect and quack Dr. Francis Tumblety (circa 1830-1903). There was also several years ago a Victorian "Jack the Ripper" inkwell offered for sale. It was not clear how it was connected to the case but the wording "Jack the Ripper" was handwritten on the base.

Such Ripper and Lincoln artifacts are colorful and interesting but because they don't seem to match up with the facts they are probably not the real McCoy despite claims about their authenticity. Possibly such items might either be hoaxes or there has been some confusion of facts along the way. Maybe not surprising given the fame of the Ripper case, and the Lincoln assassination similarly! Yet real or not, such things command a price at auction, despite the lack of proper provenance or clear links to the events and persons with which they are alleged to be associated.

Pink and Purple Flowers

Pink and Purple Flowers

Mother's Day is here again;
the ads on TV make me ache.
I will not lift a receiver

or click a mouse to order
the purple-pink bouquet
you would have loved; the

colors sting me; a smear of purple
bluebells swaying under sycamores;
how you spoke of "Boo Bell Woods"

near your Garston childhood home;
always those "baby-talk" phrases,
and more so toward the end

as you regressed; still--
I would take you back,
even sad as you were then

still so delighted
to be taken out, treated
by your only son.

Christopher T. George





"Boo Bells" for Lulie.
Happy Mother's Day, Mum!
Wish you were still here.

Baltimore County and Harford County During the War of 1812

On this strip of land located in Dundalk, Maryland, something significant happened in the history of our nation, when citizen soldiers stood up to the might of the British Army and prevented Baltimore being burned and so helped to ensure that "Our Flag Is Still There."



An Introduction to Baltimore County During the War of 1812 Saturday, April 30 2 p.m.
(North Point State Park)

Two authorities on Baltimore's role during the War of 1812, author and historian Christopher George as well as independent historian Robert Reyes, will address that topic during a one hour program in preparation for Baltimore County's bicentennial celebration of that war in 2012. George, author of Teror on the Chesapeake: The War of 1812 on the Bay, and co-editor of the Journal of the War of 1812, has spoken widely regarding the topic while Reyes has researched the role of North Point and its inhabitants during the war. Together, their program will certainly prove to be a memorable kick-off to the region's bicentennial celebrations.

- Free Park Entrance and Free Event Entrance to all attendees -
Address and directions available from the North Point State Park website:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/central/northpoint.asp


This will be one of a series of talks I will be giving over the War of 1812 Bicentennial. Next weekend, May 7-8, I will be at the 199th anniversary re-enactment of the Burning of Havre de Grace. I am also serving as the historian for the city of Havre de Grace bicentennial. We have a blog for the project where I will be posting regularly. Go to http://hdg1812.wordpress.com/

More Clerihews

In an earlier blog posting, I wrote about "How to Write Clerihews" -- follow the link through the title to go to that previous blog post. Briefly, clerihews are short poems that follow a few short rules:

1 - They are four lines long.
2 - They rhyme aa, bb.
3 - The first line contains a name.
4 - They are usually humorous.

Thanks to Oudeis at the Yo Liverpool forum
for posting those rules.

Here are a few more clerihews of my own:

It's time for the wedding of William and Kate:
like any couple, they prepare to meet their fate.
He's Diana's son, a prince, and she's a commoner
and now Wills and the world will honor her.



When, Icarus flew too close to the sun,
Daedalus cried, "Don't do it, son, you'll be undone!"
The kid is as mythical as Castor and Pollux,
but trust poor Icarus to make a bollocks.

Airheads rewarded
for ignorant cavorting:
each of them a glutton.
Punch the ignore button.

Television's "Real Housewives" are feeling blue
and now I'll gossip about them in this Clerihew:
if only they didn't all have PMS
their bloomin' lives wouldn't be such a mess!

There lived a poet called Frances Cornford.*
Her husband was named "Francis Cornford."
We really must learn to differentiate the two:
spelling one with "e" and the other with "i" will do.

* See "To a fat lady seen from the train" by Frances Cornford at http://triolets.org/t6

To use and abuse is what all tyrants know,
from Hitler and Stalin to Saddam and Nero:
the more things change, the more they're the same
--- for shame! for shame! for shame!

The more Khadafy's people tell him to go,
the more he says the Libyans love him so.
A strange individual -- totally perverse.
I fear this will end badly. Order a hearse.

As the world ponders curtailing Khadafy with a no-fly zone,
that is, chucking international justice a bone,
do we sense the wily dictator might yet survive
tweak the world's nose, give us more of his jive?

The Libyan leader might be off his head;
all the same, he's clever as a fox, it's said.
However, that's not what is worrying me today.
No! How d'you spell his darn name -- with a Q, G, or K????!!!

St Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland
Paddy had moxie--he used it like a brand
And though he chased away the vipers
he left the little people and the pipers!

The passing of an age: Liz Taylor -- gone!
For six decades, her star so clearly shone!
Not merely an actress, an activist too,
an example to emulate for me and you.

Too many times we blame ourself
for ideas that ought to have been left on the shelf.
We are all capable of making a mistake,
we can all tread on a rake.

They inevitably end up blaming the murder on poor Jeeves
-- but the gun or knife might have been Madge or Steve's.
Why should the butler swing for bumping off the victim
when capturing the true killer should be the dictum!

Time for the South to Lose the Civil War

Robert E. Lee: A True "Knight" of the South?

As some of you might suspect, as a historian of the War of 1812, I am not pleased that the hoopla over the 150-year anniversary of the Civil War is going to steal the thunder from my favorite war, a war that is much overlooked and misunderstood but nonetheless important in making the United States what it is today.

In today's Washington Post, columnist Richard Cohen has an interesting article attacking the myth of Robert E. Lee and questioning why a man who defended slavery is so admired these many years after the Civil War (see the link through the title above). It's an important article and goes to nub of much of the guff and legend of the Civil War and the idea of the nobility of the Southern warrior, whether it be the rebellion's commanding general or the ordinary Johnny Reb in his nutbrown uniform.

There's a lot of hypocrisy in the enduring celebration of the South, the side that lost. And it always amazes me that many of my War of 1812 colleagues, who celebrate the writing of "The Star Spangled Banner" and the fact that "our flag is still there" are the same individuals who line up in parade every cold January at the double equestrian statue of Generals Lee and Jackson in Baltimore's Wyman Park under the Rebel "Stars and Bars." It seems to me they can't have it both ways -- to want to honor the fact that the United States was saved from foreign domination and to celebrate a bloody rebellion against this nation at the same time.

Donald Trump for U.S. President in 2012? Will "The Donald" Trump Obama?

Donald Trump -- underestimate him at our peril

He has latched on to what most people think is a bogus issue -- the allegation that U.S. President Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii but in Kenya, the incumbent president's father's country, which would make him ineligible to be president -- but business tycoon Donald Trump is getting a lot of attention just because of who he is.

Some Republicans and liberals alike are tending to view Trump as a mock candidate just trying to get attention for his reality TV show, Celebrity Apprentice. I would not underestimate him. How about a Donald Trump - Michele Bachmann ticket for 2012? Don't discount it. Now that will certainly get out the left wing vote won't it? At present, it is understood that Trump plans to make an announcement about his intentions in regard to the presidency on the May 22 season finale of Celebrity Apprentice. See link through the title above.

What other Republican candidate can you think of that has such an outsize image and reputation as a figure in this nation? Mitt Romney, Mike Huckerbee, Sarah Palin, Haley Barbour, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich? Each of these people appears to be a pygmy compared to Trump. While "The Donald" might have some questions about his business practices, with a number of his companies having been allowed to become bankrupt, something on which opponents are bound to attack him, he nonetheless overall has a reputation and an image of solidity. In an era when there is not much to cling to, will American voters go for a Rock of Gibraltar-type of leader rather than a leader they are unsure about or distrust?

If Trump runs for President in 2012, he just might win, partly because Obama has lost a lot of credibility with the left wing of his party and with the independents that put him over the top in 2008. Don't forget that now when he runs, he will be a known quantity and will not be the unknown, shock candidate that he was when he ran before. Conceivably he has lost too much credibility. Clearly he needs to reinvent himself to be the force he was in 2008.

"Change We Can Believe In" might have proved to have been a fairly empty promise on the part of Obama in 2008 except for people who saw the potential he offered, but what can he do to fend off a high visibility, strong Republican challenger? Donald Trump has already shown that he can latch onto an issue that gets him attention. What if he is serious and really does run in 2012? Who would you put your money on?

April Showers in Washington, D.C.

Japanese Cherry Blossoms, Tidal Basin, Washington, D.C.


April Showers in Washington, D.C.

Cold showers pepper my office window;
raindrops slant across glass. Below,
12th Street's silver as pedestrians labor

with umbrellas; headlighted cabs sail
past, windshield wipers awash. I woke
to thundercrashes; yesterday's balmly,

summery sun's swilled away, and I fret
for the fragile Japanese cherry trees round
the Tidal Basin: Kwanzan, Usuzumi,
Yoshino, Akebono, Takesimensis. . .

Christopher T. George

The names at the end of the poem are the different varieties of cherry trees that grow round the Tidal Basin. The original cherry trees were a gift from the people of Japan to the people of the United States in 1912.

See the link through the title above for a National Park Service site giving more information on D.C.'s cherry blossoms and their history.

Unfortunately, the cherry blossoms did suffer some damage in yesterday's rainstorm and some near Union Station seem a bit worse for wear and not as glorious as they looked on Monday which as expressed in the poem was a summer-like day.

Green Beer and One Red Scouser

Shirt available from Who Are Ya Designs at www.whoareyadesigns.com/

Last evening, St. Patrick's Day, this Scouser was at the Lucky Bar on Connecticut Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., to see Liverpool FC lose on aggregate 1-0 to Braga of Portugal in the Europa League -- the match at Anfield ended 0-0 and LFC didn't show gumption and adventure enough to win. Our inspirational midfield attacking captain, Steven Gerrard, the dynamo that makes the team run is sidelined for a month recovering from groin surgery. Our record-setting signing, big new centre forward Andy Carroll got his first start in a Liverpool shirt but you could tell that the team has not accustomed itself to playing with him. Our other new signing, the brilliant Uruguayan Luis Suarez, who had a hand in all three goals in our preceding game was ineligible because he had played in the Europe League this season for his last club, Ajax of Amsterdam. So the team was foundering and hardly had a decent shot on goal all night.

Still it was a night out. The bar was full of kids in green shirts and spangly green paraphernalia drinking green beer. Not me -- some cool Guinesses chased down by some shots of Jameson whisky~! Had my usual fish and chips there that I enjoy. We few soccer fans were far outnumbered by the green revelers whooping and hollering to basketball "March Madness" on most of the screens. Liverpool better do better on Sunday against Sunderland and get a decent position in the league -- at least sixth would be a mite better than the seventh position we achieved last year in another poor season. Better results coming next year hopefully by which time new signings Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez should be banging the goals in, big man, little man, aided by Stevie Gerrard and Raul Meireles.

Better times remembered: Pics from the match against Chelsea that we won 1-0 with a goal from Meireles (video through link above). A lot more of the same, please, Raul!



Jamie Carragher -- fine tackle on Fernando Torres, Jamie!!!!!


Raul Meireles after scoring the match-winning goal.



Chelsea's coach Carlo Ancelloti -- beaten foe



Yours Truly and, below, some pics of "Julia's Empanadas" next to the Lucky Bar on Connecticut Ave, NW. I must remember to pick up some next time I am at the bar for a Liverpool match.

Chris's February Tumble

Hello all

Sorry to be so long away from blogging. Perhaps you will excuse me if I tell you that it was partly because I broke my left ankle on leaving our Lincoln Apartments building at 6:00 AM on February 1 and falling on black ice down the front brick steps! Following are a few pics and several poems that I hope will make up for my absence. Among the snowfalls and other winter weather in January and February, we had one 5-inch snowfall that broke the branches of a white dogwood in front of the apartment building. Still, the winter weather in Baltimore has not been as severe as elsewhere in the U.S. midwest and northeast so we can count ourselves lucky -- all breaks and sprains, etc., notwithstanding!

Crutch

1.

Oh, crutch, you make me pay. How much
I lean on you! Perhaps next time, we'll go Dutch?

Oh, bishop's crozier, shepherd's crook,
how fashionable you make me look!

I raise you -- my dividing rod --
you part the crowds, O gift from God.

2.

I feel elegant
as Quasimodo,

but maybe better
than I ought to.

3.

Now my leg's in this damn cast,
the world of sudden seems vast.

I struggle everywhere by crutch;
even simple becomes too much.

Hobbling around is no hoot;
I crave to give the world a boot.

Not acrobatic Cirque-du-Soleil.
Far more sadly basic. Oy Vey!

4.

I pronounce my injury: ma blessure!
Announce it to everyone as if it's a blessing.

I whisper, "Fractured distal fibula -- left peg."
Folk, take pity on me and my throbbing leg.

But, unhappy, put-upon world, how you too ache!
I offer these impoverished thoughts for mankind's sake.

Christopher T. George







Chris after ice fall, Feb 2011. . . and the wounded dogwood!











Baltimore snow Jan 2011





Donna's purple flamingoes in the snow

Winter Breaks

I negotiate our brick front
steps on my crutch, notice
the blond ragged stubs
of the white dogwood, snapped

by the weight of January's
heavy snow, clear proof
that I am not the only
victim of winter, here where
I slid and crumpled down

the black-iced steps, splitting
my distal fibula like a twig.
Oh, dogwood, oh, soul-mate,
I'll miss your bridal blossoms
we lost in that thundersnow!

Christopher T. George

Getting Dopplered

My shin gored by the bull of winter,
left leg still blown up twice its size
where I fractured my distal fibula,
I go for a doppler to rule out DVT.

The gell freezing cold as the day I fell,
she says, "Usually we have it warm."
Great to hear! From my groin to my toes,
she thrusts the doppler probe

close to the family jewels.
"Ee-ooh!" I cry.
"I know!" she says.
"No! You don't!"

Christopher T. George