Water buffalo, cows, dogs, goats, roosters, and chickens wander across and sleep in the streets.

Masses of people – women in beautiful flowing saris with dabs of paint on their foreheads and men wearing clothes of every conceivable style from leather biker-jackets to loin cloths – walk, run, push carts loaded with lumber, bricks, or raw meat.

Street vendors point at their goods and shout as we pass by.

Shop owners gesture enthusiastically or doze, and beggars hold up withered limbs or a malnourished child.

We pass men shaving and women washing their long black-hair in buckets of water right beside the street.

Cars, busses, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws, tuk-tuks, and animal-drawn carts flow chaotically by.

Road surfaces vary from stone, brick, pock-marked pavement, or rutted dirt.

Odors of incense, spicy foods, diesel and auto exhaust, sewage, and body odor assault us. Horn blasts, shouts, conversations and arguments in a polyglot of languages, bleats, barks, bellows and clucks of animals, and the grinding gears and strain of rickety vehicles on the verge of collapse create a surround sound you’d never hear in Indiana.

Our car pauses beside a bright red rickshaw. Its driver stares at us with dark perplexed eyes, then opens his almost toothless mouth and laughs as we pull away.

Jeff Rasley

He rode an old McClellan that had seen better days

But he sat up there like a king who controlled all he surveyed

His mount a buckskin mare as pretty as you’ve seen

With legs meant for working and eyes bright and clean

Behind him trailed a mule, a fine example of the breed

A pack piled high with goods but no halter or a lead

I asked him where he’s headed and where he might have been

The reason for his travel and what he might have seen

“I’ve seen the greatest country that God ever made

Sometimes mountain vistas, sometimes a grassy plain.

I’ve seen family members who make me feel ashamed

And many fellow workers who lie their way to fame

I’ve seen herds of caribou clicking cross the plain

Massive Mountain Grizzlies, great horses wild and tame.

I’ve seen massive progress ended by greedy fools

Or by those who need control and impose silly rules

And others stopping growth by thinking with their heart

When simple logic tells ‘em the horse is behind the cart.

We all get our little chance but others need a turn

The younger need some room to grow to build to learn

When I’ve done my time, my life here is thru

I don’t want my final vision to be only gloom and fools.

I’ll be free of all that as will the mule and mare

We’ve trod the greatest land, together scenery shared

It all makes my former life shallow and pale

And now where I travel nothing is ever stale

I’ve had my days of wealth measured in dollars and cents

With days, weeks and years surrounded by wall and fence

But now I have much more, a far greater treasure

Surrounded by natures wonders, beauty that can’t be measured

Any measure of success may not be right for all

The test that has some rise up will make others fall

I hope the path I travel and the message that I preach

Will be heard and understood by people that I meet

No one has the right to say that my view is wrong

Nor do I have the right to condemn another’s song

But enjoy the journey and help your fellow man

Have a laugh and learn, and make a proper stand

For something you believe, give it a proper fight

And if you should lose and you know you might

Within your heart you’ll know you did your very best

And did what you thought right when put to the test.

The ranch is lonely this time of year

Now that my sweetheart‘s gone

We hadn’t planned for either one

To leave for the great beyond

Hitched in harness, a team we where

Going the same direction

Pulling together we made a pair

But now it’s all reflection

Daughter found herself a man

And they’re off chasing the dollar

The boys the same, all working lives

But their kids pleasing grandfather

They don’t listen much to me

That life ain’t about the buck

I think you need beauty and humor

Or you’re just plain out of luck

That no one listens to me

Well I’ve got used to that

Horses usually take instruction

But cows no more than a cat

Always have to repeat myself

And some folks have to be led

Just like a pig I once had

Didn’t hear a word I said.

But the daughter called today

She’d been talking to her brothers

Said them and her husband agreed

And they’d talked some to others

They want to come back to the ranch

Her call gave me quite a lift

As the year rolls up to Christmas                

I couldn’t get a better gift.

The Mermaid (Part One)

The evening was cool

and the sky was so clear

while ripples of waves

were all I could hear

The moon shone bright

and stars twinkled on high

when from out of nowhere

came so seductive a sigh

I looked out to sea

to whence the sound came

and my eyes did believe

they were playing a game

For as waves lapped around

a rock out at sea

a beautiful vision

was sat staring at me

Naked as love

she sat all alone

on that rising edifice

of black granite stone

Her body so wondrous

that I shook with such lust

but a smile so pure

that my thoughts were unjust

Her hair was entangled

with kelp luscious green 

that protected her modesty

oh what a scene

It hung down over breasts

so excitingly full

covering the parts

that are made to enthral

My mind quickly taken

by this girl of my dreams

though as I looked closer

all was not as it seems

For legs this beauty

was completely bereft

and a long fishy tail

was all she had left

Then with a smile

that made my heart still

she slipped into the water

and I saw she was real

For she dived like a dolphin

under azure sea

and all that was left

were the ripples and me

The End........or is it?

The Mermaid (Part Two)

The man with the tear soaked eyes walked along the beach for the thousandth time. 

His hands were shaking and his lips quivering in the cold as he constantly looked out to sea, where was she, would she ever return, would she mend his broken heart.

He had but caught a fleeting glimpse of this beauty as she preened herself on that ancient granite rock, and a glimpse was all it had taken as he was now completely besotted by this angel from the deep.

Even now, weeks after the event he could still see every tiny detail of his wondrous vision. 

The sparkling blue eyes that outshone the sun, and the kelp entangled hair that glistened with the reflection from the moon. Her heaving breasts that had caused the man in him to want her body for his own sexual pleasures, and that oh so innocent smile that had replaced the pure animal lust within him with a more protective desire to take her in his arms and cherish her.

He had not kept her appearance a secret, he had told everyone he had met, and he had talked and talked and talked. 

He wanted to tell everyone about his dream girl, his mermaid from the deep, his beautiful fish tailed siren. 

But would they listen to him? The answer was no, a resounding no! 

He was laughed at, ridiculed, pointed at and made out to be the village idiot, and all just because he wanted to share what he had seen. 

But he didn't care, he would see her again, he knew he would see her again, he had to see her again. Otherwise, well otherwise he would go crazy.

Another tear ran down his face as he once again looked at the vacant rock where his angel had once sat. 

He realised that maybe they were right, maybe he was mad, just a demented old fool, someone that had let his dreams overtake reality. 

His heart wrenched tear fell to the sand and along with his hopes and dreams soaked into nothingness.

He turned away and looked no more. 

He must preserve his sanity at all costs. 

So he walked away and returned to the boredom of his sad uneventful life.

This meant that he was not there an hour later when a ripple formed in the water, as a dream like beauty pulled herself from the sea and perched on her favourite granite rock. 

She looked around, but he was not there. 

Maybe it was her imagination but she was sure she had seen love in his eyes.

Maybe if she waited he would return.

But no she thought to herself, she was being foolish. 

She slipped off the rock once more and plunged deep into the dark forbidding sea, back to reality she told herself, back in the water where nobody could see her tears.



The End

It’s like I’m trying to reach you

But same time I can’t seem to

Get it out and get straight through

What I need and want to tell boo

My feelings you heard before

My expressions I expressed

But no matter what though

Actions speak louder than words I know

More I think of them

More I think over them and about them

It’s much more what I want to let out

I’m losing count I can’t count them

It’s like I know you then I don’t

When I want to get that point

Seems like I wont

But I will in due time I know

We are getting there slow but in time it’s much more

The type of relationship I am aiming to

I want to work out well with me and you

Everything to be real and true

Just the truth and no drama and games with you boo

See only two has had you in love

Hun Love you twice

And I felt, and I feel for a third one

But just give me time and opportunity

I believe actions will speak louder than words

Is it wrong for a man to cry?

Does he suffer pain as well?

And like any other, one day die

Cry a little or a few

Everyone does, even all of us and you

Put away the shame, and just try for a change

You cry as well, and men do the same

Express the emotion

Whatever tears flow

Feelings are very much truthful

Just allow it to show, when you do so

Still the same man after you cry

Let them all run freely

Then quickly they’ll dry

Smile through your tears and reveal what’s inside

Instead of trying to hide

Let out what’s behind

And you’ll be surprised what you find

There’s nothing for a man to realize

Anyone may, and everyone can

Remember all of us do, even I

Echoes from childhood memories,

warn of dangerous nights,

down to my land of no lights.

Carrying throughout my years,

with only faded reasons why.

Following deep into my middle season,

versions I once had to silence forgotten fears.

Creating a new value,

I'm to learn somewhere here.

Finding value in discovering how to fully embrace,

Where a reliable, unforgettable love would shine through

Recovering from those hateful thoughts,

Always being found, just beneath an unnerving reality,

Those lifecycles playing out in those unheard cries,

A girls dreams to escape the evil moments over and over,

her reality hits, knowing to never hold such peace.

Her heartbroken, forgotten, young life, forever to reside within...

‘THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE ’

I was alone

when I went searching

   for your face

in all the crowded bars

where love hides out

under an assumed name.

There were many other faces

decorated with whiskey smiles

   and anxious lips

ready to whisper

anything I wanted to hear

but never telling me

what I really

   needed to know.

Why do those faces

always look so desirable

   at night

and so terribly lonely

when the morning sun

invades my one-room world

and splashes across

   the tumbled bed?

I didn't know your name

   then

or even what you looked like.

But I recognized you

by the sadness

in your eyes.

   Or was it

the reflection

of my own

lonely stare?

(Excerpt from the “Sadness of Happy Times” by Lou Duro: www.louduro.com)

Wearily, she watches you trek to the door,

Your luggage a battle in your hands,

The nurturing mother is eager to help

But knows she must resist.

Before her, a man towers her over,

She is shaded by his spotlight,

But she still sees her little boy

And it kills her to say goodbye.

Her world was created around you,

She remembers little else,

And when you’re gone, what is left

But a barren house of memories?

Still, your path is one that you must create

And that you must travel alone,

Though she’d give up her life to tag along

She can only wave goodbye.

She worries about the job she’s done,

If she has raised you well,

And given you the courage and strength

To prevail in a world so cruel.

“I’ll be home soon,” you reassure,

You’ll be missing home, as well,

And when you return a better man,