An American Thief

 AN AMERICAN THIEF

The quotation in the second stanza is Ephesians 4:28

from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible.

"Old thieves never die,"

said a thief on facing his

thirteenth robbery

charge. "They only steal away."

Once a thief, always a thief?

"If," as Saint Paul said,

"you are a thief, quit stealing.

Be honest and work

hard, so you will have something

to give to people in need."

Monty Gilmer

Fable: The Pot and the Kettle

FABLE: THE POT AND THE KETTLE

by Monty Gilmer

The Pot called the Kettle

black and snapped, "You need to

clean up your act." Indeed

black, the Kettle replied,

"You, blackguardly Pot, ought

to practice what you preach."

A slightly different version of this poem of mine has just been published under the title "Fable" in the 2022 edition of The Almanac for Farmers & City Folk.

A quotation from the Epistle of Paul to the Romans

(New King James Version):

The Bees in the Farmhouse's Walls

 Nineteenth-century

farmhouse for sale: honeybees

living in the walls.

Monty Gilmer

A couple who bought a Pennsylvania farmhouse found 450,000 bees living in the walls. Sara Weaver and her husband were so excited to find the 1872 farmhouse in Skippack for an affordable price that they didn't fret over a seller's disclosure noting "bees in wall" -- and they bought in winter, when the bees were dormant. "I didn't think it would be that big of an issue," said Weaver. "But when spring arrived, that's when we started to see them." They had to pay a contractor $12,000 to move three giant colonies of bees to his honey farm; he estimated they'd been living in the house for about 35 years.

The Week Magazine (August 20, 2021)

Washington Square

August: Thanksgiving for Restoration

THANKSGIVING FOR RESTORATION

from the Bible: Psalm 126 (King James Version)

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,

we were like them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter,

and our tongue with singing:

then said they among the heathen,

"The Lord hath done great things for them."

The Lord hath done great things for us;

whereof we are glad.

Turn again our captivity, O Lord,

as the streams in the south.

They that sow in tears

shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth,

bearing precious seed,

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him.

HAIKU: AUGUST

A Walk in the Woods

An anonymous quotation reads, "I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees." The original source of that quotation, often attributed to Henry David Thoreau, has not been identified. Below is a haiku of mine based on the anonymous quotation above. The first line of this haiku of mine is exactly quoted from Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau.

I went to the woods

and walked in them. I came out

taller than the trees.

 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)