The Twinkle

The best photograph
of my grandfather
is his army picture.

It is of a man
I never knew.
A young man with
movie star good looks.
A beautiful young face
so full of life.
The camera loves him.
He beams and charms.
His eyes twinkle.
He wears his uniform
with so much pride.

The man I know now
is very different.
He is a sad man
worn down by age
and bad decisions.
He does not much resemble
the young charmer
in the photograph
about to become a soldier
and a father.

All the flash and fire
in that young man’s eyes
is long gone.
But I do recognize
The Twinkle.
It’s still there.
I know that twinkle well.

BLOODPUDDING

Look.
Is it pudding?
Or is it blood?
Pudding’s fun,
But this is crud!
This bloodpudding thing,
Is utter folly,
Like putting mudpie
On the desserts trolley,
Don’t mess about,
With words and food,
It’s disgusting,
And kind of rude,
Pudding’s a pleasure,
For which I’m weak,
But bloodpudding?
A monstrous freak!
Call things what they are,
Like mud that is pied,
Blood “pudding”
Is just blood fried!

Hero/Villain

Hmmm.
My grandfather distinguished himself,
On the field of honour
As a Canadian soldier
During Holland’s liberation.
On the fields of Holland,
My grandfather was a hero.
But the hero came home.
And then he was a hero,
In no more than name,
In fact he was a villain,
Bringing medals to shame,
For heroes and villains
Can be one and the same.
Yes the hero came home,
And revealed something other,
For six years of her childhood,
He raped my poor mother,
Until he was caught,
And finally imprisoned,
Leaving lives torn,
Family full of divisions.
An act can be heroic,
Yes I know that it can,
But to see a real hero,
First show me the whole man.

(I don’t usually write after prompts, but I couldn’t resist “Military, Soldiers, and Veterans” from Jingle poetry.)

WORD OF THE DAY: cheat

Today’s word is inspired by a cheating incident we encountered today at work. A number of students were assigned an essay on a health-related topic, and most of them pillaged other writers’ work rather than writing down any thoughts of their own. This is a case of straight-forward plagiarism.

In my day, students knew how to cheat properly, which is to say they knew how to get away with it and minimize their chances of getting caught. These students’ efforts at plagiarism were pitiful and amateurish. They just copied and pasted directly from various websites without bothering to paraphrase anything, which is just plain stupid. They were practically begging to get caught.

Not only that, they also cheated off each other. One student actually copied and pasted another student’s copied and pasted off the internet essay. I think we need a new word or phrase to describe this phenomenon, like supercheating or supreme cheating.

Any ideas?