Strata

Posted on by Pete
Photo by Oman on Pexels.com

Working in downtown Chicago of the nineteen eighties, I witnessed first hand the class warfare dujour. The jagged edge of the serrated social strata was clearly defined. You had your “fern bars”, where the yuppies (Young Urban Professionals) went. Then you had your tried and true old timey taverns, where the yuffies (Young Urban Failures) were known to gather. Both types of establishments were clustered together in or near The Loop

Pardon my gross generalizations, but I feel comfortable making that observation in hindsight. Then as in now, no faction has cornered the market on knuckleheads. Both groups grinding against each other in the serrated gears of commerce.

Ah, good times .

RDP Wednesday: SERRATED

Sept 30 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



I think forever
Is a conundrum because
Nothing ever is



Time spent together
In a forever embrace
Cherished memory


Belief system held
Spawn from mistranslated texts
Misanthropic takes
Alternate realities
The conundrum of all times



Low tide shoots the moon
Raising stakes; win lose or draw
High tide calls the bluff


Phrazez that Payzez 

Irritable mental gestures 
That don't even resemble thought
Sow the seeds of discord.

Happiness Is…

Sept 29 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



First till the swampland
Plant the narcissistic seed
Reap bitter laughter


Always a future
That sprouts from what we do now
Act with that in mind


seems a whole nation
must sublimate the peaceful
to serve avarice 


Phrazez that Payzez 

The disordered divine 
Beauty is a shape open to feeling.
A.I. generated image from prompt, "The disordered divine " of an illustrated dreamscape

Sept 28 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



If you step on mine
Then I'll have to step on yours
Life in a minefield 



Unsteady hands with a key
Leaves many scratches to see
On the escutcheon 
That protects the truncheon 
Behind the locked door
That can break the glass
In case of emergency 



I wear an escutcheon
Over my head to protect
My many stimuli keyholes
From falsehood formed truncheon 


Metal escutcheon
Around perception keyhole
Is scratched and pitted
From inanities truncheon
Efforts to unlock function



Evil was seeping
Torture attic was weeping
Eaves dripping with red
A.I. image generated from the word prompt keyhole

Sept 27 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



Chilean Sea Bass
Patagonian Toothfish 
Brand marketing ploy



it's been so long since
we said so long and yet still
I so long for you



a deep dive 
that leads to
scrutiny of
mob motives 
ends with 
sleeping with 
the fishes 



See the long low tide
Reveal our murky depths
Needs scrutiny now

Photo by Enric Cruz Lu00f3pez on Pexels.com

Sept 26 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



Waves crash on the beach
Sonorous background grumble
For raucous gull choir

 

the walking world day
painful steps toward the goal of
getting home to sit



will history strand
the lifeboat of decency
on blubbery bloat



Cover the pallor
Dapple it with fake spray tan
Soulless wretch shows through


Photo by Marina Leonova on Pexels.com

Blue Boxers

Posted on by Pete 
Late Friday Night
Just turned nineteen
That sweet spot in time
The four years 
Beer and wine drinking age
Dropped just in time
Now legal for a change
My now erstwhile crew
Would roll into Scatscio's 
For a pitcher or two
Plus a marginal pizza 
That left the roof of your mouth
Burned but satisfied
Hugo would tickle the ivories
In this ersatz piano lounge 
My introduction to
Adult late night entertainment
Just about the time  
This song appeared
On the FM radio playlist

Scatscio's was in
A large frame house 
Transformed into 
A neighborhood lounge
I don't remember
Which of our crew discovered
The pair of blue boxer shorts
Under a square piece 
Of  loose particle board 
Lying on the floor
In the upstairs terlet

But for many years 
When going to hear Hugo
For a quaff and a munch
One of us was compelled
To do the underpants check
By lifting the board
For a peek and a giggle
The blue boxers stayed
Silent and persistently present
Under a particle board
Lying on the floor
Of the piano lounge terlet
RDP Friday! Piano!

Sept 25 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



half a walnut shell
of water for fiddleheads
just enough to curl


bound with a ribbon
wrapped in the ties that bind them
couples secret bond 



Thursday night caprice
A warm up for the weekend
Full tilt boogie buzz


Slamming the Royal Seal into the melted wax on another proclamation, His Nibs said in a guttural growl. “The only folk dance I am not allergic to is the polka. Others are too similar to my haphazard full bodied gesticulating hand jive which I use to hypnotize people into buying snake oil.

Photo by Sebastian Coman Travel on Pexels.com

Sept 24 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



The laws you may flout
Lie, bloviate, and squeal
The poison will out


Before network news
Came Plan 9 from Outer Space
Then came the YouTube



the duality 
of the event will arrive 
eventually 



footsteps behind me
rock of ages barrs my way
just won't cleft for me

Sept 23 2025

Posted on by Pete

The Daily Dread

Yesterday



an ache with each bite
of the apple of knowledge
that some folks chose this


Notice prime bellwether clue
Private armies for the few
A catastrophe for all
Siren song before the fall



Reeling in my prize
Rocking on Michigan waves
Feeling hungover
Replaying the night before 
Landing this Coho Salmon 



With every false claim
Honking like a strangled goose
The bellwether ache
Reeking like week old salmon
I feel deep down in my gut