I think perhaps I’ve taught too long —
None of my pop cultural references register.
Allusions to Barney Fife, Ricky Ricardo,
Beaver Cleaver, Hoss Cartwright
Produce stares as blank as if I’d dropped
Anaximenes’s or Parenides’s names
at a Tea Party conclave.
Anyone out there have any idea
Who has replaced Eddie Haskell
As the prototype for insincere obsequiousness?
Or Ozzie and Harriet as avatars
Of wholesome vacuity?
If you know, please text me.
The teenagers I teach have never listened to
Mitch Ryder and the DE-troit wheels
Or Wicked Wilson Pickett,
Have never heard Koko Taylor sing
“Wang Dang Doodle.”
When the fish head fills the air
Be snuff juice everywhere
We’re gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long
All night long . . .
What’s an uncomfortable kind of old scarecrow to do?
Bone up on Dr. Dre and Beyonce?
Binge watch Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory?
No suh, un-uh, no thank you.
I think it’s time to take that proverbial timecard
And check out of this here career,
Transplant my ass to Lisbon’s Bairro Alto
Spend the uneventful
Dwindling days sipping IPAs
In that lovely park overlooking
The lower, less ancient, sections of the city.
the author and his son, the King of Nowhere
You Do Hoodoo 
Wonderful start to the day. I like hearing you read your poem, I relate to its sentiments, and I love the picture of you with Ned in Lisbon although those kids in the classroom photo lack a certain presence.
Thanks, Sue. Yep, it’s another one of my photoshop gags.
I was thinking this past week how time time passed, but I stood still.
They say — and I believe them — that the days are long but the years are short.
There is a line in the movie Goodbye Mr. Chips ( try that one on your students) where Mr. Chips says something to the effect The students never get older but I do. I remember the day I mentioned Teflon to my chemistry class and got blank stares. I knew then I was past my sell-by date.
I forgot to say what a great shot this was. I presume Judy took it. Nah.. the truth is I only say presume when I want to assume something 🙂 Wow, though! What a great shot!!!
Yep, Rodney. Judy’s the photographer.