Who Had Who When

It wasn't so much the questions
I asked then: who had had who when
seemed obvious enough. At thirteen
history needed meat on the bones.

Like a charbroiled burger, side of fries
in Worcestershire sauce.
A bit of livening
the musty tomes gathering dust

in the old folks attics.

I wanted to go diving for skeletons,
swing from the mainsail, cutlass in hand
shiver me timbers--

stand tall in the street
at high noon eyeball
to eyeball with the Kid--
ready to slap leather.

But all I got instead
was dry recitals of
very ordinary people living
dull, rather ordinary lives.

“This was history,” they said
the reality I'd have to learn
if I wished the truth
of who had had who.

Ken e Bujold

© 2022

Author's Note

This one has been kicking around in my head, and on my desk for much too long. Was originally going to be the first I posted at the Cafe, but still needed work in my eyes. A tender little bit of slicing, nip, and tuck, and I think it's ready for the light. Plus I'm exhausted revising the same 4 lines.

Reviews

[Writergurl]

This is quite intriguing, I enjoyed this, glad you post this write. I just got up the nerve to post a few writes today as well. I enjoyed this

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you for kind review WG and welcome to the cafe

[Red Brick Keshner]

Just glad that you had gotten it to a state wherein you felt it alright to post. The light definitely does well with its spark and favours both the thinking mind and feeling heart.

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you Fred, appreciate the kind words of encouragement.

[W. Barrett Munn]

Brow-beaten down into reality without a thought for the decimation of imagination. This is not a great way to teach. A physician once told me that memory is directly tied to emotions, that the stronger the emotion the stronger the memory. He had to make giant funny hand-made flash cards, he said, to pass microbiology.
Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for review Winston. Though I think maybe reading a bit much into this little ditty. Just trying to capture the joy of a 13 yr old who wanted pirates for history, as opposed to the 20 yr coming to grips with historical scholarship resides in ordinary lives

[W. Barrett Munn]

I still feel like this one is not quite finished, as if another stanza echoing back: "but amid the dusty denizens of staid history wouldn't it be nice, just once, to reach back in time and find an eye patch or a gold duobloon."
But then, that is not my call, just how it feels to me.
Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

interesting idea, something to mull over. Was conceived as a nostalgic call back to a childhood love of history writ large. Now I am seeing the way people react to it as an adult weariness of lost time. Really going to have to think this one through.
Thanks for the differing view Winston
Ken e

[jacob erin-cilberto]

sometimes too much revising can damage a poet's psyche...
Embellished history or just plain truth that is a bit hard to believe?
we are what we have been, we have been what and whom we had...
nothing is wrong with dull, ordinary lives...
sometimes that is just more real and acceptable...than what's made up to sound more exciting.
fifth stanza second line...did you mean "were"?
that is how it read for me.
this is a really lively piece of poetry that holds our attention from first word to last.
j.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for review Jacob. Is just a ditty about 13 yr old view of history compared to 20+ scholarly reality.
As for querey of 5th no was is my intent, want line to read as the singular child being the only recipitant of the a message, not the plural of many recitals or many children (though I may have to reconsider if i am being a little too cute?)
Ken e

[Andrew John]

Yes, people can no doubt live very ordinary lives, though you may, just may, get the chance to dig deep into them with a lively conversation. If you're lucky, and they can still communicate! Anyway, interesting poem, Ken. Thank you.

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you Andrew

[Stuart Munro]

Ken ,
your poetry is superb , but as a badly educated minimum poet , who just manages to write a full poem every now and then . I can’t really write much of a expert opinion , but I enjoy reading your poetry
Because your mind thinks so differently to mine , that’s the attraction , you take me on a different Brain journey

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you for your kind review stuart, different minds are what makes the world go round my friend, so don't go changing, your my go to minimalist

[Stuart Munro]

Thanks Ken , less is more , more or less lol

[Neville]

I know precisely where you are coming from .. and of course where you will eventually be consigned, like each of us .. history has such a tendency to repeat it self doesn't it .. I think next time, I wanna come back as a rabbit .. or a rhododendron .. oops almost forgot, well poemed my friend :)

[Ken e Bujold]

love the riff here Nev, got me thinking if I should pen a 2.0 at some point

[Neville]

...................... :)

[pressedflowers]

I love this; longing for adventure when reality can be so dull. Well done!

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you press

[Fabian G. Franklin]

My favorite pirate by far was Jean Lafitte. Ever since I saw Yul Brynner portray him in The Buccaneer (a 1958 movie). I doubt the real Lafitte could have been so suave but he did come to save Andy Jackson and America's collective bacon at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. I enjoyed your poem. It was loads of fun.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks Fabian. I was more partial to Kidd growing up, and a rather obscure Pirate out of spain of irish decent, who happens to be an ancestor of mine

[olla]

I like this very much.. history was one of my favorite subjects.. I DID swing from the main sail cutlass in hand.. especially when I found out that there were female pirates as well.. and in fact as an adult I got the chance once more.. for real.. when the tall ships visited the seaport town I live in... I didn't get to slice anything in half or fly through the air atop the mainsail but I did get to be a deck hand and.. I got to fire the cannons.. in all fairness though.. I read the entire books the first couple of weeks of school and didn't have to remember the dates at first.. that didn't hold a candle to my mom's hamburgers and french fries at the "friendly cafe" where I had to memorize all those silly dates in the back booth by the kitchen.. thanks for stirring my memory.. it's been delightful..

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you for the kind review olla. History was one of my favorite subjects as well. Envy you having the chance to be a pirate apprentice. And yes there were some very famous successful lassies who flow the jolly roger

Ken

[olla]

women can be ruthless and very bloodthirsty..