Monthly Archives: February 2022

dverse – Speed of Light

For the dVerse “a penny for your thoughts” prompt from Lillian. The challenge was to choose an adage or proverb from the list provided as a starting point, and cite it at the end.  

Hadron collider in the ground,

makes light go spinning round and round.

Particles at near speed of light,

smash into others with all their might.

A marvel of our modern age,

Man’s search for knowledge all the rage.

While Quantum physicists go berserk

Takes many hands [to] make light work

“Many hands make light work.” Adagia

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On Way To CARRUM BEACH

A corn beef sandwich. Corned beef is brisket, a tough meat pickled in brine then slow cooked for tenderization

Just the thought of a corn beef sandwich transports me from wherever I am back to my childhood.

Heinz tomato sauce seeps thru the thin white bread, lightly smeared butter sticking the layered corned beef to each slice. Cut paper thin the entrapped air creates a puff of summer. Row upon row of quartered sandwiches, corned beef, salad, tomato and cheese, ham and pickle.

All are prepared for the annual Sunday school picnic to Carrum Beach somewhere down Port Phillip Bay.

We sing choruses seated length wise on four trestles, one each down either side of the converted furniture van, centre trestles back to back facing either side. Happy Chinese Methodist / Presbyterian Christian faces beaming. The uneven sounds waft out back over the raised tailgate. God only knows what drivers to our rear make of this. If they’re lucky they can’t hear the discordant notes or the chinglish words.

‘Jesus loves me, this I know, 
for the Bible tells me so. 
Little ones to him belong; 
they are weak, but he is strong. 

Older folk are drawn by the melody to sing in Cantonese.

Yeh Soo oy ngor, ngor gee doe,

Yun yow sing ging, doey ngor gong

Etc etc

Then the rousing refrain: 
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! 
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so. 

The choirmaster then starts solo the next great hit, soon followed by the whole van.

‘Jesus died for all the children,
All the children of the world;
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in His sight:
Jesus died for all the children of the world.’

The cacophony intially reverberating off of the narrow Little Bourke St walls of Chinatown, fades rythmically into the suburban air.

Not so the fragrance of the corned beef sandwiches 🥪

Editors Note : in a vain effort to engage salivating readers thehobartchinaman scoured the net for a picture of such a sandwich. Alas, all modern images of such a sandwich are of the ‘ meal in a mouthful ‘ variety. Apart from making and photographing a bog standard bread, butter and tomato sauce version, readers will have to go hungry.

Valentine’s Day Plus Four

Four days after Valentine’s,

For thirty years, no other way.

Annually a day that’s mine.

Quiet reflection for the day

Shrine of Saint Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland

I wonder how things might have been,

Had her closed eyes actually seen,

the world’s troubles passing by,

Making even angels cry.

4 tanks one man
twin towers destruction
lebanon wheat silos kaput

Dearest Alenka in her box,

Up on top shelf it is tossed.

Hopes and ambitions all forlorn,

My darling daughter was stillborn.

Alenka RIP

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d’Verse Prompt : St Valentine Left The Building

dVerse prompt : After St Valentine left the building:

Where were you hiding or turning you back,

‘mongst strangers with  purpose, a purpose I lacked.

My gaze drifted stairwards unable  to see,

being to focused on little old me.

Image result for flinders st clocks

First date or was it, I wonder at that,

I’d dressed so casual, looked like a  twat

Sexual connection seemed clear at the start,

But I wrecked the magic by breaking a fart.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=trent+wellard+you+tube&docid=607987624961840754&mid=B247558199A19C49CB98B247558199A19C49CB98&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
tent on keyboard

With divorces nisi we jollied along,

Listened approving to Trent’s music songs

I tried to woo you, but just not your style,

Pulled up quite short, well a country mile.

A Country Mile

Over years later we reached the friend zone,

I moved to Tassie, we spoke on the phone.

FB went quiet, messages not read,

Sadly I realised, you were now dead.

Vale

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Chiastic Doggerel

I’d love to write chiasticly,

Poetic form, is it for me?

Thoughts wrapped around in mirrored verse,

Ideas collected, howe’r diverse.

.

In longer form I wonder how,

To stay on song, is such a cow.

Cows lactate but do not sing,

Short stories though a harder thing.

.

My novella entitled Die Gum Sarn,

I find is taking far too darn long,

The drawn out story weaves history,

For others, a flaccid mystery.

.

Tracing the Chinese from gold rush days,

No doubt won’t make the critics rave.

An immigrant story, full of tears.

As I bang on about my fears,

.

Chiasmus is a rhetorical device,

Written on paper, then food for mice.

Rodents scurry they wont read,

My triumphs or my dirty deeds.

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Credit : reader Fay suggested chiasmus. Never heard of it, immediately intrigued I thought to give it a go!

and so from Wikipedia: In rhetoric, chiasmus or, less commonly, chiasm (Latin term from Greek χίασμα, “crossing”, from the Greek χιάζω, chiázō, “to shape like the letter Χ”), is a “reversal of grammatical structures in successive phrases or clauses – but no repetition of words”