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Norman Rockwell's Dead
by Fredrich MohreI was looking at some pictures
in an old magazine display
just an old illustration
of a quentisential Holiday.
T'was an old but famous painting,
outside the snow was falling down.
Inside, Granny and a turkey,
her kids and grandkids gathered round.
A collosal Christmas dinner,
girls with smiles and gleaming eyes,
guys in short haircuts and best manners,
praying hands, dress shirts, bow ties,
All heads were bowed in silence,
As "saying Grace" flowed thru the air,
a loving, caring family,
three generations feasting there.
BUT NORMAN ROCKWELL'S DEAD
MAN.......NORMAN ROCKWELL'S DEAD.....
Three loving generations
in a time long gone away.
How would Rockwell paint this scene,
if he was alive today???
The room would be vacant,
chairs empty, table bare,
Granny, sadly at the window
for no one came to share.
Daughter Sarah couldn't make it,
not called since eight months back.
She's surviving in East L.A.
doin' tricks and smoking crack.
Her son Johnny's in the army,
to escape his convoluted past,
dodging sharpnel deep in Bahgdad,
bullets snapping by his ass.
'CAUSE NORMAN ROCKWELL'S DEAD,
MAN.....NORMAN ROCKWELL'S DEAD....
Grandpa Ed is dead and buried
now one year, three months, four days.
Agent Orange was his reaper,
took every penny they could save....
Little Audry's in her hospice bed,
the AIDS has really changed her.
She's got a month or two at most,
partied unprotected with a stranger.
I've drawn an ugly picture
of death, disease and crime,
that plagues today's society
not there in Rockwell's time.
Now Granny sighs in lonely sorrow,
as her heart condition spreads,
She'll never see next Christmas.....
'cause she can't afford her meds.
'Cause Norman Rockwell's dead, dear reader...
Norman Rockwell's dead...
There's a moral to this story
this tale I've spun, aghast.
Share Love with all your family,
cling to them hard and fast
and think hard again upon this scene,
Don't make it come to pass.....
NORMAN ROCKWELL'S DEAD....
sadly, my friend....
Norman Rockwell's Dead....
03/04/2009 Author's Note: Thanks goes to Ms. M.C. for helping me get this where it was supposed to go, I'm still not all that "electroliterate"...thanks Emmi,
Posted on 03/04/2009
Copyright © 2026 Fredrich Mohre
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Charlie Morgan on 03/05/09 at 12:27 AM ...i the mouthy one o' the world am silenced! this is a very, very good twist of an angle, sheesh, i loved it from the start...a delight to read [sadly, re-live] you do/did a great job of presentation of the mundane into deserving spotlight...go put a shawl on granny's shoulders, eh fred... |
| Posted by George Hoerner on 03/05/09 at 12:50 AM So very nicely done Fred!! I also recall all the magazine pictures and his paintings. He did bring a kind of solace to those of us who saw his stuff grosing up and you've drawn a better picture of us than people will probably see for a long time. Well done! |
| Posted by Gabriel Ricard on 03/05/09 at 12:58 AM Wonderfully crisp, sharp-as-hell work. |
| Posted by Maude Curtis on 03/05/09 at 03:38 AM Unfortunetly in most of the world this is dead on.
But in my little piece of the world the Rockwell scene still lives. I can't wait to share it with my special someone. By that time it will be four generations and one little blond girl snuggled with her Poppie. Love Emmi |
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