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Showing posts from 2023

The Mini Roadrunner

  In the hills of Missou, there was a roadrunner. Zip, zip there she goes! So meticulous and perfect running through the hills of life. She plans for the next trek. She runs with calculation never failing and never falling. She’s young but determined. She’s young but hardened. She’s young and full of heart. It’s time to show your grit. Everyone will follow your smile. Zip, zip through the hills of Missou. I wrote this for a friend's niece. We had a brainstorming session and I wrote it a couple of weeks later. You can feel the love of an aunt in the ideas given to me. I wanted to embody the spirit of a teen runner that captures your heart with a wink and a smile.

Where We Stand

  High on a scaffold, strapped with a harness and a torch. My shoulder slouches as I light the torch. The torch pops and hisses as it lights. I’m tired, I wake up and think this is a bad dream. To leave all I knew behind to be bound and oppressed. To be broken by the system I was entrusted to. The arc burns blue, as I weld the piping across the concourse. No one cares about us, as it grows more evident. No one knows the pain, I’m in as I pass out from the pain at the end of my day. Not even my partner, I hide my feelings till, I’m about to break. It’s a way of life up here in ole Boston. The struggle is to hold my eyes open and stay awake. No one knows that I’m broken inside. No one knows that my hurt runs deeper than my shoulder. In this place there’s no room for me, it’s a gig for the boys. This isn’t my swan song or a happy jig. I’d rather take a swig, Walk away from it all and be at peace again. This road is hard and is made unbearable by the boy

To Whom the Bell Tolls

 Hi, my name is Joshua Harke and I’m from Syracuse, NY. I’ve lived in Charlotte since I was 13 years old. In the summer of 1994, we moved to Charlotte, NC. It was a huge culture shock and life change for a new teenager. I went to a few different schools here; I went to Randolph Middle School for 7 th grade and I was bullied there so my parents moved me the next school year to Bible Baptist Christian Academy in Matthews. I liked it there and played soccer in middle school. I also attended church there with my family. I transferred schools after my junior year to United Faith Christian Academy. I loved it there and grew into a great high school athlete. I played in the praise band and played soccer, baseball was even the mascot, and outside of school, I played ice hockey on a local team and for the Junior, Checkers travel team. I made Who’s Who Among Highschool Americans my senior year. I also couldn’t decide what I wanted to be as an adult and that’s fine. I had an internship in a spor

The Existenstial Ant

The dictionary defines existential as an  ADJECTIVE Relating to existence -  concerned with existence, especially human existence as viewed in the theories of exist entialism   LOGIC - (of a proposition) affirming or implying the existence of a thing. In 20219, I decided to go back to school/college to become a teacher. Out in the left field, a truck hits us with Covid, the worst thing to happen in my lifetime. As a whole, 9/11 and this are pretty terrible things. Back to me. I have been a worker ant, pretty much my entire adult life. I've taken on grunt jobs that don't pay much and when I take on something people don't understand that I don't fit in their box for me they get confuddled. This is where my existential problem comes into being.  Why am I here if I can't make my 2/6 year associate degree work for me. What's my calling? Is it to just be a barback and never make it to bartender or manager(side joke, I made it to a manager at a restaurant here in Charl