Limericks And a Mugging

I was doing just fine, sticking to little news items, musing away about this and that and only occasionally indulging the playful rhyme or poetic quip --so I thought I had overcome my former compulsion, but the urge has returned and I’m off the wagon and back to my old sophomoric (and soporific?) Limerickal ways.


See the rise of the strong Chinese Yuan
watch in pity how the poor Euro's doin.
See German banks soar
(Didn’t they lose the war?)
And watch Greece once again end in Ruin.

Tomorrow I’ll do it, I say
But when tomorrow turns into today
I just say it again
For so soon arrives when
That tomorrow becomes yesterday

It can only be made in Jalisco
But folks drink it from Paris to Frisco
Spending all kinds of cash
When it’s all just one mash
Like each cookie you get from Nabisco

The desperate and poor from all nations
Came over in endless migrations
They built wondrous cities
And schools for their kiddies
For the natives they made reservations.

Coming Soon. The man who started it all.

And one more thing ( this is being added a day after penning the above) which I thought about not writing about, but what the hay, this is the only place I put things down for posterity and perhaps that's reason enough. I got mugged last night. I'm fine and physically unblemished but it was a hell of strange few minutes. Walkin home from train station. Quiet and dark side street. Footsteps sound like a jogger coming up behind me, I turn as they get loud enough for me to think it's sounding a bit too close and boom...there's a gun inches from my nose and a guy dressed all in black with a Halloween "Scream" mask covering his face. Strange sequence follows. Strange only because if it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have guessed that this would be how I'd react. First, I get very compliant and understanding. Fine, you want my money, cool, it's all yours. But this guy was too jumpy and impatient to wait for such a simple transaction. In a brief few seconds I take in a few things. The street is totally quiet, very dark and I'm surprised (it's 7:45 pm and a lot of people got off the train with me and usually there are three or four of them taking the same route to their homes) to see no bodies, no moving cars. So I realize, I'm on my own. I look at the gun and wonder if it's real. I look at his face and it's a mask, so nothing to go on there either. And I'm still trying to show the guy that I have no intention to resist and every intention of turning over my cash. But he's real jumpy and losing his cool and tellin me he's gonna shoot and that I better turn over "all your shit!" For some reason, I'm still not that nervous, but then he racks the gun and puts it right in my face and that changes everything. I'm a small chihuahua now and he's a rabid pit bull. On my knees. But he wants my phone and it's in my coat pocket and I'm not feelin real cool about moving any body parts--he's yellin all kinds of stuff about how he's gonna shoot and I'm now slowing-- trying to talk him down and offering wallet, phone and thinkin maybe I can hold on to my bag...but he grabs it, forces me down to the ground, gives me some kicks (nothing major) and takes off. I get up and watch him recede into the darkness, with my bag banging against his leg as he tries to pocket his haul while in a dead run. Street is still quiet and dark and I start getting my bearings and making sure I know exactly where I am so I can report this accurately.
As I'm walking home now, I realize that this whole thing wasn't dramatic so much as sad and pathetic. And I'm amazed at how many thoughts went through my head in so short a time. I think I actually had a visceral sense of my own mental processing speed and there was even a part of my brain that was reflecting at the same time that I was simply reacting. Maybe it would have been different 20 years ago when I was younger, but I sure did have a sense of physical inadequacy and total vulnerability. I had a moment or two where I thought it was all over and this was the end, and I think he had a few moments of adrenaline fueled panic --which is what convinced me that even with my compliance, he might still pull that trigger. But who knows? I do know that now, half a day later (a day filled with calls to banks, credit card companies, a trip to the MVB, getting locksmith over to house and dealing with the cops) I feel marginally changed. I could probably write many pages about what that is, but for now suffice it to say that it's put me in a gear I don't often drive in. It's like a limbo of resignation mixed with gratitude and a few dashes of anger and disappointment. And I guess it'll keep evolving for a few days, and maybe I'll write some more. Anyway, it does feel better to write about it, and the laws of probability are that I'm due for a nice long peaceful stretch now that lightning has struck once.