Write off Today Then

A Work in Progress
125

Write off today then

It’s gone past the hour when

Folks back East are settling into their theatre seats 

Sipping Manhattans or whatever treats

Civilized people in a town at peace

Choose for the eve of a weekend at war

Write off today then

It’s long past the hour when

Transactions occur so hope for the morning

A night’s sleep without an air raid warning

With all that’s going on raise a glass to …

Hoping all sides start letting ships through

Write off today then

It’s long past the hour when

We should have had substance on Trump in China

Instead we’re told by people who went there

He had a nice visit    nothing to brag about 

Except we all noticed now China has clout

Write off today then

It’s long past the hour when

Anything made sense in this midterm moment

Pundits, pollsters commenting Substack posters

If this was a chess game, he’d resign, start anew

Always playing to win    he’ll end up in the stew

Write off the day then

It’s long past the hour when

Anything momentous makes it memorable

Enjoy the moment     live for each other

Hope springs eternal so, raise a glass to…

Hoping all sides start letting ships through

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2026

Ode: To Aloo Gobi

A Work in Progress
124

Midsummer approaches

Will the fighting stop to take in the harvest?

Step out into the fields

Small drones like fast flying merlins will kill you

Muscles ache with constant fighting

Remind me for what are they fighting?

The price of oil       the price of freedom

Because they were invaded      just because

Great Britain had an Empire, bigger than Russia’s

Aloo Gobi is part of British cuisine now

England lost the Empire but got the spices

Russia’s losing to Ukraine’s constant surprises

Hoist with its own petard

Systematically destroyed

Foreseeing everything will crumble

A grandmaster resigns rather than tumble

The long days continue to get even longer

Midsummer approaches     step out into the fields…?

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                   2026

Donal Calls Home

A Work in Progress
123

Once upon a time in 1969

if you wanted to call London 

you asked the Operator in New York

to connect you and you were passed to an operator 

at London’s International Phone Exchange

When connected Donal asked 

if his mother happened to be on shift

they weren’t on the best terms

because when Donal came back home from Nigeria

he’d left home to be a volunteer in Nigeria

he found himself barred at the door by Bill

his mother’s suitor

his friend Colin witnessed the door slam

Donal didn’t see his mother again

except once years later after he was married

he took his wife to meet her

long before the Londoner had tramped the Street...

listened to her many tales

who knew so many by their feet

Doris married Bill an accountant

A careful man who wore gloves to drive into town

She came to see Donal act in the school play

His mother couldn’t come working on night shift 

His mother never did see him act in plays

Doris lurked outside their curtained windows

Bill inside in the front room with Donal’s mother

Imagine the tableau

Donal doing homework in his bedroom

His sister off by herself

Mother and Bill in the front room

 behind closed doors

Doris outside the curtained windows of No. 9

Donal could write a screenplay

*

Sing to me muse as once you sang 

you who love me don’t let me hang

sing to me now don’t let the door bang

tell of Penelope in a nightie telling Donal her son

he never slept 

Odysseus

he never slept

with pajama bottoms on

a diffident child 

lustrous Penelope 

Odysseus’ son

unhugged

unheard 

Sing to me muse as once you sang 

you who love me don’t let me hang

sing to me now don’t let the door bang

*

Abigail Morris in front of Last Dinner Party dancing on stage

inspired by Mick with a hand-held mic

she’d watched him when they opened for the Stones

Briseis opened that link for Donal

He’d logged on again to rejoin the resistance

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2026