The Vintage Club

Clear headlights front a classic form,

Knowing eyes atop an aging body.

Shiny tires hold up the shapely metal,

Comfy footwear help steady legs.

 

There’s a Mustang like the one

That once got him to school and work,

And even stood by as he married,

Before making way for a growing family.

 

Over there is a Monte Carlo similar to

His first brand new set of wheels 

That drove his suited body on the highway

To that cool job in an office miles away.

 

Oh, is that a Viper like the one 

A neighbor had but he wished he did

Instead of the minivan that hauled

His kids to and from all their practices?

 

And isn’t that something like the Jeep

He drove for a few years not that long ago

And eventually taught those same growing kids

To drive carefully and maintain adequately?

 

For sure,

Indeed,

Yes,

And yes.

 

And now he’s got a vintage Thunderbird

At a show for everyone to admire,

While in his garage at home 

there’s a Grand National ready to roar.

 

And he’s thinking about getting a Corvette

That he can drive when he feels like

Getting somewhere in something other than

The Escalade he motors around town in.

 

He knows he’s not getting younger,

But neither are all those vintage cars

That look every bit as good as ever

And make him and his club mates happy.

 

Copyright 2026, Charles A. Bruns

 

David Herbert

Where did your muse come from?

Did it rise from deep down the coal mines

Your father aspired for you to do a man’s work,

But that your mother wanted you to stay away from,

Inspiring you to rise above the grit and ash of the English countryside

Like a phoenix to teach in universities and write and write more about all you saw?

You saw the despair in working men

And anguish in even harder working women.

You saw hope and hopelessness,

And real love and fake love in a brutal world

You saw a world war maim and kill many thousands,

And people buried in what may have been truths or falsehoods.

You wrote Sons and Lovers and The Rainbow

And continued with Women in Love and that grand finale,

Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

It was labeled obscene and quickly banned,

But eventually recognized for simply being just

Merely many dozens of years ahead of its time.

By then you were long gone,

Having been banished from England

To move from place to place in Europe

And eventually Australia and on to that

American wild west world where you arrived 

And made New Mexico your home a couple of years.

All the while you continued writing and writing

Novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, criticisms,

And being the target yourself of much scorn from a society

That could not and would not tolerate reading underlying truths

Of what it actually was or what it pretended to be or what it was not

As it looked in the cracked mirror of the pages you wrote for all to clearly see.

Across the ocean nearly 50 years later a young man

Listened as a rose of a professor who once was a nun

Read aloud your prose and adoringly sang your praises.

I absorbed nearly all your books over the next several years

And even visited your Nottinghamshire hometown to find out for myself

Just where that muse that eventually enlightened many had come from.

Copyright 2026, Charles A. Bruns

Originally published by Noble Mouse Press (St. Lexia and the Lesser Feasts chapbook)

Poems for a 250th birthday

The request from the organizers of the Long Branch Poetry Festival this year was to consider presenting “historical, patriotic, non-political” materials for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The assignment proved more challenging than I expected. Following are the two new poems I wrote for the Fourth of July event.

Land of hopes

 

Long Branch NJ to Long Beach CA,

What a big beautiful country this USA.

Woody Guthrie sang it many years ago, 

This land is your land this land is my land,

… this land was made for you and me.

 

On huge transporters many arrived,

To this great land with many opportunities,

A true melting pot full of hope and ambition,

And the promise of freedom for us all,

Whether tired or poor or fleeing persecution.

 

Parents wanting better for their children,

Sacrificing for them to receive the education

And the skills they need to attain success

And happiness that was proving too elusive 

In the land of their own birth and youth.

 

New Americans assimilating with the old,

While adding their own flavors and sounds 

To the mosaic of this still young land,

And continuing to expand and redefine

Just what is the culture of the USA today.

 

That’s the past and present at 250 years.

But what of the next hundred or so years

For the future generations of Americans?

Are the best of times in this land behind us,

Is now what they’ll say is the good ol’ days?

 

America can continue to build its strength,

Greeting people with dreams and ambitions 

Who value our democracy and economy 

And contribute to the hope of better days

As this wonderful land continues to evolve.

 

Copyright 2026, Charles A. Bruns

 

Stamps

 

Only one country in all of the world

Could transport information of all kinds

Through its beautiful lands north to south,

East to west and up mountains down valleys

With these colorful images as the fare of passage

Since January twentieth two thousand twenty five A.D.:

 

Crab nebula, the horse, galaxy pair, sunflowers, 

Angel’s trumpets, winter landscapes, lowriders.

Luna moth, bald eagle, SpongeBob SquarePants, schooner,

U. S. flag, baby wild animals, goodnight moon, star cluster.

 

Vibrant leaves, the Appalachian Trail, American bison, dahlias, 

1794 compass rose, spiral galaxy, Route 66, American vistas.

 

Harriet Powers, Betty White, Muhammad Ali, 

Jimmy Carter, Elie Wiesel, Phillis Wheatley,

Ben Franklin, Barbara Bush, William F. Buckley, 

Allen Toussaint, and Bruce Lee.

 

Happy birthday, holiday cheer, 250 years of delivering, 

Colorado statehood, day at the beach, freshwater fishing, 

U.S. Army 250th, U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, postcrossing.

 

Treasures of the revolutionary era, 

Battlefields of the American revolution.

Powwows, summer sunset, North American soccer,

Boston stamp show, International peace, love forever.

 

And today, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence it is,

As depicted on the very latest stamp from the US Postal Service.

 

Copyright 2026, Charles A. Bruns