{"id":319467,"date":"2020-03-20T06:03:19","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T20:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=319467"},"modified":"2020-03-20T06:03:19","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T20:03:19","slug":"t-o-a-s-t-telling-old-age-sonnet-tales-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/t-o-a-s-t-telling-old-age-sonnet-tales-3\/","title":{"rendered":"T.O.A.S.T.: Telling Old-Age Sonnet Tales"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In my Mental Mall St. Patrick\u2019s on Call<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In my mental mall St. Patrick\u2019s Grammar on call<br \/>\na Catholic school I attended in 7th\u00a0and 8th\u00a0grade<br \/>\nsister Mary went there too many friends we made<br \/>\nwith boys on the soda shop corner I had a ball<br \/>\nteachers dressed like penguins Sisters of Mercy order<br \/>\nour class was together all day taught by one nun<br \/>\nwho was lacking in humor and intolerant of disorder<br \/>\nout on the playground at noon we\u2019d have some fun<br \/>\nour 7th\u00a0grade Sister of Mercy by name was a real meany<br \/>\nshe slapped me seventeen times in a row in my face<br \/>\nDicko got 47, more than 20 slaps for Grady and Sweeney<br \/>\non the 3rd\u00a0floor across from St. Pat\u2019s church on Park Place<br \/>\noutside I was a loudmouth joker inside quite tender<br \/>\nmy interest in girls began back in those halcyon days<br \/>\nJoAnn, Linda, Kathy, and the older sister of Rita Hayes<br \/>\nher Irish eyes sparkled, glistening black hair and slender<br \/>\nbut I a chubby jerkball goofball really wanted to kiss her<br \/>\nadolescent shyness stopped me and I missed the chance<br \/>\nand thus missed having the thrill of a first young romance<br \/>\nnow in the winter of life I look back at that spring<br \/>\nwhen a farmer up the road with horses did plough<br \/>\nhappy St. Patrick\u2019s Grammar School memories still cling\u00a0<br \/>\ntears and love and lots of laughter still fresh till now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Caveat Emptor: Ignoring the Ides of March<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Beware the Jabberwocky! Beware the Ides of March!<br \/>\nCaveat Emptor! Beware a large purple dinosaur!<br \/>\nBe leery of soap operas and eating laundry starch<br \/>\nStay away from Jurassic Park beware the velociraptor<br \/>\nPay no attention to the fortune teller and the carney<br \/>\nDon\u2019t fall prey to merchandise labeled Hello Kitty<br \/>\nOr that omnipresent purple dinosaur named Barney<br \/>\nPay no heed to gossips in a town without pity<br \/>\nWash hands frequently don\u2019t panic about the virus<br \/>\nPhysician heal thyself the ancient Greek doctor said<br \/>\nLook for ethical leaders and scientific truth to inspire us<br \/>\nApply whatever common sense is already in your head<br \/>\nCareful what you wish for you might someday get it<br \/>\nWho the hell said it? You might as well just forget it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Joey aka Pepe Batbon is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my Mental Mall St. Patrick\u2019s on Call In my mental mall St. Patrick\u2019s Grammar&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,23672,23673,13843],"class_list":["post-319467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-lvnv","tag-nola","tag-pepe-batbon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}