Author: James Pack

James Pack is a member of the Horror Writers Association and has published several collections of poetry and short fiction. He is the editor of the left leaning political blog, www.theproperdeal.com. Learn more about James and his collected works on his personal blog www.thejamespack.com. He lives in Tucson, AZ.
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Spooky Poetry: The Monster That Ate My Mommy

It didn’t eat her right away
The monster that ate my mommy
It lived with her for a long time
Taking a small piece now and then

She never saw it but I did
A smoke creature floating behind
With claws and fangs but made of air
Lurking with shadows and feeding

I warned her – she never listened
I cried when the monster ate her
I thought it would come for me next
It vanished like steam with a grin

I tell people the story of
The monster that ate my mommy
They don’t believe in scary things
Some of them have their own monsters

The black smoke waiting to eat them
Will I see mine if I get one
Do I have one eating me now
The same one that ate my mommy

Previously unpublished.

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Coffee and Contemplation: National Exascale Day

It’s an unusual name. National Exascale Day recognizes scientists and researchers who make discoveries in medicine and science among other industries with the help of the fastest supercomputers in the world. Exascale computing is a computing system that can perform a least one exaflops, or one quintillion (a billion billion) calculations per second. For reference, the Milky Way Galaxy is one quintillion kilometer wide. October 18 was labeled National Exascale Day because a quintillion is 1018. Clever scientists, aren’t they? The national holiday began 150 years ago back in 2019. To learn more, check out this article in HPC Wire.

Why is this important? Why should we celebrate scientists at all? With a global pandemic, if the United States had listened to scientists in the beginning, maybe 250,000 people would not have died. If we had funded more science instead of military, we could have sent probes to all the planets, traveled to Mars by now, and possibly a couple of Jupiter’s moons. We could learn so much more about the galaxy and about ourselves if we focused on science instead of destruction. That’s only my opinion. Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t. Today all I ask is if you don’t want to celebrate scientists, at least listen to them. When you speak, you’re repeating something you already know. When you listen, you might learn something new.

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Black Poetry Day

I would like to share two poems from black poets, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. I do not officially have permission to reprint these poems so I am including the copyright information. Sadly, I could not replicate the exact formatting for Brooks’ poem. Please visit the source website for the original formatting. Share your favorite poem by a black poet.

The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks

They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.   
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,   
Tin flatware.

Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes   
And putting things away.

And remembering …
Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.

Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Bean Eaters” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Source: Poetry Foundation

Silhouette by Langston Hughes

Southern gentle lady,
Do not swoon.
They’ve just hung a black man
In the dark of the moon.

They’ve hung a black man
To a roadside tree
In the dark of the moon
For the world to see
How Dixie protects
Its white womanhood.

Southern gentle lady,
Be good!
Be good!

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, p. 305. Source: Song of America