January 27, 2009

My Budda




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Effrim Williams Morgan was brought to my house in a box. He had a bunch of names in his lifetime but Effrim Williams was his formal one. He didn’t like people smoking around him. It made his lip rise up and his nose wrinkle so he looked vicious. A smoker would say "Whoa, is that dog going to bite me?" "No" I would say confidently, "What I know about kindness I learned from him."

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Eff had a plastic dolphin collection. He started collecting them when he worked with me painting a house in Rehoboth. I looked down from the ladder and thought “what’s he got in his mouth?” It was a plastic dolphin. Later he brought an identical one to me as if he had found a bush nearby that grew them. He loved the dolphin twins. He especially loved when I told him they were nice. I bought him another plastic dolphin that had teeth.

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There were times we called him Old Ned which was funny cause he was a nothing of a devil. He was, however, an Officer, checking out any and all altercations as an expert witness and a disciple of fair and square.

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When his name was Ned Grass he wore a baggy baseball uniform and pitched in sepia stadiums.

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When he was my Budda I was never alone.

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He was one in twenty five thousand.

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I sure do love my Budda.

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4 comments:

rocketts said...

Let's raise a shot for the diamond.
Here's to ya, Neddy ma boy.

Barry said...

Your toast made me think of Auld Lang Sine so I went to Wikipedia for the words and lo they had a Scots pronunciation guide which, of course, I had to post in its entirety.

Shid ald akwentans bee firgot,
an nivir brocht ti mynd?
Shid ald akwentans bee firgot,
an ald lang syn?

CHORUS:
Fir ald lang syn, ma deer,
fir ald lang syn,
Wil tak a cup o kyndnes yet,
fir ald lang syn.

An sheerly yil bee yur pynt-staup!
an sheerly al bee myn!
An will tak a cup o kyndnes yet,
fir ald lang syn.

CHORUS
We twa hay rin aboot the braes,
an pood the gowans fyn;
Bit weev wandert monae a weery fet,
sin ald lang syn.

CHORUS
We twa hay pedilt in the burn,
fray mornin sun til dyn;
But seas between us bred hay roard
sin ald lang syn.

CHORUS
An thers a han, my trustee feer!
an gees a han o thyn!
And we’ll tak a richt gude-willie-waucht,
fir ald lang syn.

CHORUS

rocketts said...

How appropriate to the drink, Famous Grouse, named for the Red Grouse, Scotland's national game bird. I think Neddy would like them, maybe not all of them.

Barry said...

He would like to gently teeth on their feathery heads.