NaPoWriMo April 25

Heed my words. There is no choice a

Voter can make that isn’t political.

Protect your home and your family

Before the dangerous one rises

And attacks our land again.

 

Source: A Political Family Rises Again

NaPoWriMo April 24

When I was a child I wanted a bed

To sail me off to fairy land. My bath

Was the ocean, linked by a heavy chain

To the bed. My dreams rose in clouds to

Shake the heavens, They do not start

To tell a scary story until there’s a process

That relaxes my mind into summers of

Magnolias and gauze dresses. The door’s closing

Leaves me in the dark, afraid to shop.

 

Source: Bed Bath Chain to Start Process of Closing Shop

SOLTuesday: My First Encounter with an Internet Scammer

Back in February, I began receiving e-mails from someone I do not know. What follows are his e-mails (punctuation and spelling exactly copied) and my two replies. I wonder where he really is. Have you ever gotten e-mails like these?

 

Feb. 16

1. HIM: How are you doing, I am Dr Patrick, A widower and looking for love , can we have a chat?

 

2. ME: All I want to know is how you got my e-mail address.

 

3. HIM: Nice to hear from you Sonia,

Well, I was looking on google and saw your name and email, I hope you are fine and family is doing well, I want you to understand that distance is not a barrier okay, I am from the Miami ,beach, in Florida and presently at work here in Syria, I hope you don't mind,I am a general surgeon under the UN medical team, I have traveled to Afghanistan on medical duty and have made up my mind to locate someone like you to settle down and a hospital clinic and orphanage home with production company after I return .

 I am 56 yrs old and have no children. My wife passed away.
I lost my parents during the 9/11 bomb attack, and since then I am alone, I am the only child, my duty will end here in Syria soon and I will return back home and come over to meet you, I hope I am welcome to your homeland to be a good friend for a long term family relationship.

Life is a journey and I hope meeting you will take us to a better way to meet each other face to face and be glad about it, I am one man for one woman.
I am a good Christian and you? Hope you tell me a little about yourself and send me a photo of you.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Bless you.
Dr. Patrick.

 

Feb. 18

4.Waiting to hear from you dear Sonia, All the best.

 

Feb. 19

5. Hello I guess you are not interested in the partnership with me, tell me please you are not the only beautiful woman on earth.

 

Feb. 22

6. Madam Robbins , Good evening and how are you, I hope you are fine. Sending prayers

 

April 24

7. I am alive ,I survived terrorist attack, I was so surprised to have not heard from you  ,I need your assistance to receive and secure my funds while I return soon and come over to meet you please.

 

I will give you 20% of the funds for your kind assistance.

Let me know what you think.

Best always

 

[I replied to this one: I am 100% sure you are a scammer. Do not respond. Goodbye.]

 

April 25

8. You are not correct Sonia,I am not a scammer,I am a medical doctor working here in Syria , I guess you have been scammed before that makes you think I am the same.

Well ,we have an organisation who is specially on the mission of tracking those scammers dawn .

If you can tell me about them who scam you before and provide there details.

All the best.

 

April 25

9. Sonia who scam you 100% that you are sure of? Answer my question

 

[How long will he persist, do you think?]

 

 

 

 

NaPoWriMo April 23

After the hearing officer makes her ruling,

We return singing to our tent homes on

The open plain. Our sweaters pill

After washing. Our mother puts

Them in a trunk. Is it prudence

To hold ourselves together above

Simplicity, or a nasty grab for power?

 

Source Ruling on Pill Puts Prudence Above Power

NaPoWriMo April 22

The room shaped like a pentagon

Holds secrets that cannot leak.

So many glowing secrets began

Their life in a universe earlier

Than stars were born, earlier than

Light was born, earlier than any thought.

 

Source: Pentagon Leak Began Earlier Than Thought

NaPoWriMo April 20

Golden gladiolas glimmer at a social

Gala, gifting gladness through the media.

Carnelian carnations cower as

Clouds convey the conscience we

Avoid. Ruby roses riot when they knew

Revolution readied the world. For it

Can’t escape the gardener that she is

Hostage to wind, sun, rain, all long

Needed, yet climate emergency gone.

 

Source: Social Media as We Knew It Is Long Gone

NaPoWriMo April 19

She has given up on the network’s

Offering anything but a deal

That benefits them and avoids

Royalties to her. They’ll say it’s a

Work for hire. She will fight

For the royalty contract, but

Expects their lawyers will not

Come around without leaving scars.

 

Source: Network’s Deal Avoids a Fight, but Not Scars

NaPoWriMo April 18

What is wrong with the old man

Who shoots on sight a teen who

Only rang the doorbell? He was shot

For ringing the wrong doorbell, a teen

Sent to pick up his little brother on

A play date. The teen stood on the porch

And lucky he isn’t dead. His face is the faces

Of all Black boys living with imagined charges.

 

Source: Man Who Shot Teen on Porch Faces Charges

NaPoWriMo April 17

We are hoping to find the fox

Tonight. Reports on the news

Yesterday exclaimed it goes

Running down Fifth Avenue on

Trippy paws. It cannot go on trial

For eating park pigeons or for

Claiming its attacks are falsities.

 

Source: Fox News Goes on Trial for Falsities

NaPoWriMo April 16

There was no warning of leaked

Oil at the factory. Company intel

Hinted that records were altered.

Workers said safety was of little

Concern to supervisors. Workers in

The field studied organizing strategies.

 

Source: Leaked Intel Altered Little in Strategies

NaPoWriMo April 15

There will be a revolt, I suspect,

by young people seeking justice in

this world. Old racist tactics are like leaks

in a canoe. The old system faces

its young people and can imagine only two

choices, win or lose. Youth charges

ahead, knowing it’s in the right over

the long run, with or without documents.

 

Source: Suspect in Leaks Faces 2 Charges Over Documents

NaPoWriMo April 14

We had tickets for two

In the balcony of the new

Arena. We despaired at rulings

That meant we wouldn’t hear Muddy

Water tonight. Muddy Waters

Sang of real life, hard as it might be, over

Dreams. Did he ever sing of abortion?

 

Source: Two New Rulings Muddy Waters Over Abortion

NaPoWriMo April 12

Some support legal abortion, while some

Oppose all abortion. Support outweighs opposition in

Polls, even among Republicans. The G.O.P.

Seems in thrall to extremists, who urge

A national ban. Will there be flexibility

Among Republicans to compromise with

Base and center, or only most extreme position on abortion?

 

Source: Some in G.O.P. Urge Flexibility with Abortion

NaPoWriMo April 11

The stolen stash contains dozens of bitcoin.

They shimmer in their coats of hydrogen that devours

Air. The thieves lack the energy

To keep bitcoin alive and

The thieves slowly suffocate in dead air. Others

Will find their bodies and pay

For a death notice. Bitcoin vanish into a

Space where they exist beyond price.

 

Source: Bitcoin Devours Energy, and Others Pay a Price

SOLTuesday: In Banking and Credit Card Purgatory

             On April 5, I spent two hours on the phone with my credit union and American Express about a check I had sent American Express. The ensuing conversations were so bizarre that I need to share with others. My daughter suggests this is why the banking system is such a mess.

            After getting an e-mail from American Express that my most recent payment, for March, had been rejected by the bank, I called PenFed Credit Union to find out why. The woman I spoke with said there was no record of ever having received the check (#226), and she even checked with a supervisor. (In addition, she said the most recent check they had a record was in January (#224), and there was no record of their receiving check #225. This was odd, since I’d never gotten any notice that that check was rejected.)

            I then called American Express, who assured me that the e-mail I’d received was an authentic e-mail from American Express. This customer representative also said the check had been presented, through an automatic process, three times to PenFed, and it was rejected with the message “Cannot be processed. Please refer to your financial institution.” (It appeared these words came from Amex, since PenFed wouldn’t use the words “your financial institution,” would it?) When I told this person that PenFed had no record of the check being presented to them, he said he would set up an investigation, which could take a maximum of 30 days, and I would be sent the results.

            Okay, back to PenFed. Here I spoke to a young man, who had no idea why there was no record of my check being submitted and wanted to know what the reason for rejection was. When I read him what the e-mail from Amex said, he asserted that couldn’t be the reason from PenFed because “the bank wouldn’t be processing its own check.” When I mentioned this was a check, he said with much surprise, “You sent a physical check?” He was the first one to suggest a conference call between PenFed and American Express, but I didn’t know how to do that, and he didn’t suggest any way

            Back to American Express. This time I spoke to a woman named Sarah, who was very encouraging. When I asked where the physical check is, she said it went to the payment center, where they verify that it’s a check from me, and it is automatically submitted. I wondered whether she could see the check, and she said, no, and there was no way for her to contact the payment center. And she knew nothing more about the reason why the check was rejected. Talking with her, she used the term “process” and it began to seem to me that there was a problem with semantics, that “process” meant one thing to Amex and another thing to Pen Fed. When I asked about a conference call, Sarah said there is an account services team, and they could take part in a conference call. She even gave me a phone number: 1-800-441-0518. I asked who should initiate the call, and she said PenFed.

            So, back to PenFed, this time a woman named Alice. I had to give the same long story to each person I spoke to, and each time added the number of people I had already spoken to at each company. Alice said it was impossible for her to call Amex for the conference call, and she checked with a supervisor and reported it was impossible for the supervisor to do that either. And she also couldn’t find any notice of check #225.

            So I called American Express again, this time to verify that they had been paid by my check #225. And they had. So why is there no record of it at PenFed? This was beginning to make me nervous about the PenFed system. Maybe I shouldn’t keep a checking account there. And it seemed I had been shunted, by the recording that always answered the phone both for American Express and for PenFed, to Credit department, not the same department wherethe previous people I’d been speaking to were. Why?

            This was getting weird. Back to PenFed, this time a very enthusiastic man named Anthony. I told him both of the problems — why was check #226 rejected? why no record of check #225 in the PenFed system since PenFed had sent American Express the money? — and he seemed quite taken by them. He also said he would have to do some research, and it would take more than five minutes. He would call me back tomorrow. He had a very joky manner; we had some back and forth about the Giants, football or baseball, and saying I was a Jets fan gained me his deep sympathy.

            That was almost it for the day. A total of an hour with each company. But what about the money I owed American Express? The payment is due April 11. What if this isn’t settled before then?

            The last person at Amex I spoke to suggested I pay online, and if the check is finally unfrozen and paid, I’d have a credit at the end of the month. So I went to the American Express website and tried to set up an account. For some reason I couldn’t figure out, it first told me I’d put in the wrong password or username, then I was blocked because I’d tried to log in too many times, and I was repeatedly told to change my password. Enough of that. I quit. Still haven’t paid, and have no desire to call American Express again. 

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It’s Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and enthusiastic writing community and their slices of life every Tuesday. And add one of your own.

 

NaPoWriMo April 10

Trees inch roots through a

Sticky clay, sandy loam, forcing disclosure

Of their invasion plans. Now in cahoots with

Raccoons who march through grainy fallout

Of polluted pollen and tawdry mist in

A parade that distracts from the real

Attack on ignorant humans, just in time.

 

Source: A Disclosure with Fallout in Real Time

NaPoWriMo April 8

His online presence is named A.I.

He supplies no religion or race

Or country of origin. He leads

His followers into dreams of tech

Riches, assuring they’ll become giants

In the future. Meanwhile, he offers to take

Control of all followers’ assets, no ethics

Warning allowed, and far too many risks.

 

Source: A.I. Race Leads Tech Giants to Take Ethics Risks

NaPoWriMo April 7

She knocks on the door of the Middletown IRS,

not sure what she will find. A glittery ball rolls

past her left foot. Did it roll out

of that small hole in the door? She reconsiders the plan

she had been given by Inside Robotic Stories, to

visit the office in this small town, revise

the administrative code to siphon the tax

geared to the mayor and add it to the IRS collection.

 

Source: IRS Rolls Out Plan to Revise Tax Collection

 

NaPoWriMo April 6

Who are the readers

Who left libraries with torn

Books and pages folded in origami cranes by

Children? Why did they push

For open doors all night to

Dance, to sing, to paint, to revise

Badly written stories, but not classics?

Readers demand the right for

Conversation with writers. It’s a modern

Dialogue that includes all sensibilities.

 

Source: Readers Torn by Push to Revise Classics for Modern Sensibilities

NaPoWriMo April 5

I’m innocent! It wasn’t me in

this case. I didn’t know there was a case

that had my fingerprints. What of

my lawyer? Why did she say I falsified

those documents? She knows nothing of the records

I keep in my private desk. I was only exploring

some business possibilities, what the

pundits call innovation. These paths

are new. Who knows where they’ll go, to

riches for all, riches for me, surely not a felony.

 

Source: In a Case of Falsified Records, Exploring the Paths to a Felony