Meet me on the Moon

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Poetry, Rhyming15 Comments

Now for some good news that we might have missed

it ain’t no riot or pandemic so maybe didn’t make your list

For the first time in History a commercial craft flew to space

bringing humanity back into the great race

Though still bogged down with government oversight

cause we all know ‘Red Tape’ can be such a delight

We will see ‘Hitch a ride’ programs where we can buy

a ticket for luxury cruises to take us out past the sky

To hotels and eateries up there on the moon

and apartment complexes that’ll be coming soon

An outer space vacation package up in the stars

I’ll think I’ll wait and take mine on Mars

Just think of the significance of this historic day

when to all of our grand-kids we can proudly say

I remember on one planet we lived out our life

it was so filled with hate, war, hunger and strife

But we overcame those problems back when we learned

that if we only give love, we’ll only get love in return

Happy Birthday to My Oldest Son…

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Non Fiction, Short Stories17 Comments

Joshua – 1977…
You probably don’t remember that day. Even for me it now seems like it was another universe. It was your first birthday. We called Fort Ord California home and, as it was with most Army families, we were as penniless as the winos down along the banks of the Salinas River. Your mother baked you a chocolate cake from a .29 cent box mix and decorated it with some homemade icing. We stripped you down to your diaper and sat you in your highchair while we sang birthday songs to you. You laughed as you crumbled your cake into oblivion.

Still in the Army

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Non Fiction, Short Stories6 Comments

Dressed in denim jackets and bell bottom jeans with colorful patches sewn over holes that never existed, we tried to be normal 1970’s youth. We listened to Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Eagles, America and Pink Floyd. Our attempt to be non-conformists only managed to create more conformity. And short military haircuts can’t be disguised in a world where the length of your hair is a status symbol. No matter how hard we pretended to be friends, it was still just a stranger that passed the hash pipe back across the table. We’d take a hit and dream we were home.

He Wasn’t a Superman…

On By Jerry BrothertonIn flash, Short Stories16 Comments

My friend would sit quietly in the corner and talk to himself when he only drank beer; nicest guy you ever met. A bottle of wine would have him shouting obscenities at passersby for reasons unknown. He might walk naked into the police station after a night of tequila. Once, Jim Beam sent him staggering down Highway 24 to do hand to hand combat with a moving semi-truck. Later he walked away from the altercation on two broken legs, a broken arm and 3 broken ribs. My friend died alone in his apartment last night after 60 days of detox.

On The Train…

On By Jerry BrothertonIn Non Fiction, Short Stories9 Comments

written while stationed in Germany – 1976


We ride the train at night. Store front signs flash neon onto our faces through the window. Red, green, blue in words we don’t know. Just four foreigners crowded in with a hundred faces. They speak in a language we can only catch a few pieces of. We get stern looks from disgusted fellow travelers each time we speak. So we travel in silence. But I know what they are thinking. They don’t need to say it. I can see it in their anger. “You’d think if they are going to be stationed here, they’d learn to speak our language.”