Selections from Trella Romine's library at Terradise Nature Center
Groping in the half-light
With nothing on the ball:
Half an education
Is worse than none at all.
See the worker digging
In his muddy ditch?
He is quite contented–
Which is better, which?
Wish I were a magnate
And owned a swimming pool;
Half an education,
So I but wish and drool.
Never worse nor better–
Always in between;
Looking for the pastures
Far away and green;
Always I’m lamenting;
This my private Hell.
Have you any children?
Educate them well.
by Ray Romine Tuesday, November 23, 1943
Then, half-track treads–
Now, trundle-beds;
From bomber-parts, to shirting;
Then, Sherman gears–
Now, lace brassieres ,
The world is reconverting!
Then, lethal rays–
Now, mayonnaise;
From tommyguns to sweepers;
Then, generals’ stars–
Now, brand-new cars
To open John Q’s peepers.
But I don’t know:
The radio
Stars have me disconcerted;
Will gags they chew
Be henceforth new
Or old ones reconverted??
by Ray Romine Monday, September 3, 1945
The cares of the work-a-day world
Are as nothing, to those that receive
All our attention once we’re on pension,
Which at 40 is hard to believe.
by Ray Romine Thursday, June 21, 1951
“I want the fight.” “Let’s watch the play. “
“The circus.” “No, the news.”
Thus , a quickie peek at our
Television views.
Father has no word to say,
Sad fellow, upon whom
It didn’t dawn to have TV
Installed in every room.
by Ray Romine Sunday, October 8, 1950
Like baked beans and picnics,
Like sun-tans and summer;
Like mail men and statements,
Like bathroom and plumber;
Like raincoats and boots go
With inclement weather–
Small boys and puppies
Go well together!
by Ray Romine Wednesday, October 24, 1951
She likesther bedroom heated,
While he, the hardy hero,
Must have is window open
Even when it’s zero.
But in the living room below,
Long before retiring,
The Master wasn’t warm enough;
The Mistress was perspiring.
My point may have been made before,
But it will bear repeating:
Just like pudding, marriage finds
The proof is in the ‘eating.
by Ray Romine Wednesday, October 31, 1951
The bathroom hue out-blues the sky;
The hall if somewhat fainter.
I am no hobbiest, but I
Am still a Sunday painter!
by Ray Romine Monday, February 8, 1954
If there exists one instrument
I wish had died a-borning,
It’s that machine infernal
That rouses me each morning.
There is one thing much worse, of course,
And this can really make me
Fume; and that’s when my alarm
Stops–and fails to wake me!
by Ray Romine Wednesday, November 28, 1951
Now they heat some homes with sunshine,
There goes one more thing that’s free.
They can’t can it, no, nor ban it,
But they’ll TAX it–wait and see.
by Ray Romine Friday, November 11, 1949
A glimpse at my car will attest
That I have travelled through the west:
Yosemite and Yellowstone
In lurid colors there are shown;
Grand Canyon, Tetons, Hoover Dam.,
Have seen me come, and look, and ‘lam.
This windshield section here is leased
By pictures from the north and east:
Michigan, Maine and Vermont
Saw me on last summer’s jaunt;
Ontario–and shut my mouth ,
For right beside it is the south,
And cotton fields and Georgia Tech
Show where I went on ‘5O’ s trek.
The time has come to call a halt!
Not that the scenery is at fault;
Not that I miss my bed and table;
Not that the old car isn’t able;
Not that I’m one whose interest flickers:
I just can’t see out for the stickers.
by Ray Romine Wednesday, October 31, 1951