Thomas

=Tommy's Portfolio=

Preposition Poem
toc With out thinking Nearing the night Beside you and Across the field Against the timber On the prairie The hours of your patients finally pays off.

Pieces of a Poem Poem
Because I love you, Near the end, I wouldn't or, Couldn't leave you, Therefore you know, Instead of 1,000 days without you, I would rather spend one day with you, I hope to spend the rest of my life with you.

Subordinating Conjunction

Preposition

Coordinating Conjunction

Dependent Clauses

Independent clauses

Compound Complex Sentence

Hint Fiction
The final lap has finally come and when it is right you relize it could all change in a matter of seconds.

Tone Analysis
For most of us, our votes don’t really count. How can that be? Every couple Novembers, more than 1 million of us trot down to the polls and vote for our state representative. Every four years, we also punch the ballot for our state senator. But for most of us, our votes don’t really count. How can that be? It's because of something that's perfectly legal and takes place in much the same way in most states. It's the redistricting process that occurs every 10 years after all of us fill out those census forms that come in the mail. Under law, lines for political districts for Congress and the state Legislature have to be redrawn, based on where people have moved. In Michigan, we're dropping from 15 to 14 congressional seats because we've lost population. What you haven't heard about is the fact that districts are drawn up in ways that don't really give hundreds of thousands of voters a choice each general election. Only 22 of Michigan's 148 seats in the state Legislature have been truly competitive since the last redistricting in 2001. That's according to a new report by the Center for Michigan, which I co-authored. In the House, only 16 of 110 districts are swing seats, in which they either regularly changed hands between the parties or averaged a 3-percent margin or less over the past decade. In the Senate, only six of 38 seats flipped in the past decade. Only two seats were consistently competitive. Now stop and consider the fact that we've had three wave elections in a row — the two big Democratic years in 2006 and 2008 and the huge Republican comeback in 2010. On its face, it seems incredible that so few seats have changed hands. Michigan is, after all, a purple state. There are deep red pockets in Ottawa County, sure, and Detroit is the most Democratic big city in America. However, we could have many more seats than just 22 in which it would be a real race between Democrats and Republicans — if that's what politicians wanted. But that's the big problem. Politicians in the Legislature are the ones who get to draw the lines. That means that Rep. X can carve out a pretty sweet Senate district for himself by shifting a few townships here and there. And lawmakers can try to shore up as many safe seats for their own party — where their candidate is almost guaranteed victory, no matter what happens. "You have a situation where the Legislature is picking their own voters," said Christina Kuo, Michigan executive director of Common Cause. And often voters don't even know how they've ended up in one district or another. "It's hard to imagine something more sacrosanct than the right to vote," said Center for Michigan Executive Director John Bebow, who co-authored the study. "... (This report) calls into question how many of all those votes really matter." Now it's true that there are certain standards in place that are supposed to keep counties together as much as possible and districts compact. But the Legislature, with the help of party leaders and teams of lawyers, are pretty crafty about drawing the districts they want. Now some political insiders are offended at the idea that more competitive districts could be drawn. But if you can engineer districts to give one party or a certain politician an advantage, it stands to reason that you can draw seats that are competitive. It works both ways. EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn thinks it wouldn't be too hard to make 30 percent to 40 percent of legislative districts competitive — without making districts look ridiculous. It's true that there's not a great probability of this happening this year. After all, the GOP controls the crayon again and the smart political move is to grab every advantage you can. So any real change is going to have to happen the next time around in 2020. But politicians this year should have to answer to the voters about their plans. A Redistricting Collaborative, which includes the Center for Michigan and the Michigan Nonprofit Association, wants to see four public hearings on plans, with three outside the Lansing bubble. The new districts should be posted online 30 days before plans are adopted. This is just common sense. Nobody wants deals on tax increases done in backrooms. That should go double when it comes to determining which voters have choices in elections.

I find the author to be kind of angry and sarcastic because of the way she words this article and what she says like when she says in the very beginning when she say "over 1 million of us trot down to the polls" I find her sarcastic on how she said it.

Extended Metaphor
Nascar is..... Insane, True toughness, Torture Endurance, Pure Energy, Math, Intelligence, Awesome, The true American Sport, Speed.

=﻿Black Out Poem= "Radio Active Questions"

Nuclear power plants raised questions, When defects created radio active rain and wind, And questions about safety of, Effected infants from defects at facilities, Inspectors question the dispersed emissions.

=Digital Vocabulary= My Word is deliquesced. I is a verb meaning to melt away. I think my picture has a perfect description of my word because it has a very original meaning to id and kind of funny. Witch http://www.andrewgarvey.com/wizard/characters/TheWickedWitchoftheWestProfile.html Rain Cloud []

=Short Story= Life As A Wounded Veteran “Pow Pow Pow Pow” “ Go Go Go Move”. The gate dropped down on the amphibious tractor. All I could think about was what was going to happen to my life. We were bulldozed out onto that unforgettably soft black sand beach. Bullets whizzed around me and the rest of my Marine comrades. You could literally feel the strong breeze the blew as the blew by at the speed of sound. Mortars struck the ground launching the peaceful black sand every where.  There I was standing watching my brothers being slaughtered by an invisible enemy. It was as if on of the mortars that landed not 20 feet from where I stood made something click in my head. During our briefing they said our adrenaline level would be higher than ever but I would never imagined what it feel like. But after that mortar landed I remembered what I my objective was, find cover and push forward toward the enemy bunkers.  I was on a dead sprint to the nearest fox hole I could see. It was as if my 80 pound ruck sack, 30 pound ammo pack, and 25 pound machine gun were cotton candy, weight less. My eye sight narrowed and it seemed like I kept getting faster and faster. “BOOM” a mortar landed right behind me. With the speed of my running and the lift of the mortar combined, I was soring through the air. “Thud” I landed about five feet from the fox hole. Instinctively I checked my body for wounds, but nothing not even a scratch. How, how did that happen, I didn’t even get hit with one of the hundreds of pieces of shrapnel that the mortar shot.  I had no time to think so I dove into the fox hole. leaning against the black sand was like leaning against a huge feather pillow. I sat and thought for what seemed like 3 hours what was going to happen and what I should do. Well that 3 hours was actually about 3 seconds. My peripheral vision was gone from my adrenaline so I had a sever case of tunnel vision. With out any more thinking I clicked the safety of my M240 off and let loose hundreds of rounds at the enemy bunkers.  My machine gun just about drowned the noise of every other gun going off around me out of my head. The deep gluging of the rounds coming out of the barrel as fast as the could reminded me of a speed boat idling. “HEY PRIVATE GET OVER HERE” I recognized the voice. Then I remembered it was my commander. I don’t know how I heard him over the deafening sound of my machine gun. I stopped firing and looked around for my commander, there he was waving for me to come over to him. I quickly got up and sprinted to him.  Again I was on a dead sprint with all of the weight of my gear clinging on me. This time all of my gear started to slow me down. I would say I was running at about 10 miles per hour and not 10 yards from my commander when I heard “click”. All of the sound of firing and explosions was instantly gone from my ears. I stopped in less that a millisecond just froze, almost as if I had turned into a marble statue. I knew there was only two things I could do, stand there and be shot down or dive and pray that the land mine didn’t kill me. I took half a second to choose.  I dove as far as I possibly could.“chink....Thud....Boom”

Darkness filled my head. I could feel a ringing sensation in my head as I lay there. I opened my eyes but only saw blackness. I could feel the mortars slamming against the ground around me but I couldn’t hear them. I just laid there praying to god that I was okay and wouldn’t get hit by a mortar or be shot. After about 5 minutes of opening and closing my eyes trying to see I closed them and passed out.  I woke up laying in a bright white room. “Where the hell am I? What is going on? Why am I here?” I screamed at the top of my lungs for about 20 minutes. I couldn’t, but I couldn’t hear myself. When I was about to stand up an alarm went off and a group of doctors rushed into my room. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” said one of the doctors. “Why am I here?” I asked. A doctor in a white robe stepped out of the group of doctors and nurses as they all started to leave the room.  “Hi, private Hunn?” he asked with a high pitched voice. “Yes” I said anxiously. “Well you are here because while you were running to commander James you stepped on a land mine. You were injured very badly and we didn’t have much of you to save.”said the doctor. “What do mean didn’t have much to save?” I piped in when he was still telling me what happened. “The land mine you stepped on just about killed you, but if you wouldn’t have dove the way you did you would have been killed” “I don’t care what do you mean didn’t have much to save”. Then I looked down at my self but didn’t see my legs. You could hear me scream from at least two floors below. I started to check myself again and noticed my left arm was completely gone and the right looked like it needed to be gone.  I studied my right arm for a good thirty minutes. I took some of the bandages off and could see the raw muscle of my arm. The cool hospital air stung the raw flesh as I studied it carefully. I would flex my arm and could see the tension in my muscles. I wasn’t scared or worried but was fascinated. I knew that there wasn’t anything to do about my legs or left arm but to try to get a prosthetic limb for the missing ones.  About two weeks passed and it was time for me to go home to my wife and kids. I was very carefully wheeled out of the hospital in a wheel chair in to a black SUV. For the few seconds I was outside, it felt like I was in heaven. The nice warm, humid air kissed my body. My body was so much more sensitive to every little bump in the road. Every pot hole felt like someone hitting me with a hammer.  The SUV rolled into an airport hanger and there was a private jet. I was unloaded out of the SUV and into the jet. The instant I got onto the jet it was one of the most ecstatic things I had seen for a long time. It was luxurious and comfortable unlike anything I had for the whole time I was in the military.  We took off heading for my home. It was a 4 hour flight but it felt like it went by in seconds, I was so exited to see my family for the first time in about 2 years. The jet landed and everyone got off. They wheeled me into the the hanger and there my family was. Then my heart dropped when I saw him walk up to my wife and gave her a kiss. My instincts made me try to stand up and chase him but when I tried to push myself up but with my arm missing I just fumbled and fell out of the wheel chair. “AAAHHHH” I had the worst and most agonizing pain I have ever had before. It felt as if some one had pored nitric acid all of my open flesh.  The man pushing me in the wheel chair tried to help me up but I pushed him away and fought my way back on the chair. It was one of the hardest and most enduring things I did on my free will but what was even harder was seeing my wife and children being with that man and to understand how she could leave me.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To Be Continued......