The Book of Gems
By Sepps

Copyright © Mike & Mark.
All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced or distributed in any form without permission.

I dedicate this book to my wife Sue because, even though I know she won't read the rest of the book,  she will definitely read this bit.

Acknowledgements
Special thanks also to Sue for creating the original artwork for the book.

And still more thanks to those, too few to mention, for their contributions to this literary endeavor.
 

I remember well how it all started. I was fifteen years old and sitting in an English literature class, studying twentieth-century poets. The teacher had not arrived yet and I was struggling in vain to gain some measure of appreciation for an exasperatingly obnoxious poem.

“What a load of crap!” I exclaimed, offering my concise, critical opinion to anyone within earshot, “Anyone could write this drivel.”

“Oh yeah?” sneered the big kid with the red hair.