tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63144927449045932172024-03-13T17:38:23.734-07:00BarddoniaethWords, poetry, lyrics and perhaps some prose
by greg moore
aka mo, mogogearUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-47088461188078604262023-12-07T20:46:00.000-08:002023-12-07T20:46:52.671-08:00Billy Boy<p> Billy was the daredevil one of the three brothers as I recall.</p><p>Hard for me to keep my rare cousin’s names straight at first.</p><p>He always had a tilted head, burr haircut and a sheepish grin, </p><p>a more “Summered” older kid than I.</p><p>We younger ones watched fellows like him with awe,</p><p>hoping someday to wander with the same easy swagger.</p><p><br /></p><p>When we visited, my dad would mock and tease all of us boys </p><p>with grins and proclamations followed by a wink. </p><p>He would caw at us his false remorse,</p><p>“You better hope I never die, or you'll be the ugliest men in the world”,</p><p>Billy would always smirk and lob a drawled retort</p><p>back to the uglier sender and the source.</p><p><br /></p><p>Amid dusty Jacksboro Texas cricket-filled nights, hot days, a yard full of small</p><p>army soldiers waged ceaseless wars. Behind their house lived the Gazette, </p><p>full of ink and oil smells and clackity-press percussions. </p><p>We got to feed yesterday’s old cast letters, and our secreted curse words,</p><p>back to the molten maw of the Linotype pot, never to be seen again.</p><p>The shop was carpeted in discarded pages, their wording not yet right.</p><p><br /></p><p>We patrolled on BB-gun hunts down alleyways with Daisy rifles tight in hand.</p><p>The wire-perched birds flapped away to the safety of the sky</p><p>as we strode through town. Bottles and cans were not so lucky.</p><p>Then back behind the post office, the heavy-oily-onion air swirled out of Mary’s Burgers, </p><p>whispering of hot and salty French fry heaven.</p><p>Ketchup was always free.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a Tiger on the town football team, Billy roamed Jack County’s miles</p><p>till life's call urged him to another campus. Perhaps a million days ago, </p><p>we lunched with him there a time or so until he faded away.</p><p>While cleaning his gun, one warm and sad May afternoon, Billy’s story ended.</p><p>A puff of smoke, we blinked our eyes, and he was gone. </p><p><br /></p><p>Surely Billy Boy was never meant to be</p><p>the ugliest man in the world.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-69847444744983627262023-11-12T16:35:00.000-08:002023-11-12T16:35:34.536-08:00Chirp<p>evening cricket songs</p><p> woven in to golden light</p><p>-small letters of love</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-84734367980254667652023-11-12T16:33:00.000-08:002023-11-12T16:40:41.677-08:00Flamingos<p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Flamingos lounging in tropical waters along side exotic flowers</span></p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">You stand so still and I have not seen you duck your head for the longest. </span><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Perhaps your are full from an unseen early morning breakfast?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">So poised, tall and pink, nothing is of concern to you</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">standing on your wire legs.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">The entirety of their silly flamboyance </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">seems oblivious</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">to store, with all our eyes and shuffling sounds, </span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">even the children are no cause for alarm.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">They must be proud birds, perhaps they are all ashamed to be on clearance</span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;">here at Walmart</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">2 for $20</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">.</span></div><div><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-89887082407153270572023-11-12T16:29:00.000-08:002023-11-12T16:29:03.252-08:00Packing List<p>For me i<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">t is a cry, a wail, of pure unsatiated yearning.</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So many years of moves </span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and changes </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and towns.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Ever more moving boxes and new class rooms and faces.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All so wonderfully new at first, </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">to learn and meet and explore. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Only to leave behind again and mostly forget </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">as a small bit of past. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">somewhere else, now no longer new.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">No one stayed in my pocket or my conversations. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">They faded away. Just gone </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and papered over with aa new address.</span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So many years of places and small stories have flipped by </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and are now too deep in the deck. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Too far gone. </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Just gone and replaced</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">when no one was packed up </span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and labeled on my box</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">and sent along with me</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">to help me remember </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;" /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">who they ever were.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-21284760337569827122023-11-12T16:19:00.000-08:002023-11-12T16:19:05.015-08:00Dog Tired<p> The Dogwood leaves are tired and drawn by the 31 </p><p> hot and dry August days.</p><p>They dangle, painted bruise-brown, with the pallor </p><p>of old raisin-tasting wine. Far past its prime.</p><p>Their green is long gone.</p><p>Their work is done,</p><p>They wait to fall </p><p>away.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-47873104163083936942023-11-12T16:13:00.000-08:002023-11-12T16:13:35.320-08:00Losses<p>last years Robin hen</p><p>returns to prepare her nest</p><p>-culls the cold blue shell</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-26875390302614961002023-11-12T15:59:00.000-08:002023-11-12T15:59:29.052-08:00Home on the Rain<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">most Portland days</span></p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
<span style="background: white;">this mossy yard stays sodden</span></span><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">feeding cold rivers</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-51340998400006768422023-11-12T15:57:00.000-08:002023-11-12T15:57:32.187-08:00 Between Two Mirrors<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Time. Its name is whispered, scrawled, and mumbled in so many
ways. Its face reflected in countless mirrors and dissolved into the many waters
of the world.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Seasons of growth and learning, dead leaves and
then new. Wrinkles, stooped height, growth rings, wisdom, minutes then inches, infirmity,
rotting wood and patinas of every hue.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The flow from tide to yet another tide, months, calendars,
addresses and anniversaries, cakes and cards, greying hair, the muting of
senses, the cutting of young curls, births and mistakes, victories, and death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">We measure people with small pencil marks on door frames or
by clothes that no longer fit. From seed to stem then leaf, to cone and
broken limb. Then a harvested trunk with some of it as sawdust scattered on the
floor. Hair changes color and fades in color and vitality.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Christmas, survival, recovery,
mountains fading slowly to hills, the dimming of stars, first impressions
and then urns and good byes, the resolutions, the dreams and trophies and the
long kept dresses and jackets and the glory of what was then.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Time brings it all to bear with only the quiet
whisper from the sands that continue their steady fall<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">from the top, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">down to the bottom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">of the glass.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-47605717997375420732023-07-01T11:42:00.003-07:002023-07-01T11:42:57.406-07:00Rejoice<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Tear down that sculpted, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">perfect mountain that lives in your head. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Its intimidation is not for all,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and most certainly not for you.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">It won’t tell you of its jagged faults <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and glacier-scoured rock, and will <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">surely not whisper of the legions of fallen snags<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and centuries of eroded pebbles and sand<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">that are now missing. All lost to gravity, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">drawn somewhere downhill. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Scores of acres lie scorched and bared by fires.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Scarred firs still trying to fully breathe, tremble
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">in winter winds up past the scree slopes<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">on its southeast side. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Legions of beetles chew into the bark <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">of its sheltering forests, killing the branched
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">beings with a million tiny torturous bites. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Delivered daily in unison <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">That perfect mountain’s stone heart once flowed.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Growing upward from the depths as molten<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">magma, its heart did finally stop. It cooled <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and lay hardened for eons <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and grew no more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It casts a mighty silhouette.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Impressive and prominent, sometimes snow-topped<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">with orange and red hues in, “the golden hours
of the day.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But it is succumbing to earth’s eternal pull. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Your seemingly mighty and tall mountain is far from perfect.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
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<!--[endif]--></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-56155846277677098712023-07-01T11:41:00.004-07:002023-07-01T11:41:58.912-07:002020<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In one hand I hold <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The wetness of tears, the rain that falls upon the robes
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">of people and hopes everywhere. Lost hopes, lost jobs, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">hunger, sickness, death, isolation and loneliness, protests
and pain, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">frustration, hoarding, politicization of the scenario, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">pot-stirring, personal and national debts that tower above us
all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Beliefs, not news nor facts. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">To fill the other hand, I have to find<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">the awareness, to look for and see the light. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In the other-worldly quiet nights, long walks, a flowering spring
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">that dazzles because I have the time to see it unfold <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">before me with clearing air from less used machines, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">the working of jig saw puzzles with my family <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and listening as my daughter discovers the quiet satisfaction
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">of the NYT crossword and rediscovers here love of the piano,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">experiencing spring like I had not done in 50 years or more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Friendliness and courtesy and communal help <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">for those in need seems to be also blossoming around me<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the small and
not so small parts of the world I bump in to <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But If I squint my eyes just right, I can see the good, the
hope and care<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">wearing a shirt of fear and worry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">This time has blessed us with a flaneur’s world,
while it has cursed us with an anger,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">a dread and divide that may not ever subside, or so I fear<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">as I hold my breath and wait.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-79656838972438258732023-07-01T11:40:00.002-07:002023-07-01T11:40:13.956-07:00Paid<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;">my
work is for a salary,<br />
<br />
but when I capture the right words,<br />
<br />
then mine is the golden pay.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-8879257756339494192022-10-28T19:10:00.003-07:002022-10-28T19:10:44.957-07:00Falling Down the Hill<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">We moved a lot.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Over many blurry years while growing up, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I didn’t really think much about the world
passing around me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Only the merest of plans would float through my
thoughts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Little was permanent. We just followed the
moving truck.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Along the way, a low-grade shame slowly crept into
me, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">like a fever of 99.4. I felt a little off from
not having enough of something, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">but not quite sure exactly what that something
was. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Maybe it was not getting that other half stick
of gum from mother, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">or the skipped lunches replaced by a coke and a
packet of peanuts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Sometimes I still dream about whole sticks of gum, hamburgers,
or a real Schwinn bike. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">My friends, thunder and lightning storms, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">did manage to follow me to each new house. I still
love them so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">They, like the moves and cardboard boxes, were the constants
in my life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Sequential memories seemed to start for me in
Houston. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">We finally ate hamburgers the day we moved in. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">They were served on waxy paper set on moving
box tables, and it felt special. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Then Kennedy was shot, Kindergarten, smallpox
and sugar-cubed polio vaccines all happened, and I even decided to call myself
Alan for a while in first grade. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">No one else was named Greg. It felt safer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Dad found an old, discarded cheese barrel one
day. It became a table<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">in each new living room after that. Once the
furniture was in place, I would crawl <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">over to it and sniff the round hole in its side.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Always checking if it still reeked of its original
occupant. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I got a belt with a buckle and then went to my
first rodeo. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">That Christmas, Santa brought me a used Wards bike
that had belonged to a neighbor girl.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Never was quite sure how that worked out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">After Houston came L.A, then second grade back to
TX, then third in LA. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Caddo Parish was home till Thanksgiving of
sixth grade, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">then it was off to Dallas. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In each new school I was introduced as <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">the new kid from somewhere else, standing in
front of a room<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">full of eyes and faces that I didn’t know. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">From one handhold to the next. Some safer than
others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Some friendlier, some not. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Roll the dice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Towns faded in the rearview mirror. Around four
I waved <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">goodbye to my first dog that we left in Wyoming.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">On to the next sunrise ahead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">During sixth grade, and seven states<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">later, my next dog Charlie got hit by a car
while we walked one afternoon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">That constant move from town to town set a
rhythm in my head. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I heard it in the background. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I felt it in my stomach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It was my soundtrack. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Playing over and over. Time to go.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">As a younger version of me, the art of imagining,
of planning or projecting <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">forward more than three steps down the path, was
thrown out, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">all from lack of use. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">There were always new faces but not the real joy
of knowing any of their secrets <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">or that hidden place that folks born there knew
about, nor my place <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">in any one’s history very long. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I was just passing through. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">A couple of thousand suns set, and I seldom
wept for any of them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">That implanted, learned impatience lived in me for
so long, demanding me <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">to hurry up, on to some vague Eden elsewhere
over the horizon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">But it never told me where that was. Impatience
still hangs around.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">So many new address', classrooms, introductions,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">moving boxes, Welcome Wagons, and expendable new
names to learn <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">at the next new house. It was the thrill of
anticipation more than <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">anything that seemed to get me through, that
got me to buy in and move on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Birthdays brought me weariness and settling for
whatever <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">my arms could gather instead <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">of what could be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">My head had told me my plans didn’t change
where I was going. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Just take what is there. Settle. The final
option. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I forgot the taste of what I had wanted <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and kept licking the same old thing, That thing
left in my head.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Living and eating what was in my hands, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">not my hopes or what I wanted from the menu. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Till it was tasteless, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">colorless, threadbare. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-19733075600159744892022-01-14T18:35:00.001-08:002022-01-14T18:35:23.071-08:00Suite 256<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Oncology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The referral had been to see a blood specialist. She said,”
blood.” The sign<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">plainly <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reads<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oncology. The door, that belongs to the sign,
leads in to<br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">a waiting room, half full of sallow faces. A
dozen <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">un-asked for words now crowd their way into our
heads to wait with us.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">As we enter, the receptionist speaks on the
phone with </span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">a funeral home in full earshot of all. Everyone
hears <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: .25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">the details
she blandly discusses. We sit down</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">as her
words sink in. We hadn’t thought past the word, anemia. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Lots of coughs,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">some wear masks but not many.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It’s the
lottery. We all will be returning for new. The weight<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">is so
real and so enormous, breathing is hard.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It’s
agreed: tricked is how we feel. Misled or un-led. Oncology was<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">not the
word used by the doctor. Perhaps<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">in kindness,
to not cause worry, stress or simply panic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I can now
see <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">two
presenters at an awards show on TV. They seem to be fondling the envelope <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">while bantering
a bit to stretch the time. Finally, one of them slides their finger <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">into the
sealed flap <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and withdraws
the card from inside and begins to read the determination for <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">all to
hear. The camera cuts away and the announcers reveal <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">there is nothing
until next time. See <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">you next
month.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-45471323659719381092021-10-19T12:36:00.001-07:002021-10-19T12:36:56.511-07:00Reclamation<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be brave. Be careful. Be hopeful.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Go outside and yell, “I am back!” Yell it one
more time. Feel it. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">In honor of what masks have done for us all, burn
a mask; then burn one more. Give thanks. Take another and tie it around a tree
that you will see every day. Remember masks are evidence that people are
putting others first. </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Find a reason to ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar. Make
something to share with a friend or two. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Imagine yourself at a party. You can see the
faces as you walk around and pass by different guests. Imagine them as everyone
you have missed. Then invite a friend over for coffee. Sit in chairs or on the
steps or on the grass in the sun. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Walk out your front door and keep walking. Listen
to nothing other than birds and your breathing. Turn off your thoughts. Don’t
just nod at people. Make a point to start greeting people you pass from this
day forward. Start with a small hello will. Even through a mask, words still
work. Ask them how they are, and care about their answers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;"> Enroll your dog in a doggie daycare class
once a week. They need to relearn things too, not just left to rely on old sniffed
note cards left on the grass or trees. Those afternoons while your dog is
out for class, take off and go have a drink at a small tavern or coffee shop. Bend
the rules. Sit on a stool at the bar and talk to the person serving you with
real talk. Tell them your name and learn theirs. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Who have you missed? Call each and every single person
on your list and check in on them, maybe invite them out for a walk.
Talk. Catch up. Share your experience. Find out what you do not know.
Smile and feel happy. Replace news with music. Fill your space with music. Fill
your life back up.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Become a regular at a local farmers market. Buy
flowers for your table and while you are at it, plant something and care for
it. Include this nurture and appreciation in your new routine. Take long
soaking hot baths on occasion. The shower can wait. Make the weekend last a bit
longer.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Prepare a room in your place where electronics are not
allowed. Make an appointment to go there often.</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> No Media Monday’s. Phone-
free Fridays. You get to choose.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Step out on your porch or find a park, or a
bench somewhere, and drag a book that’s been sleeping over on the shelf along
for the ride. See the sun, feel the rain, enjoy what is now. It will take
persistent effort to break down the wall that has been growing between us.
Keep at it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be a beacon. Wash your hands. Trust each other. Don’t believe
the hype, you’ve already won. Now help someone else to win. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-83888791639832427392021-02-21T18:09:00.005-08:002021-06-20T17:15:37.269-07:00Work or Life<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">Work is not all it is reputed to be.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;">Mostly it’s time away from living<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">with periods</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"> <span style="background: white;">of
accomplishment and pride</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">in exchange for paying bills mixed.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">there’s security and the means for needs</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">
<span style="background: white;">all the while diverting me from richer time <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">with people and the ooh’s and ahh’s of the world.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">A itchy shirt made from a big sack of money,
stress,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">rental cars, keyboards, cell phones, email, clocks and</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">airplanes all filled with more work and time staring through
a small hole.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Take all that all, shaken with determination
until in proper proportions,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">spiced with gifted vacation days that we feed
ourselves sparingly.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">Sprinkled like it was salt. Like some was great and made life taste good </span><span style="color: #222222;">but </span><span style="color: #222222;">too much might spoil the</span><span style="color: #222222;"> balance.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">Go ahead, pour it down my throat</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"> <span style="background: white;">till I am just grateful enough</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">to not throw up my resume. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">But then could I take a big shot at </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">living please?</span></p><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-87946064944481076332021-02-21T18:07:00.006-08:002021-04-25T20:51:14.559-07:00Them<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The rusted detritus of 163 different lives
bleeds out</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">down the hills of Sullivan's Gulch, down to the
train tracks,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">
<span style="background: white;">ending in random slides of waste beside the
rails. Down.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="background: white;">They’re barely alive. Skin-living under clouds
and boxes, tarps</span><br />
<span style="background: white;"><br />and weary sway-backed tents. Surrounded by legions
of dismembered</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">bikes and
long-orphaned wheels. Nothing left but their stuff.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Their wet everything: sleeping bags and shoes
and orange needle caps,</span> <span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">empty cans,
dead TV’s. Yesterday’s scrawled cardboard pleas</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">wilted floppy by the rain become today’s rug for
muddy paths.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Sallowed and soured nylon caves with no welcome
or a mat</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Enslaved grocery carts spilling their treasures encircle</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">the refuse
and the refused. Childless indentured strollers await.</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><br /></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">
<span style="background: white;">Rain and more rain slides down blue-ish tarped
camps guarded by</span> <span style="background: white;">brambles, <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">the dead and
alive razor-wire that stands the lonely<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">tangled watch
at night. Sipping blood from any careless slip. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
anarchy of their spiraled lives scares us; <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">they
blame us, despise us, but take our crumbs, our shun, our change and wait. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Bodies, people, someone's girl or dad or uncle,
sit numb and stand paused. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">We say we try. We meet, we study, we throw coins
and food and socks and scorn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Cities and states and our nation gnash their
teeth, say they try, and yet the years click on by<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and all
the “we’s” just can’t seem to
pull the right answer out of the hat.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">We, the
world so thankful to avoid the vague accusatory stares. We <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">there, in our cars, nearing the corner. What if
the roulette wheel says,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">“Hey you,” in the front row in the stop-light queue, kneel
down, you’re next?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s time for you to hold the sign and fade from sight.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-89875747937141608642021-02-21T18:06:00.005-08:002021-06-20T17:17:52.228-07:00No Sense<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">I did not see or really think much about the world <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">passing around me for many years. Only the simplest of plans
in my thoughts</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">My head felt some things pass through like fear
or lust, maybe some shame </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;">in my pocket from not enough, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">from one handhold to the next.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">Impatience hung around the longest; </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">hurry was </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">always leading me to somewhere.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Admiration and wonder escaped from me, along
with friends and the joy of stories. A thousand sunsets died and I never waited and wept for them. I
was on the lookout for sunrise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">After so many new address's, I grew complacent and settled
for in-arms-reach instead of further than the moment.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">I forgot the taste of new and kept licking the same
old "now", </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;">till threadbare. </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-84048515910254820242021-02-21T17:59:00.004-08:002021-08-04T21:37:39.837-07:00Granny’s Fairies<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">We cousins readied for bedtime
on Granny's sleepin' porch.</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Six mouths haphazardly brushed, repeated glasses
of water as whined for,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">most of us here overnight for the first time.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">The Dr. Pepper snoozed in the fridge not ten
steps away.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">She attended us so well, her hair braided up in
a bun,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">with a crossed left eye that never really look
at you squarely</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">and an old tobacco bag pinned to her brassiere
that</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">held the funds for our Army-Navy store desires.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">There was cotton clipped to each of the window
screens</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">to warn the birds away, so she claimed,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">and she had fed hobos lunch on the outside table
long ago,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">taking care of all that came her way from the
tracks behind the pastures.</span><br />
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">Mounded deep with mismatched
pillows and </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">flour-sack quilts sewn by years of hands and
thread,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the old swayback beds waited
folded back, nice and neat,</span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">then were loaded up with two or three cousins
each.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The old rock salt crystals that grew in the bowl</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background: white;">atop the heater sparkled with table-lamp light.</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">The swamp cooler blew slow, stale, sweet air
trying to let go of summer heat.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">It was the cool of the darkening evening and as the
sun slipped from the sky,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">she drew us to the windows that faced the back yard.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">"There, she exclaimed, do you see 'em
coming?"</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">We pressed our faces to the glass, peering out
into the falling deep dark.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">"I call 'em to protect you all on my
sleepin' porch. Here come my fairies!"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: white;">The scattered twinkling of
tiny lights came towards us,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">
<span style="background: white;">up from the horse pasture, even appearing higher-up
in the trees.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">You could just make out the advancing line of
fairies, spreading out</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">across the yard, each signaling their allegiance
to us all</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">for the long heavy night.</span><br />
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">Those conjured fireflies
delivered that which could not be denied. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">We believed and slept deep and
safe in the sleep of quiet invincibility.</span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Soon it would be tomorrow, and time again for swings</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and tomatoes and salt and
watermelon</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 107%;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background: white; line-height: 107%;">and maybe even a sneaked small taste of Dr. Pepper if you dared.</span>
<!--[endif]--></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background: white; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background: white; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><p style="color: black; font-size: medium;"> Old Version:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222;">We cousins readied for bedtime on Granny's sleepin' porch.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Six mouths haphazardly brushed, repeated glasses of water as whined for,</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">most of us here overnight for the first time.</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Dr. Pepper snoozed in the fridge not 10 steps away.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">She attended us so well, her hair braided up in a bun,</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">with a crossed left eye that never really look at you squarely</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">and an old tobacco bag pinned in her brassiere that</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">held the funds for our Army-Navy store desires.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">There was cotton clipped to the window screens</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">to warn the birds away , so she claimed,</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">and she fed hobos lunch on the outside table long ago,</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">taking care of all that came her way from the tracks behind the pastures.</span><br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Old swayback beds were dressed and folder back</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Then loaded with two or three cousins each</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Mounded deep with mismatched pillows</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Flour sack quilts sewn by families of hands and thread.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The old rock salt crystal that grew in the bowl atop the heater sparkled with table lamp light-</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">the swamp cooler blew slow, stale, sweet air trying to let go of the summer heat</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">It was the cool of darkening evening and the sun slipped from the sky</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">And she drew us to the windows that faced the backyard.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">"There! Do you see 'em coming?" She exclaimed,</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">as we pressed our faces to the glass -peering out into the falling deep dark.</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">"I call 'em to come protect you all that rest on my sleepin' porch. Here come my fairies !"</span><br /><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">The scattered twinkling of little tiny lights came towards us</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">up from the horse pasture, even appearing higher up in to the trees</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">You could just make out the advancing line of fairies spreading out</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Across the yard, each plead hugging allegiance to us all</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">for the long heavy night.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Even now I recall that night as the first time I witnessed true magic. It was as close as We all ever got I suppose. True and magical wonderment springing from my granny's conjuring old ways of love.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Those conjured fireflies delivered that which could not be denied - we believed and slept deep in the sleep of invincibility and barely even whispered.</span><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Soon it would be tomorrow, and time again for tomatoes and salt and watermelon and a sneaked taste of Dr Pepper if you dared.</span></span></p></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-36873219831206979632021-02-21T17:56:00.003-08:002021-04-25T20:58:33.273-07:00Columbine<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;">Exhale.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Breathe </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;">and </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">remember,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Columbine</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">is still a beautiful flower</span><br />
<br /><br /><span style="background: white;">growing</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">wild in the Gorge.</span></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;">With no bullets,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;">only petals.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-42774746321457487272021-02-21T17:50:00.010-08:002021-02-21T17:50:55.819-08:00Again<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The testament of geologic scars layered in blown
sand and silts</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">and ancient muds, holds the fossiled record of the
long before.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Oh, the written muds. Progeny of water and
stone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Recorders of the past, Earth’s humble history
pages. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Grand peaks and trenches, mighty dips and
fractures within a plated crust</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">undergird the fractional soils we dig and
scratch upon.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">We beings mere birds at our continuous dust
bath. Fluttering over and again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Rock and water live on and on in eternal lives</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">while the lapping “we’s” of the world in all our
might and industry<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">so slightly sculpt the thin soil. Tilling<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and plowing our faint, fleeting ripples here
and there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The highest peaks have been laid low to the
deepest seas</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">only to be vulcanized and thrust upward once
more, <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">along spreading ocean-ridges, mountaintops or
in island births anew. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Fissured cracks and dikes that flowed with molten
stone,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">cooled and re-smelted with</span> golden veins
and <span style="background: white;">crystals <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">grown cavern-deep, segregated, in their sparkling
prismatic skin.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Aged blue glaciers patiently gather the bounty
from the clouds, and in <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">their slow incremental journey, return it to
the sea. Reunited oceans <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">rise up to fall afresh, to flow and freeze, to
re-carve the land,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> and deny drought.<span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Blowing and sprouting and rooting legions of
slumbering natal seeds. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Countless caves weep with earthly seeps. Water
with aged potter’s hands, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">drawing down and gathering up the dripped
precipitated change.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">These drips have shaped our lands, washed our
faces, greened our crops, only<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">to return and cool, and slake our unrelenting, biologic,
thirsty needs again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Rivers bear ice-melt, rain, and mountain alike,
carefully and slowly back to the seas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The very water in our cup has seen, has witnessed
and bathed kings and nomads,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">and hosted the first sparks and birth of life, only
to fall upon it all endlessly again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">I have wondered in a whisper with myself,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">which formidable element of change reigns
supreme?</span><br />
<br /><br /><br />
<span style="background: white;">Stone, the so impressive, erupted from volcanoed
cones,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">graven god, temple wonders, cities, poured and
graveled roads,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">dams and mountains high, to the stacked layers cut
in canyons low</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">or the water dripped like clock ticks, in falling
rain, calving bergs, maelstrom, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">tide or tidal wave</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> and rivers-run <span style="background: white;">with its relentless, tireless tongue, <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">slowly licking the mountains down to naught?</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Both sit among the lofty seats of change, but there
is one other that sets the course; <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">One that beats out the pace, beats out each
step and crack, counts each layer and drip. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Time demands patience and is the maestro whose
baton will say or not, yes, “again.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-55219881660000784182020-05-13T19:07:00.000-07:002020-05-13T19:07:06.673-07:00Black Bird<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
You know what they do in the movies when a horse goes lame<br />
<br />
And I have made the call when my dogs have lost their ability to walk and judged their quality of<br />
life to be taking a down turn<br />
<br />
But this crow I happened upon one morning was just lying there,<br />
up against a rock wall banking the edge of the sidewalk. Its head tilted slightly in my direction.<br />
<br />
I almost missed it entirely but then spoke softly to it; but nothing.<br />
Eyes blinking back<br />
it's quiet glossy black response.<br />
<br />
A still bird on the ground, not moving<br />
with me only inches away seemed not a good sign.<br />
It seemed peaceful though or peacefully dying or<br />
healing or thinking about its options.<br />
My thoughts somewhat the same- is this misery? Should I do something?<br />
<br />
Then days later<br />
the crow stood again motionless atop a large rock along the<br />
same wall. A now-lost Maltese Falcon, back from the sea, hoping to blend in.<br />
<br />
Finally one last time, in a driveway across the street, with another<br />
corvus friend cawing nearby. A cheerleader or companion or bodyguard,<br />
on point dissuading and random intruder<br />
from a not-well chum, or cousin or mate.<br />
<br />
The crow’s now gone or gotten better or worse<br />
or it simply vanished from this bit of geography<br />
to the place that all crows fly to each night, just before dusk.<br />
<br />
Never More</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-34130140924560921582020-05-13T18:56:00.001-07:002020-05-13T18:56:04.836-07:00Truth in Packaging<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
I could be a bit misleading, with labeling not to be trusted.<br />
<br />
What is inside may not match my ingredient statement with the precision it should<br />
<br />
Somethings added but unaccounted for; experience perhaps, Or the lacking of true certification.<br />
<br />
Damaged in the transit of life. Re-boxed. Instructions missing. Like new but not.<br />
<br />
A bit of old pencil lead still hiding in my palm, below my left ring finger, the scar from the<br />
Creosote splinter from that telephone pole on my left inner thigh. The dog-bite mark on my left<br />
jaw. A few concussions, and many stitches. I once even ate a minnow, whole and alive. I<br />
survived eating way too many salt tablets during hot august Texas football practices; all given<br />
without the luxury of water.<br />
<br />
My posterior maintains a strong aversion to corporal punishment, my disdain for buttermilk and<br />
tofu has not abated, small dogs and corduroy pants were never favorites. The smell of rotting<br />
figs in the summer heat reminds me of Shreveport. Their stench sticks in my nose; the taste of<br />
the good ones laid hidden in mom's faux-strawberry spread, depriving me of store-bought jam<br />
for years.<br />
<br />
There is a dread in me of being cut and to the metallic taste it brings to my mouth when I even<br />
imagine it. I fell off a ladder last week. It should have altered my future wellbeing in big ways,<br />
but I was lucky. My only thought as I fell through the air was of the tiger-sharp saw teeth of the<br />
pole-saw in my hands. They would surely find me and do their worst. They stayed asleep and<br />
fell to the ground un-sated and only walked with a limp for a while.<br />
<br />
If you ever come for me, don't bring a knife- Just shoot me, and be done with it, ok? Whatever<br />
you do, don't take a bite of me, I am surely still pretty high in sodium.<br />
<br />
Please do avoid asking me to order in the drive-through, unless you really want to see anxiety<br />
center stage and up close. Something are just better done at the counter.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-33167268516008938432018-09-24T21:17:00.002-07:002018-09-24T21:17:39.800-07:00Found and Lost<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Walking
Carli early one morning,</span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
sidewalk moved a little </span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
one small pale spot </span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fallen,
the tiny naked body of a newborn squirrel, </span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">wriggling
like any baby would, </span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">lays with
a trace of red on one hind leg. </span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
mother may never find this missing one if moved.</span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
hope she is quick. </span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
summer sun is coming, and crows patrol these trees. </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Drivers
wait in cars to my left,</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
imagine each one waits for my verdict.</span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cleromancy
is deciding this one; </span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
can’t suckle a newborn anything. </span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
light turned green, the drivers released their brakes and we walked
on. </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-68149925851678949362016-06-01T19:00:00.000-07:002017-05-29T09:01:28.791-07:00Breakfast<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
my morning surprise-<br />
wandering through the berries<br />
red lips on black bear </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6314492744904593217.post-67062033284940574522016-06-01T18:58:00.003-07:002017-10-23T21:37:51.954-07:00Ghosts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">Flowers
bleed up<br />through the dirt,<br />colored mirrors </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">not
done reflecting.<br /><br />Old homes and lonely gardens, <br />not even
one stick of wood left</span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">to
mark their faithful service.<br /><br />A crumbled concrete step here or
there,<br />bricks and couples of laundry line posts </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">left
to rust away, feet first.<br /><br />Random bulbed blossoms<br />chant
old address numbers </span></span></span>
</div>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 15pt;">over
and over to each other</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="line-height: 140%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">each spring and fall.<br /><br />This was where
you lived</span></span></span></div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0