Here I exercise my pen hand and patience.

The words:

How barefaced lying by this toad

YET fools the base, whose souls corrode

Perplexes us, as wildlife gasps

OIL-COATED in a pipeline’s grasp

CORRUPTION so rapes land unwell

Fait accompli it’s Road to HELL–

I’ll tell the world the Truth–my word–

You’re even now suborning murder

Worst Earth Day ever for Mother Earth. 😦

The illustration is of the 45th President of the United States of America, talking out of both sides of his mouth.

Here is how you and I got here: Last night at Walgreen’s the DVD of THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS was on sale for $4.99 and a two-pack of Papermate’s Flair pens went for $2.49, as did a five-pack of ArtSkills 11×14 poster board. I bought them. This morning I made coffee and started watching the DVD. Will Smith’s character, Chris Gardner, is an intelligent man who through overoptimism and lack of foresight has landed himself and his babymama and son in a tremendous financial, and therefore personal, pickle. If he got the right kind of work, which would involve the exchange of his smarts, personal magnetism and enterprise for enough money to get him and his afloat, he and his would be far more capable of pursuing happy destinies. The two words, if Chris’s problem were to be distilled into two words, that occurred to me are NEEDS WORK.

Like a lot of the English language, this phrase is ambiguous. I thought of it as a descriptive fragment, but if it were a complete sentence, it might mean that having needs is helpful to us. Being hungry, for instance, can compel a person to start a day that may otherwise be spent staring at the ceiling…

An ambiguous phrase creates an artistic challenge. Might an image fit the many aspects of the phrase?

My half of how we got here involved creating that image. Your half, whoever and wherever you are, involved free time and curiosity.

Thank you, whoever you are, whatever your needs, however you happen to work, for completing this latest circuit of awareness. I hope the satisfaction of your curiosity was a good use of your time.