Today I sculpted these two birds, imagining the psyches of me and my sweetheart Donna inhabiting them.
When a Man-Bird Loves a Woman-Bird
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rude rage
some time in the last fifty years
“quality control” became “quality assurance”
and more recently
“problems” became “issues”
but, marketing aside, rage turns people with weapons
into murderers
and free-floating rage
is on the rise
hatred has waxed and lightheartedness waned
..
some time after rodney king got his meat tenderized
by a gang of cops with their handheld hitting devices
he asked “can’t we all just get along?”
but all of us getting along would be catastrophic
for the manufacturers of weapons
so no, rodney, we won’t be getting along
any time soon
..
a man with fruit cart placed himself in harm’s way
to keep a gunman from making holes in some folks
not of his faith
and the gunman made two holes in his arm
..
frustration makes us ruder
and may make us enraged
and abraham zapruder
our smartphone use presaged.
Still Life with Choppers, Burrito, and Salsa Bowl
Still Life with Choppers, Burrito, and Salsa Bowl
Attention K-Mart Shoppers¹
The Blue-Light Special², Choppers,
Is Aisle Five–and Neat-O³
We throw in a Burrito⁴
With bowl of Salsa Rojo⁵
Très chic⁶, Tré Cool⁷, très Boho⁸
A feast of contrariety
In Southwest High Society⁹.
..
¹ Kmart was a supermarket chain popular in the 20th Century. It still has an online presence but aside from Miami and Guam the brick&mortar empire it once was is gone.
² The Blue Light Special was a Kmart flash sale that lasted as long as a rotating blue light shone and twirled.
³ When I was ten in 1964 “Neat-O” meant fun, groovy,desirable. Its etymology might owe something to the Beatnik era.–“Daddy-O” for instance.
⁴ A Burrito is a tortilla encasing anything from beans and cheese to chile-marinated meat. Spanish for “little donkey.”
⁵ The two major salsas are salsa rojo (red) and salsa verde (green).
⁶ French for “quite fashionable.”
⁷ Nom de guerre of Frank Edwin Wright III of Green Day fame.
⁸ Short for Bohemian, loosely meaning “unconventional.”
⁹ Needed a phrase to rhyme with Contrariety.
..
Endnote: the “Choppers” in the photo are a 3D-printed cast of my upper and lower left back teeth, made to enable casting of a molar crown in the upper.An oblong scanning device was manipulated around that sector of my mouth by a dental tech.
Hail and Farewell, Rob Reiner
News of the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer this weekend fills me with sorrow. They were a loving and powerful couple, a voice and force for good. Their deaths are, tragically, symptomatic of the horribly irrational, delusional culture that has poisoned the American spirit.
Mr. Reiner has made more movies in my Top Ten favorite list than any other filmmaker. Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, Misery, A Few Good Men, This Is Spinal Tap–there’s half the list right there. And in those masterworks may be found a full spectrum of the light and the dark side of humanity: True Love, obsession, sacrifice, artifice, nostalgia, kindness, absurdity, loyalty, and Magic. Rob Reiner wore his love and fascination with his fellow beings on his sleeve.
Mr. Reiner, wherever you are or aren’t or have transcended, the world owes you and your Michele an enormous debt of gratitude. Very best regards and wishes to you, sir.
gland total
so i was curious as to how many glands we contain
and got a lot of answers but none conclusive
one source says eight major glands
another says seven
a total of 43 shows up elsewhere
and yet another says the gland total is thousands
..
new-to-me words show up too
exocrine
eccrine
apocrine
ductless
..
all agree that the largest gland is the liver
none agree on the total number of glands
..
i submit that one of the mysteries of life
is glandularity
–strike “mysteries”
insert “secrets”
–strike “secrets”
sub “secretes”
–mind-boggling, isn’t it, that our secrets may be outnumbered by our secretions?
it is a gland canyon of arcana
and it’s hard to wrap my gland-habituated brain around it
..
i could go on and on ad infinitum
and some secretion urges me to do so
but another accuses me of being a silly wordplayer
and punster
shamelessly
glandstanding
brew stew
barley, baby carrots,
and a chicken all in chunks,
mushrooms, and a veg stock,
and some green peas and bell peppers,
don’t forget the onions and some cauliflower hunks,
brewing up a stew that’s fit for anti-vegan monks,
governors and non-contagious medicated lepers,
couriers, deliverers,
and good ole boy forklift shleppers,
metaphoric ferrets
and a brace of almond sliverers.
..
stew to eat
for a brew of folks.
musing’s sweet
if we’re free of yokes.
J and the Legal Heineken
J and the Legal Heineken
Once upon a couple months ago I was working
And I was in a time crunch
And my co-worker Jalen
Sometimes known as J
Dropped what he was doing to help me
And I was grateful
And I asked him what his favorite beer was
And he said “Heineken”
And I told him
There was a Heineken in his future
But there’s a (completely reasonable) rule
Forbidding employees to bring alcohol
To the workplace
So I mulled it over
And got the notion
That the Heineken in J’s future
Would be in the form of a DRAWING
Of a Heineken
So I drew it
And J next to it
And it looked OK but not quite right
And the oinner voice that tells me what to do said
“Draw his hand holding up the bottle”
So I did
But the pencil’s eraser didn’t erase right
Smeared rather than erased
Being old and oxidized
So I said the hell with erasure
And that’s why the hand is a little ghostly
But J still liked the drawing
And gave me permission
To post it on social media
Like this.
..
He’s a good guy.
variations on a dream
whew. woke up just in time. the evil overlords/had me. my cover was blown, my whereabouts known,/and this minute the bald guy with the cigarette holder,/an obvious admirer of the late dr. hunter s. thompson,/had a gun on me…
just woke up. lots of colors./we were playing hopscotch near piccadilly circus/when the ghost of shakespeare,/head shaven, smoking a virginia slim on a long ivory holder,/was showing me the cap gun i had owned as a child./he handed it to me,/and I removed the roll of caps, put the roll/on the sidewalk, and slammed/it with a hammer. at that exact moment…
wow, that was a doozy. i was disguising myself. shaved head, rouged cheeks, fishnet stockings on a garter belt./the only instructions from hq were “dress in drag and carry your walther ppk between the peaks of your falsies, in plain sight.”//i wonder, not for the first time, if i am being set up.
ugh. thank gog I woke up. damn, i need a cigarette. –hey, wait, i don’t smoke. maybe i’m not awake yet…
lament, december 2025
“Get busy livin, or get busy dyin.” Stephen King
for all intents and nervousness
agendas are not purposeless
though some have improprieties
to bring a bull moose to its sneeze
indicativity’s inactive
as sleazy actions are redactive
though elton john and kiki dee meant
well, disclosured per agreement
Their names dragged in their names now drop
along with cher and iggy pop
legitimizing stance anarchic
and Who knows what makes ringo starr tick
l’envoi
so many of our thumbs a-twiddle
not giving effs for sphinx nor riddle
redact, distract, enact, pretend
we still feel like we’re near
The End
whirrd
whirrd
“The right word is the unexpected word.” Frederik Pohl, introducing The Best of Cordwainer Smith
three caffeines and i am wired/good to go no longer tired/let my wordsmith’s finger wield/this touch-sensitivish field
word be whirrd near-homophonic/aspirate that aitch atonic/ascertain a certain smuggish/air when jazzed-up coffee-muggish
tighten up those loosish ens/comically let’s be frenz¹/tragic cali mourn our bros²
we may see them
no one noes
..
¹Ron Frenz. “Ronald Wade ‘Ron’ Frenz (born February 1, 1960) is an American comics artist known for his work for Marvel Comics. He is well known for his 1980s work on The Amazing Spider-Man, particularly introducing the hero’s black costume, and later for his work on Spider-Girl and Thor…” Wikipedia
²Along with my nuclear family, I have lost brotherly cousins of the Householder clan who lived in California.
One with Clay, Image and Text 