Here I sit

Broken

Halfhearted

In the fluctuant Lap of Luxury

In a resort hotel on Scottsdale Road

With amenities out the wazoo

Whilst glaciers are calving

Gazans starving and dying

And a conscientious prosecutorial seeker of justice is characterized as a ‘dirtbag’ BY a dirtbag

They form the towels into swans here

They send me personalized text messages begging me to let them help me here

I have bought two nights and three day’s worth of grand illusions here

..

If only they had included a fiddle

For me to play

As civilization burns

Our meals are salmon with garlic stuffing, marinated/quartered artichoke hearts, and green peas. We fried the salmon in salted butter, microwaved a full bag of the peas, and forked an artichoke and a half’s worth of sections out of the room-temp jar and onto our plates.

Here is my dining companion:

And here am I, pulling my stomach in as much as I can. I am a vain man.

The ingredients were about $17.00 US for two people. Some weeks ago we had a comparable meal at a restaurant and it set us back about $75.00, but they did have nice paintings and murals on the walls.

The satisfaction derived from being active, alert, and warmly aware of each other, though we are both well into our 70s, was the best meal-enhancer of all.

3:56am edt 29 September 2026

physio logical self portrait

insomniac age 72

no makeup

unshaven for 3 days

worried about the near middle and far future

..

it is not all bad

there is romantic love

some dreams have come true

a tyrannical regime may be coming to an end

..

getting drowsy

thanks

Who

ever

you

are

wow look at all these books

by and about people with exciting lives

treasures just waiting to be plumbed…

..

i will read a book a week without fail

except i don’t have time

especially with all the games out there

that are such fun

but i should stop frittering away my time

but I should enjoy life…

..

but terrible people are running my beloved country

into oblivion

so i should join the fight

but all of my champions and their foes

want money for the fight

my money

geez

they are bleeding me dry…

..

dear where are those

extra strength gummies?

Here’s about 40% of a drawing I’ve been working on for weeks. A little of the top and about half the bottom is cropped away. This is analogous to a Preview of Coming Attractions. 🙂

Some polishing and cleanup remain, but the main drawing is finished.

runners on your marks

poet on your meter

dogs prepare your barks

coffee black or sweeter

..

meters come with rhythm

potables with bitters

darlings have love withm

hope reduces jitters

..

get set fellow runners

dip ink fellow poet

frisk up doggie funners

take that ebb and flow it

I was doodle-sketching a man looking vaguely like a bald Vincent Price. He looked like he needed a friend, so I added a waifish-looking woman, scaled differently so she would fit, and that enabled me to put her right arm around his head, rather protectively.

Then came consideration of a double-acrostic poem to go with the drawing, and “Scale Model” came quickly to mind: a Model built to Scale, punnish but (I hope) not too punishing.

I have done four acrosticizations of “Scale Model” and they all miss the mark but all have merit. If I did a dozen more I’d undoubtedly be nearer the mark, but there would go another few hours. I have a few other projects trying to be done, so the ghost of Robert Frost whispers

“Oh, I marked the first for another day!/But knowing how way leads on to way,/I doubted If I should be coming back.”

Scale Model

She and he have made a team

Cast and crew are oyster-steamed–O

At the wrap they’re all redeemed

Latent talent makes the theme

Ending well means what that hell

..

Scale Model

Sally 4th 4 new gigs loom

Comes the dawn we worry so

Angst is up til we feel doom’d

Lava flows and ice ergs floe

Every set’s a grassy knoll

..

Scale Model

She is small & he’s her gem

Cowardice has made him moo

And she haws as he has hemm’d

Lady’s skein’s a villanelle

Egomaniac doth swell

..

Scale Model

Sarcasm

Cameo

Adenoid

Lagniappe

Enamel

here we have gone past the end of july

in an interval set long ago

the cæsars remembered two months and a sigh

and a fog with hot charcoal in tow

..

september tempts us to be cool

in attitude and fashion

with falling leaves and back to school

and ends of days to crash in

..

candy acquisition

and a moon on wax and wane

seasonal tradition

we’re allowed to be insane