Presence Felt
Perhaps he is a little stiff
Relief came with a friendly spliff
Engrossed in word and act obscene
Satiety made him serene
Engaged; engorged; it is so swell
Nasturtiums nest in soft pastel
Such moments given and not lent
Enables love unpenitent
I’ve been chipping away at this work in progress a bit at a time for about three weeks now. Today I put in a good hour and a half. It would be thrilling to be done with it by a week from today, but as always with a more ambitious work, the drawing starts taking control and making demands. That is a superb problem to have!
triage
feel for a pulse.
check
for
breath.
now they convulse.
life
or
death?
This is my fiancée, Donna Sue Atkins. She is holding a rough sketch of an engagement ring I just designed for her. The design incorporates the Yin/Yang symbol of Taoism, though we are not Taoists. The design includes our monograms of “gwb” and “dsa” within the dots.
This morning I asked Donna if she wanted us to be together for the rest of our lives. She does. So I asked her again to marry me. “Let me think about it.” Midafteroon I asked her again. “Give me five minutes.” “Take six.” Six minutes later she said Yes.
I got into my car to do errands, and Get A Haircut was on the list. Pushed the Android Auto Search microphone icon and when it beeped I said “Barber shop near me.” It navigated me to a shop on Monroe Street with traditional barber poles, and I walked in, and wow, did I feel white. The clientele and staff were African-American, there was hip-hop playing on the speakers, and a large portrait of Muhammad Ali just inside the front door.
One of the barbers looked up at me and said, “Help you?”
“Just a haircut,” I said, and sat to wait. I felt like an intruder, though no one there said or did anything to make me feel unwelcome. But I also felt as though Fate had handed me a ticket to a new Great Human Adventure.
“What’s your name?” said the big man in whose chair I now sat. He reminded me a little of Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier, former defensive tackle for the LA Rams. (He is still with us at 94 years of age!) When I said Gary he said I could call him JV.
JV listened carefully to what I wanted: short, professional-looking, squared-off collar-length in back, REALLY short on the sides, and enough on top to keep it from sticking up. And in about 25 minutes he produced the EXACT haircut I had described.
“I think I know what JV stands for,” I told him.
“My first name is Jamal…”
“Nah. I’m pretty sure JV stands for Justly Victorious.” That gave him a grin.
I got permission to mention his name and my new haircut in a post,paid him in full with a $10 tip, and went home to show my Sweetheart the work of art on my head.
deepening
reaping a
toll will
take; a
haste
ning
wast
ing y
ou’ll
wish
to b
ra
k
e.
Big Gig
Belting out with all her being
Balalaikas harps agreeing
It’s a BLAST with CGI
It’s a spicy Warr Shu Gai
Got four encores in the bag
Got a MAGIC CARPET shag
Wilhelmina wailed then wept. “I miss my Chuck,” she sighed
Ifs & thens had pierced his wherewithal like assegai
Nether Regionals he’d entered, triumphed, won, and then
Nightfall, downfall, fall from grace beyond all human ken
Ah, how swift and with a whisker passeth foofara
Human humid hayride hell & then a humbug’d bah
ectrodactyly
if you have ectrodactyly
your hands are all forked up
bur climbing trees will be a breeze
and handling a handleless cup.
..
scutellum
small shields enplate the taloned bird
and end when feathers begin
and armadillos? o my word
please do not think it much absurd
to say they have no sin.
..
emu
an em’s a space in linotype,
and mu’s a grecian letter.
let’s fuse them as a metaphor
for the chi-miracle that has occurred
with the creation of a bird.
salade aux fines herbes
my cohabitant chops a carrot, one of three.
“do you want any help?”
“i don’t think so…
“it’s taking a long time.”
“no rush.”
..
the making of a salad is a salad in itself, with
the exotic ingredients of music selection,
arrangements of foodstuffs, raising of blinds,
reminiscences and sighs.
health is in the air,
health of direction,
of attention and presence, of
dressing and undressing and dressing again
and the soothing flow of rinsewater.
