first there is a need to breathe
add some food and water
love the world and stop the seethe
smile and quell the slaughter
..
energy makes crop or bomb
rumor mills may snake a brain
snowflakes gather with aplomb
avalanching from the strain
on a mission to live life to the fullest
this morning anyway
i walked 2,379 steps from my doorstep
to the ole brass rail, a sports bar and grill
and asked bar lady kristi[e] for an irish coffee
and a menu
..
the steak & eggs was tempting
but the breakfast burrito was six dollars less
and promised “spicy beef” so
breakfast burrito it was
and nice trimmings to boot
and i was fulled and filled with its generous portion
..
lots of screens with sports stuff
diverse & friendly staff and clientele
(times have changed here, i am glad to report)
fair pricing
so yeah
this day off is well launched
and i will go full from here
to fuller after a ceramics studio session
to fullest when i use my phone
and hear sweet Donna’s voice
bioscience
student union
aspiration
industry…
strict
compliance
ice horde
goon den
lockdown nation
no one free
the conflicting views/and subsequent arguments/sucked the oxygen.
fluff a kerfuffle/and make feathers ruffle: a/game oafs like to play.
guess. test. revise thought./the scientific method:/anti-kerfuffle.
why do we argue/about stuff no one can prove?/it passes the time.
argumentative/representatives preen; wax/reprehensible.
Vague Point Taken
Vituperation is EXPLOSIVE–worse than TNT
And vengeance dooms a soul to drown, engulfed by churning sea
Go hunt, go fish, go kickbox, and you may make bones to break
Upstanding citizens lay low in presence of a snake
Extremist thoughts may entertain but structure cannot take the strain
****
I make of this what I would, readers, friends, and invite you to do likewise.
the bank that tells us what to do
the bank’s very name tells us what to do.
it has us chasing a new car, chasing a house, chasing investment income, chasing material dreams,
all sorts.
we have been pre-approved, probably
since before we were born,
so as we drive past the blue-logoed branches,
each logo is a reminder
of our duty to pursue,
our mandate to be never content.
therefore, having money in our checking account,
and having bought that car
with help from the automotive loan personnel
or algorithm thereof,
the blue-logoed bank diminishes our wealth
each month
painlessly as possible
with an automatic withdrawal.
.
long ago chase manhattan bank
and the j. p. morgan company
found it more suitable to collide and collude
than compete.
.
jupiter pierpont morgan died more than a hundred years ago
but his acquisitive soul lives on
and we scamper at his whim.
the farcical force of the furze
a long time ago in Sports Illustrated magazine
there was an account of a Scotsman in a kilt
golfing on a course that had thigh-high gorse
as its rough
and the poor Scotsman hit his ball into that rough
and wading through the gorse to get to his ball
his scrotum was lacerated by the spiny gorse
and he exclaimed “OOH!! ME WEE DANGLIES!!”
and that elicited from me a zero-empathy horselaugh
because the scrotal descriptor was unexpected
and zany
.
so here we are years later and i need to write a poem
but i have nothing
my brain is blanksville
except for a title appearing spontaneously,
“the farcical force of the furze”
which as fate would have it matches the meter
of the first line of a Limerick
so that would write itself except i am not exactly sure
what “furze” means
so I look it up and it means “gorse”
and the memory of the Scotsman bubbles up
and i would love to reread the article
so i do a search on “me wee danglies”
.
alas, no article, but curiously
a small hanging light made in czechoslovakia
shaped like a spider with the light its abdomen
is being marketed under the name “wee dangly”
it’s cute
.
the farcical force of the furze
brings a Scotsman to tears and incurs
ignition of memory
rough as boards they call emory
when hazardous flora occurs.
.
such internet search serendipity
bringing up such strange knowledge that’s flipped to me
and that randomness element
huge as an elephant
may well take me from cradle to crypt–we’ll see.
A touch of Strings in music
May constitute a Riff.
A touch of Unoccluded
May make a grown man Stiff.
A touch of Breeze in Phoenix
Gives bus stop folk Relief,
But when you touch Insanity
You risk eternal Grief.
.
The touching Acts of Heroes
Have seen us through Disaster,
And touching Scenes on Hardboards
Might shine like Alabaster,
But when a Midas Touch of Greed
Plants its profane, corruptive Seed
We must ensure we do not feed
Its hellspawn would-be Master.
.
The Will to Live is one fine thing,
The Strength to Love’s another,
We must march on with Hymns that sing
Our Love of Earth our Mother,
And fight the old barbaric ways
With ingenuity that stays
The killing hand, then leave the maze
Of Conflict, Sister, Brother.
longwalker
walking has saved me
.
i walk away my heart disease and my heartache
the sidewalk my cradle
the canal bank my oasis
as I grow and shrink mountains
and press a metronomic message onto the earth
.
when I walk I fly above the haze
brain singing with insurge of nutrient
delivered by my quickened pulsing bloodstream
.
every walk is two journeys
the lesser’s destination is perhaps a convenience store
or a bus stop or the remaining distance that will exceed 10000 steps for the day
the greater’s destination
is fulfillment
of a lifetime
mission to follow
the sacred mandate:
keep going keep going keep going keep going
Three Score and Ten and Six she has in years
Yet childlike, girlish, age-defiant young.
Through travel, trouble, tragedy she steers
Yet from a well her merry laughter’s sprung.
.
Last century we strolled a bookstore’s aisles.
She managed; I received. But then a gap
Would intervene, of choices, time and miles;
She moved away; I raised a child; oh snap!
.
But strike a match and kindle up some hope
For more Adventure. Red-wine glasses clink
And conversation comes in gushing streams.
I learn it’s not enough to merely cope
When All That, Bag of Chips, AND Kitchen Sink
Include the lovely Woman of my Dreams!
.
One with Clay, Image and Text 