A
Benzodiazepine
Can
Diminish
Edgy
Feelings
Greatly;
However,
I
Just
Know
Liquor’s
More
Numbing.
Old
People
Question
Recent
Science;
To
Us
Vehement
Winos,
Xanax
Yields
Zero.
Advertisements
true love
jealousy and anger
they’re not even real
we just made them up
cuz there’s worse things to feel
like heartbreak and sorrow
the heart of the fray
we’d pretend anything
if they’d just go away
on our grand wedding day
when our mates said, ‘I do’
did we ever assume
we were forcing them to
release them we must
from our ill-conceived plan
cuz nothing shows love
more than real love can
and when love comes back
on it’s own you will know
that to feel true love
you must first let it go
The Last Star Cloud
Away from the fire,
Alone together at last,
We gazed into the starry
Heavens and held hands,
Her beautiful yellow eyes
Sparkling with starlight.
Taking it all in, she said,
“Do you ever wonder what
There is beyond our cloud
Of stars, our Milkomeda?”
So curious, I loved that.
We searched the inky
Nothingness Beyond for
Answers, but found none.
“There’s an ancient myth
About the stars, y’know,
Ever heard of it?”
“Of course,” she answered,
“We’ve all heard the myth.”
And then she began reciting
it as though she believed it;
As if it were some magical
Tale from her childhood:
“It is said that a long, long
Time ago,” she began, the
Way the elders spoke of it,
“The sky was an endless
Universe of star clouds,
Just like ours. Endless.
And we came here from
A different world with
A dying sun…”
“That has to be a myth,”
I broke in, “I mean, where
Could they have all gone?”
I took her in my arms.
“Billions of clouds, each
With billions of stars…
Imagine if it were true!”
We laid together that night,
Looking away from the fire
And into that murky void
Of unanswered questions
Beyond our own star cloud,
Knowing that we had each
Other, and yet somehow
Feeling very alone.
Country Gal Dawn
When Dawn
Comes to a city,
The people
Go berserk;
They hate
Alarm clocks
Crowing that
It’s time to
Go to work.
But when she’s
In the country,
The roosters
Proudly crow
To tell
The sleepy
Fields of crops
It’s time for
Them to grow.
Surgery Update
About two weeks after I had surgery for both an Inguinal and an umbilical hernia, one of the incisions burst open in bed, drenching me with blood. I went to the hospital, and the doctor told me that it was infected, and they’d probably have to remove the meshes, and that I’d have both hernias back while we dealt with the infection, and then we’d have to start all over again. I thought the day couldn’t get any worse. I was wrong.
Just as I was trying to absorb the doctor’s words and wondering how I was going to do all that again, my phone rang. It was my brother, calling to tell me that his only son, Jason, had died from a drug overdose. It was on the Ides of March.
When the doctor opened me up again, the mesh still looked okay, so she left the incision open, and I have to pack it with gauze every day. I still have quite a gash, but it’s slowly healing from the inside. I’m actually going for a little stroll with my latest walkin’ stick, and I still hope to run a 5K race this summer.
haiku 31
springtime changes things
some things change just a little
some things change a lot
–photo by me
Beards
When people ask,
‘What’s with the beard?’
I tell them that
I think it’s weird
To disapprove
Of God’s own plan
Of making whiskers
On a man.
God’s given them
a cause for scorn
and so they ‘fix’
it every morn.
Me, I think
I’ll let it grow–
But carmel apples
have to go.
