Friday, November 29, 2024

Black Friday Clearance


Every few months, I clear the scraps out of my journal and put them outside for your amusement. Here's a few just in time for Black Friday Clearance.  Our prices are insane.

 

Timing is Everything

You feel it in your bones
Time to let the dogs roam
Time to quit throwing stones
Time for boys and girls to come home
Time for a grandson to pick up the phone.


Sun Watcher

Travel east to see where the sun comes
Travel west to see where the sun goes
Travel north or south
    to see if it will reach you high or low.

 
Quiet

Clam up
Pipe down
Shut up

 
The Battle of Yellow No. 2 Ft. Ticonderoga

My weapon struggles
to cross the blank pages
and the scale the heights of meaning
only to lose the element surprise
and forfeit my dreams of glory.

 

Orange to Black
 
Orange sunset--
you get a couple of moments of color
before the big black of night.

 
Follow Your Dreams
 
Dreams can be balloons
that pull you up to the clouds
    or
lead weights that drag you down
to the bottom of the sea.

 
 
Unrelated Couplets

Cross Dress Chess
Oooh what a mess!

You got a boat
Now stay afloat.

Bad Chinese Meal
 
Unfortunate Cookies
foretell something bad,
"Your bank account will be hacked."

Another installment in a series of never-ending, pointless exercise to generate band names
  • 2AM Budget
  • The Wrong Ones
  • Mockbeggar
  • Bander Trezel
  • Close Range
  • Jane Austin's iPhone
  • Just Ask
  • Fire Exit
  • Newborns
  • We Men Ledges
  • Knavelines
  • Tin Foil Hat
 
Numbers in Charge

Whether I want it or not
numbers are in charge
my alarm is set to 6:45AM
my bathroom scale gives me a large number
radio station, a low number--
reporting weather in numbers
traffic on numbered interstates
the markets in percentages
sports teams in numbers.

I drive, cook, and work
with numbers calling the shots
in time for the 6 o'clock news.

How did we live before numbers?
they were always there
Like they say about Christopher Columbus
he did not discover a continent
he just found what was already there.


 

 


Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Horological Aristocrat

 


Horological Aristocrat
            a Cento

All the clocks tik
but a grandfather clock talks
he is always companionable
never obvious
his words blend with the mood of the moment

When the mind begins to tire
he seems to say
"Don't press, have a rest."
but the evening, he says softly,
"Forget, relax."

He is quietly persistent
but never monotonous
murmuring, he gives a sense
of well-being and pleasant
detachment from the thing we call progress.

Source: Old Clocks: For Modern Use, 
with a Guide to Their Mechanism, Edward Wenham

Monday, November 25, 2024

Thanksgiving Traveler

 


Thanksgiving Traveler

Some souls travel
as radio and TV forecasters warn
of heavy rain in the Pacific Northwest
and snow in the higher elevations.

Some souls at home search 
for family recipes from the comfort of a messy kitchen
while outside their window, oak trees shake in the same gusty winds
that bring icy conditions to the upper Midwest.

What is it about Thanksgiving
where there is a certain ritual rejoicing
about travel, traffic, and bad weather?
We celebrate the sacrament as pilgrim and host.

Every traveler is on a hero's journey
a shared struggle from the Mayflower to the driveway arrival
where we sit down together
hold hands and say a blessing.