Patchwork Prose and Verse
Frames: A Family Portrait Pantoum
frames on our parents’ bookshelf
not portraits of their children
we were replaced
by their dogs
not portraits of their children
in matching silver frames
but their dogs
much easier creatures to love
in matching silver frames
Mulligan and Georgia Girl
easier creatures to love
these two spoiled dogs
their dogs – not portraits of us
we were replaced
by easier creatures to love
frames on our parents’ bookshelf
Inked
Newish baby names
like tattoos on old people
aren’t so cute with age
Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting
They say it’s home for Christmas,
this 85 year old spruce from Maryland
sacrificed from its snug spot
in the northeastern woods
murdered with a saw blade and
hauled to Manhattan
for one single festive month
of Christmas celebration
I’m no Scrooge,
yet I silently weep for this tree –
rooted in its homeground
a great grandfather
in its circle among younger trees
in a peaceful thicket
where birds nest
woodland critters seek refuge
and snow falls
gently blanketing the night
“Most heralded tree of all at Christmas” announcers of the
Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting say
and in the same breath
“all trees should be celebrated –
the Arbor Day Foundation and NBC will partner to plant 25,000 trees.
Text TREES to 707070
to be part of the Global Climate
change” they urge.
And this is how we celebrate a tree?
We slaughter it and
dress it up in lights
and put its carcass on display
in New York City
for shopping-bag armed revelers
to stop
and rearrange their Coach purses
and take selfies
and lower their designer shades
and gawk at it?
And next, here came an original legend
to sing with off-key chump backups
They butchered Feliz
Navidad, Jose Feliciano in his nighttime sunglasses and this
little boy band of his did,
and in their misery an image
came vividly to mind:
boys going into a forest
(calling it tradition)
with chain saws, coming out carrying a legendary “live tree”
like a hog-tied pig,
strapping it down and lighting it up
as it stands there all sunglassless
and squinting-
not used to all this city glare-
in the name of Christmas
while past-their-prime musicians
try to sing at its feet
(calling it music)
as it finally fully appreciates the
solitude of its
forest
deeply wishing it were
home for Christmas
https://apple.news/A8B1qV-jtRCaxMyTtaNOfuA
Coming to My Senses
When it’s time for the Schnoodles
to go to the groomers for the day,
we leave before the sun comes up – and it’s breathtaking because
in the early morning I see
the predawn Christmas lights still shining a fantasy of dazzling brilliance
festive wreaths hung from red velvet ribbons on rural hometown bank windows
jetliners drawing Etch-a-Sketch pictures on a daybreak sky
steam vapors swirling up off the ponds, summer fishing days a half-Earth rotation away
a heavenly greeting hawk on a wire in the median – from Mom, checking to be sure my doors are locked, I’m not speeding, and I’m wearing my seatbelt
a flurry of other more excited dogs arriving for grooming and daycare
in the early morning I smell
a cup of fresh-brewed coffee, flavoring the car with high-octane energy for the day ahead
diesel fumes from school buses,
like the red double decker buses of London – bringing flashback memories
still-lingering mineral soap scent inspired by the coast of Ireland, according to the box
in the early morning I hear
the silence of my car prayer chamber and God’s voice reminding me that there is both work to be done and life to be lived
in the early morning I feel
the comforting heat flooding my feet and hands as I drive
a frequent paw nudging my hand to turn the Rav around: “no grooming needed today, Mom….we’re good”
and in the early morning I taste
the frozen air, awakening my lungs with the chill of newness as I walk the boys before taking them in for their early-morning groomings because yes, grooming is happening today!
Perspectives
Impressionism in art
and
Lack of communication
between people
Are two different ways
of interpreting the world
Don’t Be a Monkey!
When they hang by their tails, they
Show
How
Immature
This
Schoolkid-
Like
Illness
Narcissism
Goes
Family Tricube
Family
Legacy
Burial
Vindictive
Exclusive
Dysfunction
Fragmented
Consequence
Secession
Spoonerism Pantoum
taking a family Thanksgiving walk
on the Johnson Funny Farm
holes everywhere in the tufted ground
“What are they? They’re everywhere!”
on the Johnson Funny Farm
pine straw sticking up like golf divots
“What are they? They’re everywhere!”
Briar confessed: “We have aardvarks”
pine straw sticking up like golf divots
like a foursome gone club-crazy
Briar confessed: “We have aardvarks”
he mixes up his words sometimes
like a foursome gone club-crazy
holes everywhere in the tufted ground
he confused aardvarks with armadillos
taking a family Thanksgiving walk
Thanksgiving Feast
Our resident fox squirrel
is savoring his Thanksgiving feast
one day late ~
–
exactly 48 miles due south of Atlanta,
114 miles southeast of Dahlonega,
159 miles southwest of Hiawassee.
222 miles northwest of Savannah,
279 miles northeast of Seaside, and
287 miles northwest of St. Simons
–
~ right around the corner from the critter’s Christmas-treat-laden tree in the front yard at the top of a railroad tie in the sunshine on the Johnson Funny Farm
….and we are smiling from the kitchen window, where he has now abandoned his half-eaten apple at the top of the post and would have left us scratching our heads at that apple had we not seen the feast take place!
Christkindl
Christkindl Market
here I come! Said it for years
but mean it this time.
German chocolate
Glockenspiel and angel chimes
Glutwein in a mug!
Common Threads 