mind teaser

What if the mothers of all pro abortion advocates had had an abortion with them.  Then, conversely what if all the pro anti abortion advocates mothers had had sterilizations?

If you look at the above sentences and think primarily about the proper use of "had had", then your mind is just fine.

trees

From the front window I like to look out towards a stand of pines on a hill off to the southwest a little.  Sometimes it snows on the tops of these trees whereas the snow doesn't quite reach down to my front window.  The pines around here are fairly well rooted, although none of them 'virgin' and apart from being cut down have probably burned over centuries as well.  Even now that houses have been built upon much of their old turf, little pines sprout up about everywhere.  The land is fairly inhospitable to any sort of proper lawn or garden and except where more amenable soil or sod has been imported, the pines or scrubs grow.

On the radio, which I still prefer to internet feeds or pod-casts, the news caster is announcing the status of the so-called Fiscal Cliff.  The federal legislature in their wisdom enacted a budget which was bound to fail should they not by the calendar year's end enact a new budget.  If a newer more solvent budget is not soon passed, then pundits and even many experts predict the national economy will fall over this Fiscal Cliff,  causing millions of individuals to plummet with it.

The season's long chilly dark hours set me in a contemplative bend, so I wonder what the pines would think of the Fiscal Cliff.  Perhaps they are sympathetic to the humans here about them.  After all, despite our use and abuse of their lumber, they're still here and quite majestic.  If the timbre from the winds through their branches were a form of their expression, more likely the sound is laughter at the ridiculousness of such situations humanity has placed itself in and towards no apparent reason.

Of course, the pines really have no feeling whatsoever about the Fiscal Cliff.  

Dennis the Menace

On the retro TV channel today I saw Dennis the Menace in a classic piece of Americana singing Silent Night, sleep in heavenly peace at the end of the show in front of the Christmas tree.  He kind of smiles, sort of sweet, but a little strange.  I wonder what little Vietnamese children would have thought of it if they had the freedom to watch in 1959.

more spew on Michael Jackson

The morning was very chilly downtown, so I had on my gloves and hat while walking to the coffee shop. I went by the counter, ordered an espresso and went back to the restroom.  I was still shivering slightly approaching the urinal, so still had my gloves on.  I put my left hand under my right arm, pulled off the glove as it wasn't possible to unzip and pull out my private with both gloves on.  Then it occurred to me, I had solved the mystery of the Michael Jackson one handed glove.

Wisdom from George Orwell

George Orwell wrote in 1946 on Politics and the English Language:

(i) Never use a metaphor, smilie, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii)  Never use a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv)  Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(v) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

To which I say the Limey has struck gold on a hotbed of literary lachrymose jibber jabber cutting to the heart like a cardiovascular surgeon slicing the Archilles' heel (typo intended) of the average Joe searching for clear verbalization.

dream thoughts

If people were invisible, then how would deaf people communicate?
_______________________________

Are you looking at my daughter?  Yes, sir, she is definitely pretty enough to look at, don't worry.

_______________________________

Do not be dismissive of American culture as thin nor shallow nor without substance, that is, do not view it as Americans tend to view the cultures of all other countries.

Yin without Yang

Dark and no light
Wet with no dry
Cold, never hot
Only ever soft
diffused focus
fuck you,
or rather no.

American Pro Football

Why isn't women's beach volleyball the Monday Night Game of the Week?

It's What Catches On

Walking to work, along the river front, I see a crew taking down the stage scaffolding and cleaning up after the music festival.  The morning sun has already warmed the day very well, shining across the ripples on the water below the embankment.  I wipe my perspiring forehead and notice just past the dock for the small cruise ship, two patrol boats with their blue lights flashing.  Then I spot several police vehicles pulled up across the park's sidewalks.  I continue along, wondering what is going on, and if I am in any danger by being there.  I spy the source of attention for all the very busy officers.  A stark naked skinny young man with a thick scraggly beard is clinging horizontally to the railing along the embankment top.  He's looking down towards the cool water several body lengths below.  There are several uniformed patrol men standing around him, with one holding his arms, and one holding his feet secure to the rail.  "Why shouldn't I jump into the water?!!?", he insists repeatedly.  I think to myself, how sad.  He doesn't know, the police just can't let him jump.  We really can't allow that kind of thing catching on!  If he does it, everyone will want to do it.

While walking back home from work that evening from downtown, a little further down river by the marina, I saw a man flying through the air.  He was propelled skyward by a water powered jet pack on his back.  The pack was attached by a hose to a pump on what looked to be a jet ski modified to carry a high pressure pump rather than a person. He apparently could control the jet ski but with some difficulty, and the hose was fairly lengthy, so he had a bit of maneuverability,  flying about mostly in small circles, but reaching heights further up than the naked man had wanted to jump down that morning.  I stood next to one of the workers who was packing away the remainder of the stage scaffolding as we both watched.  People along the river were lining up and taking photos with their phones.  I said to the man, "Sure, it looks cool, but in a few months the river will probably be crowded with them."  He looked at me and smiled, "Sure, I want one!"

William Carlos Williams (reimagined)

For the Sky

We remember
before the winter rain
a stellar jay
hopping through the bramble

a little thicket
along the graying fence
filled with blackberries
targeted by darted beak

blackish brown head
blends into the background however
the shocking blue feathers stand out
harsh as the shriek

skree-ka! shack shek shek!
dancing around the prickles
filling belly to feed hatchlings
then taking flight.

The Lasting

Woman,

oh woman

You seemingly traipse past the tableaus

where dark secrets are drawn

You see passionate

though quiet pleasures

in splendid colors.

The wistful rich

barely perceive

Your radiant resolve

as they jostle

Their decomposing souls

like worms making mulch

of the forest floor.

While you

and I do
love.

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 2012

Suburban Mother

_______________________________


Suburban mother in
something akin to deep
thought tracking down
the sidewalk through the
rain with hands clenching 
aerobic weights
in her head
dinner is made and
her thighs are thinner.

The weeds ruffle
by the corner lamppost
a cat pounces towards
what ... she doesn't know.
The darkest March 
on record clouds 
her thoughts 
the rainsluices through
into the gully
pretty much as
the planners planned.

______________________________

Posted by Stu Camenzind at 6:00 PM No comments: 

Labels: March rain, power walk, rainsluice, suburban mother, the farmer, thoughts, william carlos williams

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2012

to a pretty young woman

____________

wearing silk black pants on 
the street tighter than the
tart skin of a plum

she knows she looks good
she knows she looks
good she knows she looks
good in them

you can see it by
the way she gives herself
a smooth half ass pat 
slightly sucking her lips

comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
she knows I know she looks
good in them
____________

Posted by Stu Camenzind at 5:40 PM No comments: 

Labels: plums, she knows she looks good, to a poor old woman, william carlos williams

SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 2011

Just Sayin' Forgive

I ate up
the cold 
pizza from
the fridge and

the box is
empty but
I put it 
back in there

no doubt you
were my more
delicious
breakfast

___

Posted by Stu Camenzind at 6:19 PM No comments: 

Labels: cold pizza, plums, william carlos williams

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2009

red and orange rubber boots on the neighbors lawn

glazed with rain water

as she bends hoeing

whacking the weeds


________________________

Posted by Stu Camenzind at 9:18 AM No comments: 

Labels: ass on the lawn, little, neighbor lady, pretty