Quartet
They flicker like tiny sparks,
these rapid kittens
intense in attention,
movements reflecting
every neighboring small movement.
Suspicious of brief distractions.
Violent, then soft like the feather
they’ve destroyed,
drifting to the window frame above,
forgotten by its intense stalkers
of a second before.
This is a post from July 19, 2017
For Fibbing Friday, the task at hand is:
1. What is a pinkie? A very small brooch.
2. What is a fortress? What is for tress is barrette or bobby pin.
3. What is a snapdragon? A large, irritated, flying lizard.
4. What is a pantry? An unsuccessful attempt at flipping a pancake which ends up the flapjack on the ceiling.
5. What is a windchime? A clock won in a raffle.
6. How would you describe a banana? With pen and paper or vocally.
7. What is a moustache? A rodent’s dental pain.
8. What is a nub? A freshly hatched flying, stinging insect that produces honey.
9. What is a metaphor? It is for referring to yourself.
10. What is a lunatic? A burrowing insect on a moonlit night.
I am in Sheridan, Wyoming, spending the night at the home of my best friend since college days, having flown from Guadalajara to Billings Montana yesterday. I was picked up by my sister Patti, and after spending the night in a motel near the airport, we drove to Sheridan. Here I have seen a number of old friends and tomorrow Patti and I drive to Murdo, South Dakota, to our high school reunion, which meets every 5 years. If it had been held last year, it would have been my 60th year reunion and Patti’s 64th, but our school in our town of 700 was so small that it is necessary to just combine all of the class reunions from every year into one big reunion held every 5 years. Murdo, South Dakota, here we come!!!
It is appropriate, then, that my “Blast from the Past” prompt to reblog a blog posted on this date in an earlier year describes a day at my reunion ten years ago. Here it is:
A few hours later when I was still unable to post, I tried to call, but alas––no cell phone coverage and no wifi! When I went to the office, I was greeted by a sign that the office would be closed until 3:30 and with not a car in the parking lot, I knew I was the solitary person in residence at the moment.
The only solution I could think of was to walk to town–more than a mile away down a gravel road like this one:
and then along the shoulder of the highway that leads to town.
En route I would need to cross an overpass over Interstate 90 as well as an exit and an entrance.
It was a hot day and the way would be treelesss. Still, I set out on my adventure.
First, past the lonely horse in the pasture.
Giving him a few pats on the nose, I was on my way again. We were both looking pretty hot!
As I approached the local cemetery, a police car pulled up to see if I needed help, but didn’t offer me a ride.
After a half hour walk or so, I encountered another solitary inhabitant of the road:
And,as you can see from this view, I was drawing nearer to my destination. Just another 600 feet or so to go.
I arrived at the Pioneer Auto Museum a bit wind-tossed and sweaty, and luckily the two very nice ladies in the gift shop loaned me a cell phone to call my sister. Ten minutes later, she picked me up and we did a short swing through town to see former residences and other haunts before returning to the motel. It was, in fact, a bit of a futile exercise just to return to where I’d departed from an hour and a half before. The rest of the day, however, turned out to be wonderful––old friends as well as some new ones, some surprises, a few tears, lots of laughs and a few messages from dear departed ones via stories I’d never heard before. But it is 3:20 in the morning and I need to be up by 8 so I will desist and say as a famous man did many times in the past, that that is the rest of the story!
doll by Louie Gann, jdbphoto
Sleight of Knees
When the circus clown was lauded,
marveled at, praised and applauded
for hanging from the high trapeze
for 24 hours by his knees,
though he was admired for his moxie,
it turns out it was just epoxy!
For Blast from the Past, here is a silly poem from july 15, 2017. I shared a house with Louie for two weeks at Cannon Beach, Oregon. in 2001 and still have her wonderful doll. It made the culling before my move to Mexico. Louis, if you see this, drop me a line…
I woke up this morning to this email from my neighbor David Bershad, whose second-story terrace gives a good view of my roofline. Seems Yolanda kept the gate open enabling the doggies to enjoy the sunset from the roof! The terrace of the upstairs casita furnishes easy access to the rest of the roof. The song lyrics and first three photos are his. Below them are my photos of the explanation of the sculpture on the dome that Coco, Zoe and Morrie love to visit. Only Morrie knew the “real” Frida.
Below are my photos of Frida and her sidekick Diego, now both sadly departed, along with the story of how Frida came to be memorialized on the dome of my house.
If you can’t see the commentary of what is going on in these photos, you need to click on the photos to see it.
And, if you want to read a poem I wrote about the lovely Frida, Here it is:
Sign Language
I know our birth tongues aren’t the same,
but still I think words aren’t to blame.
It is your means of understanding
that convinces me you’re underhanding.
For every time I give you kisses,
it seems you go to other misses
in search of the translation tips
they give by laying on of lips.
My dear, if we were dumb and blind
then translation service of this kind
might make some sense, but I must say
your excuses will not work today.
Please have your translator of prose
stick this finger message up your nose!!!
The Word of the Day is “Translate..”
I actually stopped the woman pictured in the first picture and asked if I could photograph her hair.
To see an example of major movement, go HERE: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2024/08/24/landslide-for-rdp/
Here are my photos. Click on photos to enlarge and move on to next photo. Anxious to see yours!
To play along, go to your photos file folder and type the number 749 into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in myNumbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title. This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below.
Here are my photos. Click on photos to enlarge and move on to next photo. Anxious to see yours!
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 