Monthly Archives: March 2015

Dishwasher Blues

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Dishwasher Blues

It really goes beyond my wishes
to have to load the dirty dishes
into the dishwasher each day.
I’d rather read or sleep or play.
But since I know I’ll never meet
a plate or glass or spoon with feet
to walk itself across the floor
and open up the washer’s door,
I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet.
Reach out for the door and pull it.
Load the glasses on the top,
Load the plates so they don’t flop.
Wedge in all I can and then
commit that common loading sin.
I’ll put some plastic cup in last
where it’s not held secure and fast
so it flips over and fills up
with water to top of the cup
So when I open up the door
it soaks the dishes and the floor.
So, though the loading is a curse,
Unloading’s what I hate the worse!!!!

WordPress offers alternate prompts for those of us who have already written about today’s prompt.  The prompt I’ve chosen to substitute for today’s prompt is The Chain Gang: Write about doing some task that you hate to do.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/back-on-the-chain-gang/

Here is today’s prompt if you haven’t already read it.

Another lick

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Another Lick

The prompt today is: 32 Flavors–Vanilla, chocolate or something else entirely?

“Lick for Lick”–is a poem that I wrote to that prompt  last June.  If you didn’t read it then or want to read it again for old time’s sake, go here:
https://grieflessons.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/lick-for-lick-2/

Meanwhile, I’m trying to find a new prompt to write for today, so check back later for another poem, please.

Cee’s Share Your Week Challenge

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Like a kid kept prisoner in the house due to the rain, I’ve run out of toys, so I just keep pumping out new blog entries.  This will be the last, I promise.  This is an answer to Cee’s Share Your Week Challenge.

List 2 things you have to be happy about.

I am happy that I have a MacBook Air again to make writing and posting effortless.  But, I am also happy that fate forced me to learn how to operate an Acer PC so now I have both backup and an extra computer to do research on, receive videos and take to the pool to watch movies on while I do my aerobic exercise.  I’d do so right now, but I see it is still raining!  48 hours without a letup now.

Last time this happened, we had a major landslide through my fraccionamiento and the village below.  It took over a year to repair the damage.  So nonstop rain does create a bit of worry, but the other 4 day nonstop rain was during the rainy season when there had been a few months of rain leading up to it, so why worry?  Also, this post is supposed to have a happy theme by the looks of it.

Do you prefer ketchup or mustard or mayonnaise?  

Mustard. (Why do you want to know, Cee?  Is a lunch invitation in my immediate future?)

If you were to paint a picture of your childhood, what colors would you use?

Yellow and Green.

Green because my main toy was our big yard that stretched around our house.  Lawnmowing day meant huge grass piles we could make into nests.  My older sister was the mamma bird, feeding worms to her baby bird (me.)  The worms, in case you were going to ask, were bologna (we called it minced ham) cut into long strips.  Right, Patti?  Or do I have it wrong?  It might have been cooked spaghetti.

Yellow because the two times (prior to age 11) that I got to choose what color I wanted my room to be, I chose yellow both times.  I chose, predictably, green for the linoleum and the first time my much older sister painted the dormer wall of my room red.  The rest was yellow, as per my request.

Do you prefer a bath or shower?

Shower, now that I have an outside hot tub that fills with natural thermal hot water 4 times a week.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that my friend Dianne came to stay with me for the week while she was a presenter at the local writers conference and for the conference itself and all the new friends I met there.

In the week coming up, I’m looking forward to a jazz improv/ poetry reading (Entitled “Dangerous Intersections”) that I’m giving with six other members of my poetry group, “The Not Yet Dead Poets.”  I’ll post a flyer later this week.

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/03/16/share-your-world-2015-week-11/

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge 2015, Week 11

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Peek-a-boo Pinkies

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I just couldn’t resist posting this picture. A visiting friend asked if it was okay if he removed his shoes and of course i said no problem. Imagine my surprise when these toes presented themselves to my view, just a foot or so from where I was sitting on a nearby stool. He nonchalantly twitched his toes as he told an engaging tale. They were sort of like a director’s baton, giving emphasis to certain emphatic points in the story.

If you know who this is, shhhhhh, don’t tell.  I don’t want to embarrass anyone.

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/03/15/cees-odd-ball-photo-challenge-2015-week-11/

Placement

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Where Things Go

Etiquette decrees the place for knife and fork and spoon.
Cocktails belong with sunsets. A wedding goes with June.
Placement is determined by a sort of mass assent.
Snail mail goes in mailboxes. E-mail goes where it’s sent.

Freckles belong on noses and fingernails on fingers.
Perfume should stay in bottles, not in places where it lingers
to make allergic folks like me sneeze and carry on.
It’s a fact that things smell better after the perfume’s gone.

Sheiks belong in palaces, safari guides in tents.
Molls belong with gunmen whereas ladies go with gents.
Gloves are filled with fingers and socks with only holes,
since fingers simply do not go with garments that have soles.

Arms on sweaters, legs on pants. Astronauts in space.
Cats on cushions, birds in trees and eyebrows on your face.
Everything has someplace where it is meant to go.
Missionaries in Africa, tarts with men with dough.

Tiaras go on beauty queens, a dunce hat on a dunce,
or on those of us who want everywhere at once.
We use up fossil fuel flying here and there.
One moment we’re in taxis, the other in the air.

We aren’t really sure at all where we want to be:
mountain, beach or meadow, river, lake or sea.
There is a site on Google showing every single minute
where each plane is going carrying all the people in it.

This one wants to be where that one was just hours ago.
They have to take a Learjet. Other airplanes are too slow.
People flowing elsewhere like water in a stream,
giving up the here and now for places in a dream.

Sometimes I think I’m tired of moving here and there
and that my favorite place of all is right here in my chair.
I’ll give up future travels for places in my head.
My favorite place is in my mind.  I’ll travel there instead!

The Prompt: Places–Beach, mountain, forest, or somewhere else entirely?
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/places/

Sunday Stills Challenge: The Letter “U”

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Urn, archeological museum, Lima, Peru

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Umbrellas, La Manzanilla Beach, Jalisco, Mexico

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Underside of roof overhang (with wasp nest). Is this cheating?

https://sundaystills.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-the-letter-u/

How ironic that a few days ago I had to write an essay or poem that did not contain the letter “U” and now here is a challenge where I need to try to find a photo of something that begins with a “U”.  How the world turns!  But I, being ever obedient, shall comply.

Barrage

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The sun has gone down and it rained all day today, from the moment I woke up to the present. I decided to spend the day inside. I was trying to watch an episode of “The Voice” sent to me by a friend when the opening line of this poem started running through my mind. So, the program frozen in the middle, I wrote, then had to go take photographs and feed the dogs who now curled back into the beds where they’ve been all day. To be truthful, I spent part of the day in bed, myself. No heat in houses in Mexico, other than a small space heater by my desk. My bed has a mattress pad warmer. Reason enough.

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Barrage

All day long, the rain came down
to soak the mountain, drench the town.
Each dog stayed in to curl into
his protective curlicue.
I took their lead and kept inside
as the world around me cried and cried.

I will not say I’m feeling down,
though I did not choose to paint the town.
My marks on paper turned into
other than a curlicue.
I painted what I felt inside
with words that folded in and cried.

Their pigments bled and rivered down
joining currents from the town,
and tears from other creatures, too,
joined this watery curlicue.
This whirlpool that we’d kept inside
joined us together as we cried.

The sun comes up and moon goes down
over country, lake and town.
Illumination cycles, too,
through reason’s dizzying curlicue.
When we share these truths we’ve found inside,
others hear what we’ve decried.

The whole world may be feeling down
dreading contact with the town.
The words we free may catch them, too,
in their discursive curlicue,
loosening pain they’ve kept inside–
dispelling tears they might have cried.

An Unquiet Home

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An Unquiet Home

The confrontation mounts in stages:
her angry words, his silent rages,
until the kids have all been supped,
put to bed and been tucked-up.

Then behind their bedroom door,
he and she begin their roar:
“You always . . . ” are her words of choice
erupting in her blaming voice.

She’s splitting hairs, he contradicts.
It’s not as bad as she depicts.
The few times that he deigned to stray,
no matter what she now might say,

were exceptions to his usual rule.
He’s keeping track.  He is no fool.
It’s hard to get it up these days.
and so sometimes perhaps he sprays

where he shouldn’t. He’s sorry  for it.
Why is it that she can’t ignore it?
But still her words she must repeat:
“Why can’t you simply raise the seat?”

She shakes her head.  He starts to cringe.
He’ll get the can and oil the hinge.
It will be easy to raise the seat.
He’ll keep it dry.  Pristine and neat.

And so he does upon the morrow
find the solution to her sorrow.
He puts the seat up silently
before he deigns to take a pee.

But lest you think the battle’s done,
in truth I fear it’s just begun.
Later, when she takes her turn
she emerges with a look most stern.

His hands go up in consternation.
Now what’s the cause for her oration?
More shouted words.  More angry frown.
Why can’t he put the loo seat down?????

The Prompt: A House Divided–Pick a divisive issue. Write a two-part post in which you approach the topic from both sides.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/a-house-divided/

Walls

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/wall/

You are Loved If–

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You are Loved if–

They are there when you need them as surely as when they need you.
They predict what your needs might be and try to provide them–within reason.
What  they provide is what you need as well as what they themselves need to give.
They will dance with you every now and then even if they look silly and step on your toes.
You can tell you are their favorite person to be around.
They have the confidence in you to tell you the truth about themselves.
Their face lights up when you enter the room.
They would be willing to give up their favorite chair to you without revealing they are doing so.
They try to understand your dog, your art, your poetry and your cooking.
They are good to your relatives.
They are kind in telling you what they perceive to be the truth about you.
They console without judgement.
You can tell they’d like to be on your side–for your sake– even when they really aren’t.
They are not always the one to say good night first.

(After I posted my writing to the prompt today, I realized that the topic warranted more thought.  All of the points in both posts apply both ways, of course.  Love is a two-way street.)

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