Monthly Archives: May 2019

An Afternoon in the Jocotepec Plaza

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Click on first photo to see slide series and read captions.

When I got to Isidro’s art show, on time, they were still setting up the show and getting the band set up. I should know by now that in Mexico, when they say six o’clock, that the affair is more likely to start by eight.
Watched by the usual dummies
The church loomed overhead across the plaza from the Casa Cultural where the art show was being set up.
with their obligatory feeders.
This little girl was playing a game of hide and seek with her friend.
This meteorite found in the mountains above town now resides in the town plaza.
Vital statistics for the meteorite.
Finally, I walked back across the square to the side entrance of the Casa Cultural.
Loved this large impromptu portrait shed on the floor in the center of the gallery.
Isidro, putting his final touches on a portrait.

Drama Queen

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Photo by Matthew T. Rader on Unsplash

Drama Queen

Your disingenuous comments come off as less than real.
In fact, I can’t help thinking you display more than you feel.
You feign blustery emotions. You fuss and you emote,
and yet your words seem bigger than the feelings they denote.
Your dialogue is fervent. You shout and plead and bleat,
but I’m afraid your fiery comments seem to lack real heat.
Before further encounters and angst-filled future sessions,
may I make a suggestion? I’d suggest acting lessons.

https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/20/fowc-with-fandango-disingenuous/
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/20/rdp-monday-blustery/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/20/your-daily-word-prompt-fervent-may-20-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/20/fog/

Aloe Flower, May 20, 2019

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Version 2jdbphoto May, 2019

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

For Cee’s FOTD

Royal Poinciana: Sunday Trees, May 19,2019

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IMG_2019IMG_2018jocotepec plaza, May 27, 2019 jdb photos

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Spilled Poincianas

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jocotepec plaza, May 17, 2019 jdbphoto

For Cee’s FOTD

Travel Primer

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Travel Primer

We wander narrow alleyways in countries that are foreign—
negotiate their tunnels, like rabbits in a warren.
We do not pay attention as we ogle and we gawk
who may follow closely—who may observe and stalk.
We are naive travelers. We’re innocents abroad.
One listens to our narratives, then signals with a nod
just as we are reaching to try to reimburse,
for another watcher to swoop down on our purse.
Then they’re off down alleyways where we are loath to go
where they’ll have their own adventures—financed by our dough.

 

 

Today’s prompts were stalk, abroad, narrative and foreign. Links are here:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/rdp-sunday-stalk/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/19/fowc-with-fandango-abroad/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/your-daily-word-prompt-narrative-may-19-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/19/foreign/

Midnight Misunderstanding

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Midnight Misunderstanding

You wrote your pattern on my soul
and carved my heart into a bowl
punctured to catch the esoteric
and let drain all the hysteric
words and anger loosed at night
when at last they came to light
let flow by that spirit’s brew
that turns you into more than you.

Friends found it quizzical at best
that you would be the one to wrest
my heart from back there on the shelf
where I’d stored it in myself.
It is a virtual mystery—
this how I found the you in me
that let me fold myself away
when your mother held her sway,

invading you with anger that
you loosed on me, like tit for tat.
Thus parents birth the very beast
that is what turns out to be least
of what their children might have wanted.
And it leaves us shamed and daunted
to see within ourselves what we
never thought could ever be

passed down from mother unto son
so that when her day was done
she could live on in infamy
through what he’d learned at mother’s knee.
And likewise, I have come to be
what my father passed to me,
retreating in the dark of night
to avoid mother’s bark and bite.

It is as though our parents battled
while we skulk, puzzled and addled
in those parts where when we dare
we perfectly convene to share
those parts of us fully our own
where our natures, fully blown,
meet in a more playful vein
over matters less inane.

The crux of it is this, my dear:
when you rage and bite, I fear,
retreating to another place
where I do not need to face
those dictums passed down by your hands
when you fire off your demands.
At heart, I know it isn’t you.
You’ve merely dropped the other shoe.

The first was one your mother dropped.
It was the second one that plopped
off your foot. Then I sneaked in
to nudge it from where it had been
to hide it underneath the bed
so later, with a clearer head,
we might be who we really are
without those shadow sides to mar
what we know in reason’s glare.
We are the perfect damaged pair!

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/18/rdp-saturday-patterns/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/18/fowc-with-fandango-quizzical/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/18/your-daily-word-prompt-esoteric-may-18-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/18/virtual/

Being watched by rooks.

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I love this poem by Sarah Connor and want to share it with you.

sarahsouthwest's avatarSarah writes poems

Hard to feel alone
when you live near rooks - 
observed as you leave the house,
walk up the lane,
take in the washing;
watched as you weed
or read
or call the kids in
from the field 
behind the house. 

They must know
the pattern of our days,
our noisy neighbours -
must mention to each other
that we are busy now,
bustling, hustling,
chatting by the car.
They know our hours,
know when we head home,
stream in, gather
from school and work,
from walking the beach,

they must see 
the pathways we carve
in the air around us.

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Shy Hibiscus. FOTD May 18, 2019

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IMG_1941For Cee’s FOTD

Love Triangle (Wherein Priscilla Mullins Speaks Candidly to John Alden)

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Love Triangle
(Wherein Priscilla Mullins Speaks Candidly to John Alden)

How is it that you come to me today at his behest?
If your nature were more cynical, I’d say it was a jest
that the one for whom affection beats so surely in my breast
approaches asking favor for another suitor’s quest.
Have you, John, decided that you will seek a rest
from your own fond yearnings, abandoning them lest
your friend and fellow suitor’s hopes you might arrest? 
Your words are an anomaly that put me to the test,
yet up is never down, my love, and east is never west.
Forsake the words there on your lips. Convey what you’ve repressed.
It’s our initials on the linen in my wedding chest!
I’ll don my veil and you, dear one, will don your wedding vest.
You’ll graduate from best man simply to the man who’s best,
and instead of groom your friend will be our honored wedding guest.

 

(After “The Courtship of Miles Standish” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The only concise plot summary I could find was from a film based on the poem, but  the plot line is the same. Illustration from The Courtship of Miles Standish. The famous retort in the poem when John acts as Miles Standish’s go-between is, “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”)

 

Today’s words were graduate, anomaly, cynical and jest. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/17/rdp-friday-graduate/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/17/fowc-with-fandango-anomaly/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/17/your-daily-word-prompt-cynical-may-17-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/17/jest/