Monthly Archives: May 2020

Impotus

21 Replies

Impotus

He’s up there on the platform acting crass and disagreeable.
That he will bring the whole world down around him is foreseeable.
Every single day I hope and pray for his quiescence,
but, alas, refraining from brash speech is not his essence.
He opens mouth and words fall out—disjointed, vague and dense.
He’d make a great orator if only he made sense.
Good that his mother cannot see the travesty she bore—
narcissistic, senseless, and rotten to the core.
His attempts at humor only render him more silly.
His stench sickening and cloying—like an Easter lily.
He’s like a wild animal: vicious, cunning, feral.
What more can he do to put our whole wide world in peril?
No good can be said of him. He’s rotten through and through.
Daily, the world waits for him to drop the other shoe.

Prompt words today are disagreeable, platform, mother, quiescent and Easter lily. And action!

Traveler

4 Replies

 

Traveler

Nobody’s secretary, no one’s wife.
I’d be a nomad for all of my life.
Traditions converged as I traversed this earth,
discovering foibles, unveiling my worth.

What I saw as empty was something to fill.
Was it something to savor or something to kill?
It depended on choices of what I would savor.
Would I hold out for love or just curry favor?

The choices I made determined my life.
I was somebody’s secretary, someone’s wife.
But first was a nomad so when I came back,
the world was a memory, not merely a lack.

I no longer wander. I no longer roam,
for when I did, I brought it back home
so the whole world’s my neighborhood spread out around me.
From here in its middle, I let it astound me.

Prompt words today are nomad, empty, tradition, converge and secretary.

Tabachine with Hummingbird: FOTD May 9, 2020

21 Replies

Click on photos to enlarge. A video of the hummingbird is at the end. Unfortunately, by the time I thought to take a video, it was his last run and I didn’t really capture the butterfly.

 

Yesterday I watched a hummingbird sitting on a branch of the pistachio tree and guarding this tabachine. First a monarch butterfly and then a large black swallowtail butterfly repeatedly tried to sip nectar from blossoms on this tree and every time, the hummingbird swooped down and attacked them and drove them away. This went on hundreds of times over an hour period. I never saw the hummingbird feeding at the bush. I inspected it closely and there was no nest in either the tabachine or the pistachio. He was just being mean! After an hour, when the butterflies finally gave up, the hummingbird finally flew away as well. I have never seen a hummingbird stay still without feeding for that long. In between chasings, he sat still on that branch for at least an hour. Here are photos I took of the pistachio and the tabachine. And that nasty hummer.

Be sure to click on photos to enlarge your view. The third photo shows the distance between the tabachine in the foreground and the pistachio tree with the hammock I was observing from behind it. They weren’t really in close proximity

 

And here is the little hummer. I put out a feeder for him today. Hopefully he’ll now leave the butterflies alone.

 

 

 

For Cee’s FOTD
and, for Sunday Trees.

Pull Up a Chair!!!

3 Replies

For Xingful Mama’s Pull up a Seat Challenge.

Hail Diego!!!

13 Replies

Hail Diego!!!

He’s the king of dogs by his own choice.
Behold his ruff, Enjoy his voice!
He raises it in time of doubt
to assert his power and raise his clout.

IMG_3721

Bypassers make their passings brief
Their parting sighs denote relief.
And since he notes each falling leaf,
no way he’ll overlook a thief.

 

IMG_9501It is a fact that crime went down
the minute he moved into town.
All citizens should laud his fame,
and spread abroad his glorious name!!!

 

Prompt words today are relief, fact, king, behold and voice.

Bleeding Heart Vine

7 Replies

Click on photos to enlarge.

For Cee’s FOTD

Spring Cleaning

21 Replies

Spring Cleaning

It’s that time of the year when I want to come clean
and turn into a virtual sorting machine.
I’m emptying closets and clearing out shelves.
Disposing of all of my former used selves.
Keeping the best of me. Tossing the worn.
Keeping the new me that’s daily reborn
and discarding the jaded, the bored and forlorn.

I’m renouncing old habits and starting anew.
I’m not limping along in my regular queue
of things to accomplish and deeds I must do,
and I’m making a list of things I’ll eschew—
things that inevitably make me blue—
politics, violence, things all askew
that have turned our whole planet into a zoo.

I’m making an outline to use as a guide
with all the things that I’ve certified
will make my life better and straighten it out.
They’ll make me happier, without a doubt.
Troublesome people I’m going to avoid.
Life is too short to spend it annoyed.
What is life for if not to be enjoyed?

I’ll go on a diet and I’ll become svelt.
Shorten my hemlines and tighten my belt.
I’ll take all the tactics I’ve learned in this life
as daughter and student and girlfriend and wife
and put them together into a rich stew
of what I have vowed that I’m going to do.
Then tackle my life with this new retinue.

Or else I’ll stay home and not worry about
having a gorgeous body to flout.
I’ll cook puddings and pastries and share them with friends,
put on a few pounds without making amends.
Taking more time to stare at the birds.
I’ll do fewer shoulds and do more absurds—
cavort with my art and play with my words.

Consort with the dogs and cuddle the cats.
Issue fewer “No’s!” and give way more pats.
Since this is my life and I am the boss of it,
I’ll make a vow to get rid of the dross of it.
Clean out the dreads and stock up on the wants.
hang out at all of my favorite haunts,
believe what praise comes and ignore all the taunts.

Word prompts today are limp, outline, new, renounce and politics.

Corona Diary

21 Replies

At the beginning of our Shelter in Place experience, I issued a challenge to artist friends to create an art piece that chronicled their time at home. We each contributed material that the others could elect to use in their pieces. Although I didn’t use all of the material, I did use some material contributed by each artist. The box for this collage is an empty cardboard coke carton contributed by Candace.The material scraps were donated by Jeannie and Candace, as was the beer cap. The joker card contributed by someone was too large so I found a smaller version, then had Trump’s head superimposed by my Photoshop-canny friend Sharon.

The leaf holding a depiction of the yellow butterflies that fluttered around the tabachine bush near the hammock where Morrie and I spent many happy hours was contributed by Brad, the magazine that contributed the “Endless” by Jeannie..Most of the objects I either fabricated or found in my studio. The computer has a screen depicting our president’s announcement suggesting we inject various elements into our bodies.Diego is depicted with one of the two and a half dozen freshly-baked peanut butter cookies he consumed when we were all busy dealing with plumbing and internet problems.

The book I was formatting is shown miniaturized, but somehow ended up being copied as a mirror image. The pencils and paintbrush I fabricated, the scissors are tiny miniatures from my charm drawer. Since the first month and a half were filled with the sounds of rainbirds (Mexican name for cicadas) I had to include a cicada…and my infestation by bees is recorded as well. Lots of food and drink fills out the rest of the box.. and music and books. All-in-all, a busy time makes for a stuffed box. When I finally am able to leave and go about business, I intend to have a clear plexiglass box made to hold the box in better shape. Until then, it remains in its own tweaked shape. Pictures will enlarge if you click on them.

Diego with a peanut butter cooke. He devoured 2 1/2 dozen.
The pleated piece behind the Corona Music beer cap is a used coffee filter donated by someone.
That’s Kukla on top of the Corona Virus “Cure.”
Endless time–the Endless cut out of a magazine contributed by Jeannie or Candace. The honeybees are another story as Carlos the bee man and I have been dealing with trying to remove thousands of the creatures from a stone wall. They have infested my property!
Books and pizza.–equally necessary.
I painted the little plastic computer and added the topical news to its screen.These items all fabricated except for the scissors.
Tequila and Coke with lime. Medicine.
Polka dots and beads.
The Tabachine bush I could see from the hammock was full of these little yellow butterflies. No, not a real one. I also loved watching the birds and tried many schemes to construct a bird feeder and bird bath they would use. It never worked. Diego uses the present one as a watering dish.
Painting projects. Nice to get back into the studio.
These are miniaturized pages from the “I Really Want A Puppy” book that Isidro is finishing up on the illustrations for. For some reason, they printed out as mirror images. Perfect metaphor for these crazy times.

Moss Rose: FOTD, May 7, 2020

5 Replies

IMG_9833 2.jpeg

For Cee’s FOTD

Enforced Reflection

23 Replies

Enforced Reflection

I’m keeping my composure and compensating for
the fact that they won’t let me venture out my door.
Given lemons, I make margaritas—take the opportunity
now that I can’t wander about in the wide community,
to revel in the riches that abound right here at home,
watching Jesus painting murals all around my dome.

I’m baking lots of cookies, although their fate is sad.
After painters ate just one or two, Diego was so bad
that he raced into the kitchen and made off with all the rest.
One friend suggested delicately it might have been best.
Would I have eaten any that remained? Yes, it’s true, I might.
I must admit my waistbands are getting sort of tight.

Perhaps it’s lack of exercise. Perhaps it’s medication.
Since I so rarely don street clothes, I have no indication.
I avoid the scales because, you know, they are so changeable.
Up one day but rarely down. (Wish they were more arrangeable.)
With nature as our trainer, perhaps we will be changed
in other crazy pastimes in which we’ve become deranged.

Fracking and polluting, casting all our trash
out there in the ocean, making a god of cash.
Nature has to teach us to change our foolish ways
by sending us all to our rooms to pass our “time out” days.
And perhaps now I’m sequestered and set upon the shelf,
Diego’s her reminder to take care of myself.

The image of Diego with a cookie in his mouth is from a retablo/art collage I’m making that is recording my time spent in Mother Nature’s Time-Out period. Why don’t you join me? Mine was finished but then I have to keep adding to it. At least a story a day. Diego was that day’s.

Prompts for the day are composure, compensate, opportunity, revel and trainer.
And, for dVerse Poets Pub prompt: Solitude.