Monthly Archives: October 2021

Crown of Thorns: FOTD Oct 28, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD

Tryst

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Tryst

The smell of his aftershave, his looks and wit,
the chemistry, passion, charisma and fit
of her putative lover had gained such renown
that his legend was spoken all over the town.

Through her bedroom window he climbed after dark
as she stilled her dad’s dogs–their bite and their bark.
With scraps of her dinner she lured them away
as her lover sneaked into the bedroom where they

would make love to the music that swelled on the breeze
of her imagination, there on her knees
playing out that wild scene in her hopes and her dreams,
through want of reality, stretched to extremes.

No passion, no music, no lover’s embrace,
her only caresses, the moon on her face
as it slowly rises, extending its beams,
and creeps through the window to enter her dreams.

Prompts today are the bedroom window, music, wit, putative and smell.

Preparations for Day of the Dead, Oct 27, 2021

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These are the vicious winged insects that have infested the ground and air next to my adopted graves.
Plants cleared and time for the broom and mop and bucket to come out
This is the abandoned plot I adopted 5 years ago.
Ajijic Tengo, a local restaurant gets into the spirit of DOD.

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

There doesn’t seem to be the frenzy of activity in the Pantheons (graveyards) that there is usually at this time. Workers are clearing away the mud from the slides and some of the rubble. Oscar cut the tall weeds away from my adopted graves but could not clear the small plot next to it as it is filled with huge black and orange  winged wasps or bees, a picture of which I tried to capture in a photo here, but they are so fast that I wasn’t too successful. On the 28th, I’ll take  broom, mop and bucket and clean off the graves. My friend Leslie and a number of friends want to come help make offerings on October 31 to avoid the rush on Nov. 1 and 2.  For earlier posts about these graves go HERE and HERE. To see how the graves looked before Oscar and Yolanda cleared them away, go HERE.

Why this compulsion regarding DOD? Because I have lived in Mexico for 20 years and that compulsion is infectious.What better way to remember one’s departed loved ones than to make a celebration of it?

New Gal on the Block: FOTD Oct 27, 2021

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I’ve

I’ve already forgotten the name of this newest plant in my garden, but it keeps on producing beautiful blooms. No time to look it up now, but I’ll identify it when I get home this afternoon.

Little Altars Everywhere

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Click on photos to enlarge.

This is one of the pieces I made for a Day of the Dead show at Jesus Lopez Vega’s Gallery in Ajijic opening on November 2, 2021 on Rio Zula, one block south of the Carretera. This piece is 20 inches high and 12 inches wide. It includes a miniature I made of an actual book entitled “Noche de Muerto en Michoacan, Muestratio Portico” that is sitting on the chair. Other offerings mentioned below are on the table, along with a photo of the dear departed.

Little Altars Everywhere

There’s no pleasing the likes of a departed soul.
Take for instance the corpses out for a stroll
on Day of the Dead with their garb all in shreds
when other departed remain in their beds.
They think they’re entitled to dead bread and beer,
flowers and candles and when you come near,
they’ll say they’re entitled to sweets and tamales.
Once a year this is how they get their jollies.
All over the city, we bring them their due,
and when it comes your turn, we will bring it to you!

 

Prompt words today are corpse, title, pleasing, garb and city.

Hibiscus: FOTD, Oct 26, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD

A Sunset Stroll on the San Juan Cosala Malecon with Traffic Jam and Rainbow

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Please click on first photo and then arrows to the right of each photos to enlarge pictures and to read the captions.

This is what a traffic jam looks like in San Juan Cosala. We followed these guys down the road from the Carretera to the lake for about two blocks, acquiring another car behind us every half block or so.
Then one of the vaqueros decided to stop at a little store to buy some necessity, so his friends just waited for him, as did we.
In five minutes or so we were all in motion again. A half block later, they went straight, we turned,
and by the time we got to the lake and started out on our walk, they were the first thing we saw.
going about their maneuvers,
practicing their routine for some horse event, no doubt.
Some of the riders were very young, but this was their dashing captain.
And his dashing steed.
Showing another maneuver to one of the young men.
Meanwhile, back at the old corral,
Hats seemed to have earned a vacation.
And, in spite of the fact that there had been only a few sprinkles early on during our walk,
which grew more brilliant as we walked.
Beautiful silhouette of the mountains south of Lake Chapala.
And the colors began to flow.
The orange sky,
the pink clouds,
shadows collecting,
Everchanging weather–either a blessing or a curse.
and then that fabulous orange.
Almost dark.so we went home.

Trick or Treat

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Trick or Treat

On Halloween, every child has faith
that if they show up as a zombie or wraith
and say “Trick or Treat!” and hold out their hand,
that simply by making  this threatening demand,
the folks will produce a sugary treat.
Then quick as a whip, they’ll make their retreat.
Impelled by the promise of one reward more,
they’re off to pound on another closed door.

Without maps, without compass, they’ll all zero in
on former houses where they have been
that give the best treats, like whole Hershey bars,
their parents all sitting, resigned, in their cars,
monopolized drivers one night of the year—
giving independence, yet hovering near,
and perhaps making sure that the threat clearly stated,
if the treat’s not a good one, though surely debated,

never comes true. No car windows soaped,
no trees that are left gaily toilet-roll-roped.
Over decades, this holiday’s earned such renown,
that  it’s the same in town after town.
Small ghosts and small ghouls and witches and fairies
go house-to-house restating their queries
and as though it is magic, no one can resist
a candy-filled pumpkin hung from a small wrist.

Prompt words today are: compass, monopolize, wraith, impel and hand.

Today’s Hibiscus: FOTD, Oct 25, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD

Dear John

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Dear John

My kenspeckle lover, well-known for deceit,
you cannot resist every siren you meet.
If you’re depressed, they brighten your day.
Do you think that I’m so naive and fey
that I do not notice the scent you bring home
when you return from wherever you roam?
If I kept a notebook of all of the times
you were unfaithful and caught them in rhymes,
they would be encyclopedic in length,
devoid of affection and brute in their strength.

I’d be better off, they would prove, if alone,
for “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone,”
considering all of your dalliance and sin,
if applied to you, would be spread out so thin
that the bone left for me would be naught but a sliver,
my portion of flesh just a scrap of your liver,
the rest of you spread out so far and so wide,
apportioned to lovers you thought you could hide.

I’ve packed up your bags, keeping one of them free
to return the part of you you left with me.
Take it along with you as you depart.
 I’ve already filled that part of my heart
that you have left empty these many long years
with one who’s supplied what you left in arrears.

 

 

Prompts today are: kenspeckle, better, notebook, deceit and depressed.

Kenspeckle: adjective,SCOTTISH, easily recognizable; conspicuous.
“he loved walking in the village, where he was a kenspeckle figure”