Author Archives: lifelessons

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About lifelessons

My blog, which started out to be about overcoming grief, quickly grew into a blog about celebrating life. I post daily: poems, photographs, essays or stories. I've lived in countries all around the globe but have finally come to rest in Mexico, where I've lived since 2001. My books may be found on Amazon in Kindle and print format, my art in local Ajijic galleries. Hope to see you at my blog.

In the Sub Shop at the Guadalajara Airport

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The music’s loudly blaring. An overture it ain’t.
I swear it’s so annoying that it would rile a saint.
Repetitious cymbals and snare drums over-brushing.
I’d pay a pretty penny just to implement its hushing.

I’m sitting in a sandwich shop waiting for my plane,
waiting for this song to stop, but I wait in vain.
I figured that another would replace it in a bit,
but they just replaced it with a more annoying hit.

What is this type of music, back-throated and annoying?
An inhuman vibrato both mechanized and cloying.
I’m trying to decide how to phrase my irritation.
Oh that it was possible for me to change the station.

Why don’t I move away, you ask. Surely, I am able.
The problem is that it’s the only place here with a table
that will hold a laptop and chairs elsewhere are taken,
so I had to order a chicken sub with bacon

that I really didn’t want just to post this poem.
Blogs require a sacrifice when you’re away from home!

Prompt words today are human, figure, hit, overture and phrase.

United States

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United States

As I peruse the system, I cannot help but balk.
Instead of fixing fissures, they just bring out the caulk
and stuff it in the spaces, obscuring every crack,
not finding it expedient to deal with what we lack.

If we could come together in more than just our name,
looking for a way to fix instead of just to blame,
we could start on the road  to our founding fathers’ aim
and prove for once that politics is more than just a game.

It’s become unexpected for our government to work.
Various private agendas cause senators to shirk
the purpose of their being there—to work the problems out.
Instead, each chance to work together turns into a bout.

Republican or Democrat, their whole agenda should
be to make our country fair and safe and good.
Bring mercy out of hiding. Make lady justice proud.
Surrender guns. Thereby decree,”No violence allowed.”

Take back the halls of governance from the N.R.A.
Accept that we’re all brothers, be we black or white or gay,
transgendered, brown or red, no matter how we look or talk.
If our true aim is democracy, we’ve got to walk the walk.

Prompt words are unexpected, peruse, system, balk and game.

Triplets: FOTD Mar 27, 2021

10 Replies

 

For Cee’s FOTD

and for Thursday Trios.

Fibbing Friday, Mar 26, 2021

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Here are this week’s questions:

1. What is a huskador? A storage container for ears of corn once you’ve stripped off the kernels.
2. What is a cavapoo? A bathroom stop for a cavalcade of people.
3. What is a chorkie? A minor choking fit while eating a pork pie.
4. What is a lollie?  A tiny tot’s rest period.
5. What is a dorkie? What you open a door with.
6. What is a springador? What you have to do when you forget your keys.
7. What is a scottie?  A diminutive citizen of Edinburgh.
8. What is a puggle?  What someone with a severe cold is standing in when he’s ankle-deep in water in the street.
9. What is a pekalier?  A very odd person.
10. What is a schnappy? A doggie diaper for your pet schnauzer.

For the Fibbing Friday prompt.

Gazania: Flower of the Day, Mar 26, 2021

4 Replies

 

For Cee’s FOTD

Bella Shuns the Tube

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Bella Shuns the Tube

Bella never takes mass transit. She walks another path.
She hitchhikes every day to work from Chippenham to Bath.
For years, it’s true that she has harbored quite a misconception.
I know because I happened to be there at its inception.

She was just a little girl when her father Rube
drove her by the underground and labeled it “the tube,”
She had visions of sink drains, sucking people down
from somewhere in the country to disgorge them in the town.

As a father teaches, so a daughter will be taught.
A plethora of worries overcame her at the thought.
So, as to travelling in the tube? Unlikely that our Bella might.
for when it comes to subways, I fear she is a thelemite!

 

Prompt words today are misconception, plethora, thelemite (one who does as he or she pleases,) transit and path. Photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Half Dotty” Half and Half Challenge

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I just ran across one of my favorite photos of the past few years. It prompted me to issue this Half and Half Challenge. Please join in by posting your favorite Half and Half photo or photos and sending us a link in my comments below.

Gross Yield

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Gross Yield

Hardly a paradisiac setting, he met her at the dumpster.
She was a free spirit and, alas, he was a Trumpster.
He thought that she looked nifty in spite of her dreadlocks.
She thought he was her nemesis. Just look! Argyle socks!!!!
He lifted up the lid so she could throw in all her junk.
She didn’t pay attention. She liked her lovers punk.

But he wooed her every garbage day. A regular Lochinvar,
he insisted she not lift the bags, declaring it too far
from her doorway to the dumpster and offered his assist.
In the end, she always let him, though she did try to resist!
I could draw out this long story. There were dates, flowers and candy.
They wed, and though he bored her, his gross income came in handy!

Prompts for today are junk, nemesis, paradisiac, nifty and income. Photo by Yannes Kiefer on Unsplash. Used with permission.

First Plumeria Flower of the Year! FOTD Mar 25, 2021

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I got up early to do pool aerobics and scrub the sides of the pool and discovered this surprise. overnight, the plumeria had bloomed!! This is the first full bloom.

For Cee’s FOTD

What Will (And Won’t) A Dog Eat?

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As I made my evening smoothie, I found the remains of my afternoon meal on the countertop. Hating to waste it, I decided to see what parts of it the dogs would eat. They’d already had their own meal hours before, but this is what I took out to the doggie domain–and the result:  (Click on photos to enlarge and read what happened.)

The remains: some spaghetti and meat sauce, part of a banana and the remains of a salad with lots of very vinegary dressing.
I took it out to the doggie domain. Would they eat it?
It appeared they would. But surely they’d forego the vinegary dressing.
Diego was still licking every inch of the surface of that plate. I went out to turn off the pool water, and when I came back,
He was still intent to the point where he had actually licked the plate dry.

What will a dog eat? Clearly, everything!!!