photo by Andrew Rice used with permission
Advice on the Introduction of a New Species
Lions don’t do well in a setting too bucolic.
Their herding instinct’s lethal and they flunk in ovine frolic.
Lions need to stalk and kill. They need open savannas.
They’d eat all the lambs and for dessert, eat all their nannas!
And if we shut the lions up, they’d go into decline.
Living in small cages simply isn’t leonine.
Lions need to roam the plains lest they become pathetic.
There’s nothing half so sad as a lion that’s apathetic.
Oh no. I somehow erased the pingbacks for the four prompts for this poem! Thanks to okcforgottenman for pointing this out. Well, better late than never. The prompt words were lion, apathetic, shut and bucolic.
I was meeting a friend and Maria Isabela’s near the pier when I sighted this egret and had to get a shot, but very quickly war ensued. These fighting egrets were moving so quickly that it was hard to get an unblurred shot. Here’s the best I could do. Click on the first photo to enlarge and see the captions.
For Granny Shot It’s Bird of the Day
For the month of July, Becky wants square images featuring the color blue, so here are a few of mine. If you’d also like to read a poem I wrote about blue six years ago, go HERE.
As usual, click on any image to increase the size of all of them.
What’s He Got Cookin’?
My love is not a work of art. He hasn’t any poise.
When he tries to sing a song, it comes across as noise.
He writhes instead of dancing. His rhythm’s nonexistent.
When germs land upon him, if they are nonresistant,
they get sick instead of him, for they have met their match.
He has no hair upon his head except for one small batch
that grows out of each nostril, so I really needn’t mention
that when it comes to loving him, I have no competition.
Yet in spite of all, he coincides with my fond wishes.
He may not have much cooking, but at least he does the dishes!
And for a little musical accompaniment to the poem, go HERE.
Prompt words today were sick, writhe, match and noise,
I need to issue a disclaimer for the second line, which is pure poetic license. Most probably a number of the others are, as well.
After the dinner and party at the Raquet Club, we came to my house to play Mexican Train, and at 9:30 went to Olga’s down the street to watch her night-blooming cereus open. Gorgeous. (Click photos to enlarge)
Olga and the King of Cats.
For Cee’s FOTD.
Dark Thoughts
At four in the morning, the old cat begins her morning crabby high-pitched “wahhhhrrr.” The wind picks up and I go to pee. Open my laptop and with its very first light, a tiny beetle flies to the screen to wander back and forth, in search of what? Company or bugs even more miniscule? And where has it been in the interim? In what obscure corner of my world has it been waiting for light, like the old cat, barely able to restrain itself , seeking my company at my first sign of stirring?
Does the rest of the world wait for me like this, or is it death lurking in the shadows, waiting for its time? Has life slowed down to this one long communal waiting? My sick friend has left but leaves behind her some of her dejection. I cannot shake it. Return to it after each short departure into the world. I feel an eternity of the ills of the world around me. Optimist rebel in an enemy camp all my life, I now feel myself sinking into the ordinary world. My mood refuses to shift with the sunrise. Even the old cat, still unfed, leaves me alone to my dark mood.
I fear the power of sleep, not wanting to return to that half-remembered dream I woke from. Fear this new self I seem to be becoming. Suddenly, I fear eternity—feel it not my friend.
School Field Trip
Youth days at the aquarium are inimical to fishes,
for students feed the goldfish far beyond our wishes.
They agitate the sharks and rays by knocking on the glass.
They irritate the piranhas and terrorize the bass.
Scientific discovery is great for teens and tots,
but part of education is discovering the “nots.”
I think we’ll bring an ending to this day at the aquarium,
and for your next school outing would you please choose the terrarium?
Prompt words today were discovery, aquarium, youth and inimical.
For 
