Category Archives: Uncategorized

Detente in the Animal Kingdom

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Detente in the Animal Kingdom

The queen of hippopatamuses feels a bit perplexed
for she crossed the hyenas and now she has been hexed.
They’ve jinxed her favorite swimming hole so she has to swim
in a muddy tiny pond with crocs around the rim.

When she lumbers from the pond to have her usual binge
on grass, her favorite supper, she feels a little twinge.
It seems like in the puddle where she most recently sat,
waddling through the bottom mud, dragging all her fat,

she must have nudged a bit too close to a crocodile
and snagged a bit of hippo fat on his croco-smile.
He’s swinging there behind her, his tooth hooked on her tush,
creating  a great disarray while crashing through the bush.

With her competing waddle, they’re an ecological threat,
destroying all the underbrush as they thrash and vet.
How will they resolve this problem that they cause?
First it’s necessary that they cool down and pause

to make peace with the hyenas so they can use their claws
to disentangle hippo skin from the croc’s sharp jaws,
thus restoring order and reinstating peace
so all this inter-species angst finally will cease!!!

Prompt words today are jinx, swing, perplexed,disarray, compete, twinge and hippopatamus. Image by J. Anders on Unsplash.

Aimless

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I couldn’t help reblogging this poem which uses a bird as the metaphor for the creative process. Yes, it has a simile in it, but the entire poem itself my mind becomes a wild bird.

For Muriopsis’s Scavenger Hunt “Looking at Names” prompt number 12, to use a bird as a metaphor.

lifelessons's avatarlifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown

IMG_9131

Here’s a smaller version so you can see the shape on a smaller device.  I’ve been working on this shape for seven hours.  Sheesh! how time flies.  I have versions of four different birds, but I think I like the duck best.

IMG_9131

In case you are curious, here is another version of “Aimless.”  Same poem, different bird–a plumed exotic with its wings extended.


Screen Shot 2016-06-19 at 5.29.02 PM

And, for those who haven’t had enought, here is the first view I did:

Screen Shot 2016-06-19 at 7.46.53 PM
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/aimless/

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Jumpin’ Jupiter, Wordless Wednesday, Sept 28, 2022

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Click on photos to enlarge.

Photos of Jupiter in overcast skies from my pool, 2:30 AM, Sept 27, 2022, San Juan Cosala, Jalisco Mexico. Did anyone else observe it? Largest view we’ll have for the next 58 years. If you took photos, please send me a link in my comments. I had a hard time getting these as the clouds kept floating over and obscuring the skies. I stood in my pool for an hour or so trying to get decent shots. 

For Wordless Wednesday

CFFC Birds, Sept 27, 2022

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Oriole
I never have been able to figure out what was sticking out of this gull’s head.
Transcience

For CFFC Birds

R.I.P.

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R.I.P.

No fall to earth, no plaintive cry.
No false regrets. No ending sigh.

No stab, no arrow and no shot.
All of these things were not her lot.

No accusation of who’s to blame.
No faulty party here to name.

Let mourners mourn if mourn they must,
reduce her body into dust.

They do it all to no avail,
She sees no tears. She hears no wail.

I fear your mourning goes too slow.
Only her body remains below,

for she departed long ago
to melt into that greater flow.

For her, all mortal customs cease,
so let her mourners rest in peace.

Prompts offered at this point are plaintive, accusation, stab,

An Amazing Ending to the Cat Intruder Story

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A few days ago I published a story about a cat who showed up at my house, terrorized my other cats and attached itself to me like glue.  Under ordinary circumstances, I would have done what I’ve done with every other animal that has come to the house or attached itself to me on my walks. I would have adopted her. But, she wreaked utter pandemonium in my house. The other cats ran from her in spite of the fact that she was half their size. When she went into the backyard to perch herself on the ledge below the upper wall, the dogs went crazy, jumping up and barking. There was nothing I could do to remove her as she was behind a stand of dense banana and ficus trees and seemed to be enjoying teasing the dogs. I had to feed the other cats inside or they ran away when she approached and she ate all their food.

I tried confining her in a large carrier for hours, thinking she’d run away when I released her. Instead she wound herself around my legs and got in front of me, threatening to trip me up with ever step I took. All day and all night long, she went from outside door to window to door of my house crying, then climbed the screens to hang, beseeching.

This went on for two days until I discovered that Yolanda was open to taking her to her home, a mile and a half away down the mountain in San Juan Cosala, so I drove her there and heard no more for two days.  Then, today when Yolanda came to work, I asked her how the new cat was working out and she said very well, that he was living with her sister’s daughter. When I asked why, she remarked that Alejandra had come over to see her and immediately recognized as one of her own cats that had annoyed the neighbor and so he had taken him (I had been sure “he” was a “she”) with another cat up to the mountains and released them.

This was a long distance from her house, but just up the mountain from me, evidently, and somehow the cat found its way to my house and worked its wiles to eventually wind up back home again. Now how is that for a “The Cat Came Back” story????

In case you missed them before, here are my two other stories about the cat intruder.

https://judydykstrabrown.com/2022/09/23/intruder-my-pick-for-cwbc-sept-22-2022/

https://judydykstrabrown.com/2022/09/23/intruder-addendum/

Maria

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Maria

I’m dull-witted and dysfunctional, I’m of no high degree.
I’ve no diploma in a frame. I am a refugee.
I know you think I’m no account and of the lowest order
just because the chances are I sneaked over the border.

But you’ve been on my horizon since the day that I was born.
I’m the brown girl on that other side of town you choose to scorn.
Perhaps I scrub your sinks out and walk your kids to school.
Because I do not speak your language well, you think I am a fool.

So far I’m ineffective in showing who I am.
You furtively observe my movements with your insta cam
to make sure I don’t steal from you or seduce your spouse.
You request I don’t show up again in that sexy blouse.

But I’m as smart as I am pretty and I go to school at night.
One day I will convince you that a brown girl can be bright.
One day I’ll teach your kids in school, and believe me when I do,
I’ll teach them not to be stubborn and prejudiced like you!!!!

Prompts for today are frame, refugee, account, ineffective, horizon, stubborn, dysfunctional. Image by Omar Lopez on Unsplash.

Shop, Shmop I Say

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Ron.'s avatarSCRAMBLED, NOT FRIED

Culinary Innovations

She’s been gone almost a week.
Solitarily homebound, he discovers:

You have to let them egg-soak
a little longer than bread slices,
but French toasted Ritz Crackers
are almost as delicious
as French toasted Fig Newtons.

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Natural Images. Do You See What I See?

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What has nature seen fit to draw on my large flower pot? You tell me what you see and then I’ll tell you what I saw.

What I first saw was the same empty-eyed skeleton skull that is hanging from the overhang of the bedroom far behind the flower pot. Can you see it? You can also see a sketchy rendition of the bones of his body below. Eerie.

All of the answers of what others saw were on Facebook, so I’ll duplicate them here:

  • Tamara Alaine Mitchell

    A dog and a monkey.
  • Cheryl Kennedy

    I see a monkey face and ears about 1/3 of the way down. Also could be his hand.
    <img class="" role="presentation" src="data:;base64, ” width=”18″ height=”18″ />
  • Sara Axelson

    I see a horse with a parakeet on its head holding a small dog❤️
    <img class="" role="presentation" src="data:;base64, ” width=”18″ height=”18″ />
    • Jim Anshutz

      A dog and a monkey
      • Like

      • Reply
      • 12m
        Carol Bradley

        I see a pregnant alien with big ears and wearing sunglasses.
        <img class="" role="presentation" src="data:;base64, ” width=”18″ height=”18″ />
        Leland Olson

        A mother baboon holding her baby
        <img class="" role="presentation" src="data:;base64, ” width=”18″ height=”18″ />
        Sherry Holiman Swindle

        A dog with a mask on
        <img class="" role="presentation" src="data:;base64, ” width=”18″ height=”18″ />
        Judy Dykstra-Brown

        And i see that I have very creative friends!!!! There is one more thing no one has seen which is the first thing I saw.
        Shannon Evans

        Dragon and a monkey
      Jim Anshutz

      A dog and a monkey
      And a couple pigs🎃🎃🎃😂

 

Surrounding Hills

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Trail
The trails you see on the mountains are the sites of rock slides.
I counted eight waterfalls in the mountains above the town. I live up on that mountain!
Senor Garcia is the name of this dormant volcanic mountain.
Beautiful silhouette of the mountains south of Lake Chapala.
And finally, up the mountain
Guanajuato
or houses on the hillside.

 

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

Thanks, Wind Kisses, For the Lens Artist Challenge “Over the Hill.”