Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Taste of Love

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The Taste of Love

If love were a savor, a flavor or a taste,
a sauce or certain gravy, a marinade or paste,
Cupid could write a menu and we could order in
with romance as an appetizer, sealed up in a tin.
We could order lovers as others order food
according to our appetite, according to our mood.
I’d start out with Greek salad to titillate my palate.
Then move on to fresh lobsters beaten with a mallet.
A juicy steak would be served next with T-bone still inside.
I’d savor all the tender flesh with French fries on the side.
Dessert would be rich chocolate cake washed down with ginseng float
to make it slide so smoothly, smoothly down my throat.
There would be no tears, dear, and not one broken heart
if love came from a menu, to order à la carte.

 

Winged Elegance

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Anyone who has seen the flight of a frigate bird knows that it is the epitome of grace and elegance. This is a poem I wrote three years ago at the beach in La Manzanilla.

The Magnificent Frigate Bird

They polonaise up higher,
far above the rest.
Not once dipping to the land.
Do they ever nest?

I never see them fishing,
foraging or chewing,
as though their wings are made for art
but are not made for doing.

A gentle crease within their wings
looks folded and unfolded,
but keeps its shape no matter what,
as though it has been molded.

This rhyme is not so fragile
nor so graceful as these birds.
I guess such elegance as theirs
cannot be caught in words.

The prompt today is elegance.

A Visit to the Weird

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Please click on first photo. You don’t want to miss these. Honest!

Took three friends to my favorite crazy store in Guad (Galerias del Triunfo) a few days ago.  Yes, the horse lamp is still there. The first floor was mainly devoted to Xmas stuff but we found plenty of other eye candy as well. Wanna see what we saw?  Click on first photo and there will be an enlarged slide show. (If you are viewing on Facebook, you need to click on the URL below to see all the photos.)

 

Triplets: Flower of the Day, Dec 11, 2017

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For Cee’s Flower Prompt.

New Traditions

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New Traditions

This year, I don’t feel jolly, can’t use Christmas as a balm.
I’ll settle for well-organized, painless, mobile, calm.
Ordinary’s fine with me—time to work with plants,
to lie with cats, throw balls for dogs, extinguish cutter ants,
file foot-high stacks of papers and clean my junk drawer out—
a shocking way to celebrate. Mundane, without a doubt.

I never thought that I’d grow up where Christmas was concerned.
I’m sure my metal Christmas tree is going to feel spurned.
The fact that I’m not using it this year is rather strange,
for I wrapped it, fully decorated, last year for a change.
It wouldn’t take an hour to bring it from above
and fall back into Christmas trappings that I truly love.

But the kittens would destroy it. Albeit, they’d have fun,
but that tree would be in tatters by the time that they were done.
The wisemen and the Christ child and dozens of nacimientos*,
the wreaths and lights and figurines–all holiday mementos,
I’ll leave packed up in boxes in the closets up on shelves—
Santas stacked on reindeer, nestled against elves.

This year instead of hanging decorations on the tree, 
I’ll lie down on the sofa and let cats decorate me.

If I am the tree, Ollie is the star at the top of the tree!

*A nacimiento is a nativity scene, but in Mexico, they consist of hundreds of different figures in addition to the traditional shepherds, wisemen, angels and holy family. Go HERE to see some of the surprising figures included in a Mexican nacimiento display.

 

The prompt today was jolly.

Nacimientos

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In Mexico, the word nacimiento, which means “nativity,” has been expanded to cover the hundreds of little painted clay statues that flesh out a Mexican nativity scene.  There are Egyptians, camels, tents, volcanoes, various devils hiding in the background, butchers, bakers, campfires complete with roasting meat, children in trees, women vending bread, making bread, carrying water, fishermen complete with nets and too many other characters to list.  Here are a few photos of my nacimiento scenes from former years.  This year the figures will remain safe in their boxes on high shelves, safe from the paws of inquisitive cats. (To see the photos in detail, click on first photo to enlarge all.)

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These photos perhaps represent the prompt of “jolly” better than my post about how I’m celebrating Christmas this year.

Heart of an Orchid: Flower of the Day, Dec 10, 2017

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To me, this looks like a woman in robes with her arms up, standing on the back of a flying dove. Her face gleams white under her cowl and her yellow heart is exposed

 

 

 

 

See Cee’s audacious blue orchid HERE.

Who Will Pay for the GOP Tax Cut?

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This is as good an explanation about the new tax bill as I have seen. Please read it!

alotfromlydia's avatarA lot from Lydia

“You cannot get the national debt under control, you cannot get that deficit under control, if you don’t do both — grow the economy, cut spending. We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,” ~Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan says this, at the same time he pushes a tax cut for corporations and billionaires.

The House and Senate are working furiously, with hopes of having a final version of the GOP tax plan signed before Christmas.

The meatiest part of the bill include—

  • A tax cut to corporations, a decrease from 35% to 20%,
  • Tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%

The bill means an increase in taxes for 87 million middle class families by way of:

  • A cap on tax deductions for homeowners
  • An end to state and local tax deductions, especially devastating for homeowners in high…

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Bad News for the Substitute Teacher

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IMG_4972Bad News for the Substitute Teacher

Pity the poor substitute.
No matter just how resolute,
up on the subject and astute,
no matter that you’re deadly cute,
these factors will not constitute
a success that is absolute.
They will not render class clowns mute,
for they, too, have their horns to toot.
These truths I swear can’t be refuted.
You’ll rue the day you substituted!

After today’s poem about English teachers, Mike Akin requested that I write one about substitute teachers.  I meet every challenge!  Here it is.

In the Hour Before Dawn

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I loved hearing Diane’s “Good News” first thing this morning. Since I think we are all in need of good news, I’m reblogging it.