I Keep Your Promise
Rain beats a riff on the back window
as I drive away from your familiar
promises, like lyrics of a worn-out song.
“Never again,” is made true this time,
my choice instead of your vow.
It’s only truth I take away with me:
torn buttons, bruises, broken dreams.
The empty baby carriage
you’ll find in the spare room,
one more unused space
in a house too rarely
a home.
I was the house
you entered
but never
spread out in—
the rumpus room
battered with misuse—
a refrigerator
filled with carry-out and cartons
with their “use by” dates all lapsed.
I was the melody
to that false chord
you loved to strike,
proud in your outlaw status—
that anchor that held your music to the page.
I see its strains floating after me,
as though that part of you
knows what it will miss
and even now
is trying to be found.
The prompt word today is riff.
I was reading Rugby’s blog who posted the below questions regarding books and reading. She found them via these two blogs: t https://oceanbream.wordpress.com and https://mythsofthemirror.com.
1. Do you have a specific place for reading? In bed, in the bathroom or, while driving, Audible books.
2. Bookmark or random piece of paper? Random piece of paper.
3. Do you eat or drink whilst reading? If I’m hungry or thirsty, yes.
4. Music or TV while reading? No.
5. One book at a time or several? Several.
6. Do you prefer to read at home or elsewhere? At night, at home. During the day, while going from home to elsewhere–an Audible book in my car.
7. Read out loud or silently? Silently
8. Do you read ahead or skip pages? Never.
9. Break the spine or keep it new? Unless borrowed, break it’s back. Easier to read.
10. Do you write in books? Sometimes. Rarely.
11. What books are you reading now? A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman, Don’t Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde, My Life So Far by Jane Fonda and Chicken Soup for the Soul, Dreams and the Unexplainable.
12. What is your childhood favorite book? Old Mother West Wind Stories. My dad used to love reading them to us and I loved having him do so. My mother made up her own stories and I loved that, too.
13. What is your all-time favorite book and why do you love it? Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being because it is enthralling and totally unique. I also love anything by Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice my favorite) or Barbara Kingsolver (Pigs in Heaven my favorite) because they are beautifully descriptive and character-driven. I even did a retablo about Kingsolver’s The Lacuna and gave it to her. Her creations have given me so much pleasure that I wanted to create something to give her pleasure as well. I’d do the same for Austen if she were alive.
(Please click on any photo to enlarge all.)
For Becca’s Sunday Trees.
“A black object is black because it’s absorbing all the light; it’s not reflecting any color.”
Black as His Soul
Black as the soul of POTUS, dark as Beelzebub.
As sable as the darkest night, tarred as an axle hub.
It does not serve you well, my dear, to fall in love with black.
It draws your whole light into it and gives you nothing back.
Black will draw and quarter you, stretch you on the rack.
It is the shade of Mack the Knife, a ripper known as Jack.
There’s no good connotation for this tone of night.
You simply cannot find one—try howe’er you might.
Black robs you of your light and keeps it as its own.
It is a cruel jailer, sitting on its thrown.
Who would guess so many could be so misguided
as to elect a president who is so ill-betided?
What an ugly irony that he who decries colored skin
should have a soul whose pigment takes all color in.
No matter how you’re drawn to it, please take a different tack,
for no matter what you do, black doesn’t love you back.
The prompt today is black.
(Please click on first photo to see photos in more detail.)
For the fun SWS prompt.
The Reluctant Neophyte
I’m too old to be a neophyte. There’s nothing left to do.
So please do not suggest that I do anything that’s new.
Don’t want to go to parties with folks too erudite.
Safaris do not tempt me. I hear those lions bite.
Bungee jumping? Please. No thanks to fun at such a height.
Aerial adventures I’ll leave to Wilbur Wright.
Wild evening adventures simply do not excite.
I’ll skip the latest dance craze. I don’t go out at night.
I’ll never take up kick boxing for fighting’s not my sport.
I’ll say the same for pickle ball. I’m not the tennis sort.
In short, I have done everything that I could find exciting.
It simply is too late for me to do my neophyting!
The prompt word today is neophyte.
