Cat in the Window Winner’s Charity Paid.
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Fire on the Mountain!!!
When I drove into town this morning for the writers group reading at the Nuevea Posada, it looked like one of our formerly dormant volcanoes on the range between where I live lakeside and the road to Guadalajara had gone active again, and was erupting!
(Click on all photos to enlarge.)
What I was actually seeing, however, was a huge fire that has been burning for a couple of days now on the other side of the ridge. As I left the reading and went east on the Carretera, I could see that between the hours of 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. the fire had jumped over the ridge in four places and spread to the Ajijic side of the mountains.
As we pulled into the Centro Mall parking lot, we heard helicopters. They were scooping water out of the lake and flying it overhead to dump on the fires.
All-in-all, an eventful couple of days for lakeside and environs. I can’t see the fire from my house, but last night I was well aware of the smoke and had to close all the doors and windows up tight. Here’s hoping all the firefighters remain safe and that the winds do not mount during the night.
These fires happen every year around lakeside when brush and grass is tinderbox dry, often prompted by farmers burning off their fields before the rainy season. One year, much of Mt. Garcia across the lake was on fire. (go HERE to see and hear about those fires.) Another year, it was the whole range behind my house.( Go HERE to see photos of this fire.) This is the first time I’ve seen a fire of this magnitude in the hills above Ajijic, however. It has some distance to go before it reaches any dwellings on this side of the ridge, but if a high wind were to kick up tonight, it could spread fast. Crossed fingers.
Divine Plan
Divine Plan
He could wed his boards so smoothly that you could not feel a seam,
or carve a massive sycamore into a ceiling beam.
His benches were the strongest and most beautifully turned out.
He was the finest craftsman in the region, without doubt.
From a very early age, his folks could not explain
his prowess with a chisel or gouges or a plane.
He could carve a wooden ball, a slingshot or a dreidel.
He carved his wife a mixing spoon, then built a tiny cradle.
It seemed that he was born to it, like birds are born to fly,
but not even Joseph could discern the reason why
until the baby in the cradle who lay so sweetly curled,
turned into the young man who grew up to save the world.
Prompt words today are bench, finest, region and seam. Here are the links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/03/rdp-friday-bench/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/03/fowc-with-fandango-finest/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/03/your-daily-word-prompt-region-may-3-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/03/seam/
Flower of the Day, May 3, 2019
I took several photos of this incredible large bloom in my neighbor’s yard, but don’t know what it is.
The Reappearance
The Reappearance
A luscious former lover that I haven’t seen in years
takes my quiet life by storm when he reappears.
He showers me with flowers he says are in arrears
for all those times he should have stayed to dry my tears.
Of course it’s an unsuitable last-minute love affair
that simply manifested like magic from pure air.
For well nigh on a dozen years, he wasn’t even there—
this Lochinvar who now insists we are the perfect pair.
Dare we try settle accounts so long overdue?
Dare we stir those embers to kindle love anew?
Or might our purple passion have assumed a lighter hue?
At this late date how can I know the proper thing to do?
Why so wan and pale, dear lover? Are you drained by worry?
Why such a push to reconnect? Why such frenetic hurry?
Why suddenly are you intent my favors to thus curry?
Why all this sudden passion? This trial without jury?
Who put me in this role of judge, called to adjudicate
what might be our future–our destiny and fate?
Once I would have loved the task, but now it is too late.
Why would you wait until the eve of my wedding date?
The wedding cake is stacked and iced, the flowers hung in bowers.
The time until my union is measured now in hours.
In a backroom with his friends, my groom paces and cowers.
Bridesmaids fuss and bother and rearrange their flowers.
Now is not the time, my dear, to reassert your powers.
All of us have daydreams of lovers of the past,
intent in our belief that they were not meant to last.
The sea of love, once entered, is so wide and deep and vast
that we lose connection with lines formerly cast.
I see you now sequestered in the far back row
beside the aisle I’ll walk down, my troth to here bestow.
You should have spoken sooner. You should have let me know.
For now it is too late to reverse the status quo.
Your flowers were so lovely that you sent today.
As in the past, most exquisite—their colors bright and gay.
It would have been a dreadful waste to throw them all away,
so here they are, tucked into my nuptial bouquet.
Prompt words today are suitable, arrears, anew and luscious. Links:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/02/rdp-thursday-suitable/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/02/fowc-with-fandango-arrears/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/02/your-daily-word-prompt-anew-may-2-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/02/luscious/
Skating Lessons
photo by Gloria Palazzo
Skating Lessons
Bazooka or Double Bubble
the biggest decision I had to make that June,
my mentor was the girl six years my senior
who lived two houses away.
Brown braids and freckles,
her calm made order out of mayhem,
her smile resolving daily skinned knees and bruises.
A skate key on a cord around her neck—
always dependable,
like some preteen utilitarian angel.
I skated through July,
hanging my last
in a long line
of replacement skate keys
securely around my neck
from my dad’s old compass cord,
knowing by some prescience
far beyond my years
that mentors, like meteors,
streak by quickly and are soon out of sight.
And…..remember this song very pertinent to the topic at hand?
Prompt words are mentor, compass, mayhem and bazooka.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/rdp-wednesday-mentor/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/your-daily-word-prompt-mayhem-may-1-2019/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/bazooka/
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/05/01/fowc-with-fandango-compass/
Flower of the Day: May 1, 2019
Happy May Day!! No Maypoles in Mexico. Here it is celebrated as Labor Day which means no one works. Ha. I, however, will not use that as an excuse to shirk my duty. Here is a shot of Morrie and Diego enjoying the pleasures of the back yard. Diego sips from the biggest water dish in the world as Morrie seems to be in the act of sitting down, rather awkwardly, I might add. In the foreground, the last of the poinsettias, in the middle, a plumeria/frangipani tree in full bloom, cactus, various bougainvillea, Virginia creeper and palms. This is the view from my writing desk. Not my usual flower closeup..
And the jungle side of the view.
I always love Cee’s peonies. You can see one HERE.
Limbo
1960, Murdo, South Dakota
Limbo
My best friend taught me about limbo and saints,
Showed me their stacks of National Geographic.
You had to be invited into membership, she said,
not everyone could join. I rated them against
my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journals
and felt deficient, somehow.
No wine in our Methodist kitchen cupboards.
No tuna and salmon tins
stacked up awaiting Friday.
All those cans on my friend’s mother’s shelves in limbo
all Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
that long summer when we were still twelve.
Wanting something we didn’t yet know the name of.
Restless stirrings the little boys our age
did not know how to respond to.
All of them inches shorter than us
except for one—a tall country boy
new to town school,
the most innocent of all.
How we waited to be chosen—
the fact that we’d already chosen in our minds
having little consequence.
How we watched. How we kept secrets,
even from each other.
I knew what to call it, at least,
if not much else,
that summer I turned thirteen,
expectantly,
and
absolutely
nothing changed.
Limbo.
The dVerse poets prompt is “Limbo.”
But Jimmy Cliff says it best!!!!
And “Limbo” of a different sort was two years in our future:
Is The U.S. Ready for An Openly Gay President?
Fandango’s provocative question is whether the U.S. is open to electing an openly gay presidential candidate.
If you had asked me in 2016 if the U.S. was open to a bigoted, sexist, totally incompetent, traitorous braggart and fool, I would have said, “No.” So, I guess I’m not the person to ask. That disclaimer stated, I have to regretfully say no again and hope, again, that I am wrong. I must say that I would love it if we could take one more giant leap away from bigotry. I will also say that much as I’d like to see a gay person or a woman in the presidency, I hope that everyone remains solid in finding a candidate who can beat Trump. That is the most important issue right now. Yes, there is a need to change the Democratic party but that is something to do after we have presented a solid unified front to overcome this huge shame of the past 4 years. Our country and the world may depend on it. Now is not the time for divisiveness. There has been enough of that over the past 4 years, and the campaign year before that. Let’s get hypocrisy and elitism out of the White House, then out of the Senate and House. And our of our own hearts, as well.
