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Tag Archives: Judy Dykstra-Brown Photos
Sunday Trees, Sept 18, 2016
I spotted this magnificent lone tree on the road between Morehouse, Missouri and Huntsville, Alabama.
https://beccagivens.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/sunday-trees-253/16
At First
At First
Days were not over half so soon
when we ate passion with a spoon.
Swirled chocolate at the Frosty Freeze
melting in the prairie breeze
hot and redolent of soil—
chaff of wheat and rattled coil.
Summer days and summer nights,
rolls in grass and water fights
with uncoiled hoses, cooking pans,
rolled up cuffs and soaked white Vans.
Passion then was not so much
a thing of kissing or of  touch
as of smells and sights and taste.
Baking beans and paper paste.
Brand new tablets, pencil shavings.
Summer nights, then autumn cravings.
Cattle lowing, school bells,
Cool spring water from deep wells.
Throats that ached from drinking it,
brought to light from ancient pit.
All these simple remembered things
that thinking about passion brings:
spin-overs on the monkey bars,
rides on bikes and naming stars.
It’s true some passion rides on night
with pressing lips and gentle bite,
or trembles on the fingertips
straying over breasts or hips.
Yet simpler loves bring lesser rations
of what adults consider passions.
Words like passion must be allowed
to be unfettered, like a cloud
and not confined in connotation,
dictionary or denotation.
Sometimes passion can be bright—
A meadowlark or soaring kite.
Sun-chapped lips just touched with mist
long before they’re ever kissed.
The prompt word today was “Passionate.”
Fragile
!!!Fragile!!!
Just as I’m becoming less agile,
all of me is turning fragile.
Flesh on flesh and bone on bone,
Nature won’t leave me alone.
Bruise more easily, skin tears easier.
Looking up now makes me queasier.
Can’t be trusted on a ladder.
Larger hips but smaller bladder.
Lips are thinner, bones are brittler.
And suddenly, I’m two inches littler.
If Nature’s bound to fold and shrink me,
Really, now, wouldn’t you think she
could leave me with my height and lips
and do her shrinking around my hips?
The prompt today is “Fragile.”Â
Oners: Cee’s Black and White Challenge, Isolated Subjects
Isolation can have a beauty of its own, especially in contrast to details that might invite company. Â If you’d like to see these photos better, please click on the first one. Also, please be patient as it may be necessary to wait for a few of the photos to come into focus.
The prompt was “isolated subjects.”
Amused
(photopainting by jdb) Â Â Â Â Â
    Amused
When she enters, I’m in her thrall,
and I have no control at all.
Sometimes she carries a riding crop
and drives me on so I can’t stop.
She rides in smoothly from my dreams
inspiring reams and reams and reams
that must be written when I wake.
I’m driven onward for her sake.
If my muse should feel abused,
believe me, she is not amused.
She mounts my back and spurs me on
until all her words are gone––
released upon the teeming pages
while she rides off to join the sages
sitting there upon the shelf,
and I am left with just myself.
About “photopainting”: the photo above was created using only  iPhoto tools from this original taken at my favorite crazy story (Galeria El Triunfo) in Guadalajara yesterday :
Today’s prompt was Muse.
Camp Estrella, Day 4
Today was wild, with rain that caused huge waterfalls off the roof of the tent in the courtyard and caused squeals of joy from the kids, all huddled in the middle. First a visit by a dental assistant who talked about dental hygiene.  I had found little kits in the states with a toothbrush, toothpaste and toothbrush holder as a gift for each child. Lots of noise later as they made bracelets and earrings and then little decorated gift boxes in case they wanted to give them to grandmas or mothers.  Looked like most planned to keep them themselves. More dance, selection of whiskers for the dog and cat masks, a delicious lunch where, surprisingly, all of the kids at my table ate their vegetables first!!! Agustin thought he’d over extended himself when he bought two kilos (four pounds) of tortillas, but they all vanished.  Never underestimate the capacity for tortillas of any local!
Once the kids went home, I asked the Mexican counselors to stay to practice a poem I’d written for the parents. Â We’re doing a show for them tomorrow, then another show on Saturday for the crowd at Agustin’s restaurant. Â The other counselors drifted over to sit around the table with us, Agustin opened a few bottles of wine, and we had a great time trading knowledge of local slang and laughing over Audrey’s hilarious retorts. Â I’d repeat them, but you had to be there. Â I decided to have a party for all of the counselors, Agustin and the kitchen staff who have been feeding us. Â Thursday’s the day and the menu is Mexican! Â You’ll probably be invited along as well.
Here are my very few photos from today: Click on them to enlarge and read the captions.
Scrub Daddy Scores (Scours?) a Family
This is Marilyn, my sister’s across-the-street neighbor.  We went to college together but didn’t know each other then.  A while ago she started reading my blog and she says her heart was especially tugged by the Scrub Daddy Saga, which with this blog is stretching to 4 posts—I think the most I’ve devoted to any topic.  To read the opening episodes, you can go HERE, (Don’t forget to read the the best part––the comments of a representative of the Scrub Daddy corporation who somehow becomes aware of my posting and enters into the rhyme fest,) then HERE, then HERE.
Marilyn arrived one day with a package that included a number of the Scrub family whom I had never met before. Â They came complete with the note below: “Here is what happens when Scrub Daddy and Scrub Mommy get together. Â Va-Va-Voom!! Â Scrub Mommy was there dressed all in pink as well as a new Lemon Fresh Scrub Daddy, a new rectangular Scrub Sonny and–the cutest of the lot–Scrub Baby, meant to clean computer screens. Â I isolated one of the baby twins who now resides on my computer lid between scrubbings, but I do take him frequently to visit as I work in the kitchen. Â He can’t go swimming like the rest of his family, so he remains computer-locked, but a good deal of visiting gets done telepathically as they enjoy seeing each other once again. Â The old Scrub Daddy relays tales of his adventures during his three month overland journey through Mexico and teaches them necessary words such as cocina, limpiar, agua and seco.
Scrubfamily portrait by jdb.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Signs of the West!!!
Not Perpetually in Awe

I will admit that the howling dog in last night’s sunset was awesome, but the pizza wasn’t!!!
Remember back when “awesome” was a word applied to miles of glaciers breaking off in one fell swoop or solar flares or the birth of a child? A few years ago, I had something to say about my feelings over  its present usage, where it is more commonly applied to a good slice of pizza or a friend’s new dress. See my complaints here:
https://judydykstrabrown.com/2014/06/13/empty-prais/
If you want to see what others have to say or to tell us your own thoughts aboug “Awe,” go here:Â https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/awe/