Here’s the link for this prompt: https://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/27/the-changing-seasons-february-2019/
La Manzanilla sunsets are always spectacular, but tonight’s ranked right up there with the best. (Enlarge photos by clicking on them.)
Click photos to enlarge.
Martin, who owns the restaurant where we hold our Saturday writers group meetings, has his sons with him in the restaurant 5 days a week, and sometimes on weekends. He is just an amazing father, as you can see in these photos. You must enlarge to see these darling father/son poses.
On a Candelmas Afternoon
A woman with a white umbrella
strolls the empty plaza,
meeting the long-skirted bead vendor
who makes her hourly crossing from the beach,
her tray still heavy after five hours of trudging under the sweating sun.
Palm shadows of a lazy afternoon
brush over, but do not disturb
the sleeping dog who fills the pavement
in front of “Abarrotes Gloria.”
Under its dusty awning on a bench
meant for customers notably absent,
through one imperceptibly cracked-open eye,
the sleep-nodding senora watches for
anyone to stir the calm of this mid-afternoon.
That eye opening wider
as two young men on loud motorcycles
circle the plaza in Izod shirts
from the used clothing booth of the mercado,
leaving a tree-shaking breeze
that filters through shadows
to stir the fine hairs on her arm.
okcforgottenman pointed out that this poem reminds him of Nanci Griffith’s song “On Grafton Street.” Since it is one of my favorites, too, I’ve asked him to add a link to it here.
jdb phonto for Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge
Click on first photo to enlarge all.
Sunset Susurration
The murmuration of the waves, the breeze’s gentle rush,
the small stain of the setting sun, spread by nature’s brush.
The yellow of her pallet, bold orange and red and pink
complicate the skyline as we watch the sun’s orb sink
like a flame-red new-cast penny set upon the ledge
of that calmer ocean on the horizon’s edge.
See it slip so quickly into the ocean’s slot,
making us forget for now all that we are not.
All of life’s frustrations, all misbegotten schemes,
are flushed into the water to sink into its seams.
This is why we gather to watch the sunset’s beauty.
every single evening—as though it were a duty.
The prompt today was murmuration.
I’m presently spending three months in a small beach town in Mexico where I’ve come every summer for the past six years or more. Tonight I went to the readers’ theater production of “Sylvia.” At the play, when they sounded the 5 minute bell during the intermission, I went to the ladies room. Right after I entered, the announcer said over the microphone, “As soon as the restrooms empty out, we will begin.” Then, as I was sitting there thinking I had plenty of time, I heard, “As soon as Judy DB joins us, we can begin!” I ran water on my hands, drying them on my pants as I ran out of the bathroom and to my seat. As I sat down, I heard someone say, loudly, “At least she washed her hands!” No such thing as privacy in a small town. I guess I’m a local now.
By the way, the photo above isn’t really of the ladies room at the theater. I just couldn’t resist using my favorite bathroom shot of La Mosca one more time. To hear the story behind La Mosca, go HERE.
The art play day I planned for today was actually scheduled for tomorrow, so I’m all set, and a friend just came by and wants me to go dancing, so I’m off. (In case you are confused by that last statement, let me explain that I mistakenly prepared a day early and was all set up and waiting for Jan and Mazinka to arrive when I discovered I was a day off.) Here are some of the preparations I’ve made for tomorrow’s collage art experience. Each of us is to bring a bag for each of the others that has 10 objects for collage in it. I had boards cut and have paint, sand paper and other things to cover the boards with if needed.. Then we will play. Morrie’s supervising some of the “found” wood objects I collected for collage. The bags are my objects for the others (and me.) Tables are covered with oil cloth. One more I will borrow from the beach restaurant next door. He carried it over this morning, then I had to carry it back when I realized I was a day off. Tools, glue and other “needs” are on the table inside ready to be carried out to the porch tomorrow. Morrie will be no help. He’ll probably be tangled up in us all day. Oh well. Perhaps I can keep him up all night and he’ll sleep in tomorrow. Fellow artists arrive at 10. I’m off to Palapa Joe’s to meet Glen and Mario. Below is a photo of the note she left me on my “art” table on the porch today, built from cut-off zip ties left over from “Morrie guarding” the spiral staircase with screening so he won’t bother the new upstair neighbors. Tess and Erin taught him how to climb the stairs–now no way to keep him downstairs and out of the upstairs rooms without this precaution.
Click on first photo to enlarge all and read captions.
After many years of going to La Manz in doses of one week to two months, I’m committing to three months this year. I think that makes me a local, or perhaps an apprentice local. I love this little town on the west coast of Mexico, a few hours below Puerto Vallarta.
The photo prompt this week is “Local.”
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 