General

Always a Happy Day

 

On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

 

On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.

 

And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born….
 

A Song on the End of the World

by Czeslaw Milosz (excerpt)

Rescue Me

I ________________ [super hero name] will act responsible to serve the community, protect innocent bystanders,further

the knowledge of science and ensure the rights of all to the pursuit of libery,justice and equality. I will never allow

personal friendships to influence superhuman conduct. I will not accept payment for my superhuman powers.

And lastly,I will always be on time for Superhero and  community meetings. [signed] ______________

 on this date ____________

 

 

Checkmate

For this day’s game was notably not to be;
Today was not for the King’s move or mine,
But for the Bishop’s; and the board is empty.
The words that I have waited for more days
Than are to now my tallage of gray hairs              
Have come at last, and at last you are free.
So, for a time, there will be no more war;
And you are going home to Camelot.”
 
“To Camelot?”…
  “To Camelot.” But his words              
Were said for no queen’s hearing. In his arms
He caught her when she fell; and in his arms
He carried her away. The word of Rome
Was in the rain. There was no other sound.

 

                                                                 VI  Lancelot [excerpt]

                                                                 author: Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935).  Collected Poems. 1921.

 

                                                                

Feed Mill, Conway,Wa.

 This is the feed mill a mile from  my floating home in the Skagit Wildlife area. It makes the whole of downtown Conway smell like ‘cream of wheat’ cereal. The whole of it being the Conway Tavern, the tropical fish shop, the old bank building now a private residence, a clothing boutique,two junk  shoppes (also known as antique stores)  and the post office. Oh, and I forgot the ‘Sons of Norway’ hall is down the street.

Training Wheels

How to Get to Green Springs

by Dave Smith

Nobody knows exactly when it fell off the map
or what the pressures were on its flooding river.
The hedge, the tottering mailbox, were gone. That dimple
of light from the bicycle that raised itself to creak
at noon across a clattering bridge names my father.
His blood silent as a surging wish drags this town
lost through my body, a place I can get back to only
by hunch and a train whistle that was right on time.

But time and trains were never right in Green Springs,
West Virginia. What color could map the coal’s grime,
shacks shored against the river every March, mail
left to rot because no one answered to occupant?
Farmers low on sugar cursed the heat and left bad cigars
boys would puff back to clouds where they dreamed
of girls naked as their hands under outfield flies.
Scores were low. There were no springs for the sick.
Women lined their walls with the Sears catalog, but
the only fur they ever had was a warbled rabbit.
To get here think of dirt, think of night leaking,
the tick of waterbugs, a train held in Pittsburgh.