Category Archives: Friendship
Notes found on the refrigerator…June 11th.-13th. 2020 QUAR
June 11th. 2020
Thursdays have always seemed to be quite days for me. yet on Fridays, I groom and saddle the horse… and ride her into Monday; tired and happy I walk in with a smile, saddle sore, bow legged, and never wearing spurs.
owl sees at night
daytime sees quick moving grass
best of days are here
June 12th. 2020
I went to the coast today to help an old, self-quarantined friend, Miss Holly. Before heading off from the mountains, I texted her a note. Asking her to text me and let me know what she needed; I would pick it up on my way there. Please text me the list, because I may forget what you have said over your speaker phone; while you were watching the jewelry channel. 😊
The first text listed four items. The second text added another five. The last text included provisions for a bunker and don’t forget toilet paper.
No problem. When I arrived, she sprayed all the bags with disinfectant. I could hear “thru her deep suit diving mask” saying a loud “thank you” and bowing with grace, “ be safe”.
She couldn’t see the smile behind my mask; so I winked at her and told her “I would see you next week. I’ll call and check on you during the week”.
*****
June 13th. 2020
Miss Holly, has sold her house and has moved into a “senior village”. As usual she’s a little paranoid of people spaced within 300 feet or less of her property. She feels safe there but she still locks her door.
After I run her errands, from groceries to printer ink, to medication, and to the next town for a scooter battery…( that was impossible to replace, having sat there for 2 years melted to the casing). I would sit, as I usually do, a little tired and smiling, on Miss Holly’s porch. I open a bottle of beer, lite a cigarette and take out my notebook and given the space to write, enjoying where I am.
I’ll often look up to see strolling villagers. I think there’s about a hundred of them; widowers, widows, old couples and friends. Not all stroll by, but those that do wave and we exchange our gratitude for the day.
Flower between rock
Rain washes the grass true green
Time is age well spent
Ever-Changing Tide
Under slow shrinking shadows of a receding August sun, squatting near a dribbling tidal pool, four children stare attentively to a small snail; as it furrows and squiggles through the sand, racing to meet the outgoing tide. They were sent there to “think”. To work out the “argument” they had among themselves.
They were told to go to the cove; “to seriously think about what each other had said and what they shouted to each other”.
All four, ignoring each other, watched quietly as the small snail furrowed and scrunched up little piles of sand behind it. The trail squiggled slightly left, then slightly right. It was heading towards the trickling edge of an out-going tidal stream.
Like corrected mistakes,
Never straight with their curves and bends;
Listening to instinct, racing the tide, the snail
Made steady headway towards the sea.
The children glanced up occasionally to see what the other was doing. They could see the tide ebbing away in a methodical hush. The sun sinking, shed its soft orange and crimson color glistening on the expanded beach sand.
No one was talkin’. All of them, were still trying to remember what the stupid argument was all about anyway? It wasn’t a fight! Hey! None of us cried! We didn’t tell anybody to shut up! That’s for sure. we just had… an aah, aah, a disagreement!…as their minds ping-ponged in thoughts and rattled on.
With purpose, the snail inched on
Ignoring the circling birds and their potential grip
For an eventual fatal drop to the flats;
Between shallow tidal pools
And, dry jagged rocks.
It was getting cooler. They hardly took their eyes off the steady movement of the snail. Except of course, to sneak a peek; checking on each other. They began inching themselves closer together to keep warm and hoping the others “weren’t still mad at them” for whatever they said, or for whatever they got wrong.
Never dawdling, clinging to its direction
Pushing the sand aside, racing to catch the tide,
The snail forged on.
Tide water was slipping into drying sand with each forward push and receding splash. The children, realizing it was getting late, were looking up at each other more frequently. They could smell supper on the camp grill. They were ready to go back.
Approaching the last rolling ripple of retreating tide
The snail stopped, as if out of breath.
But, only for the moment.
Suddenly, the ocean swelled and peaked into a fast rushing froth, it grabbed and pulled the snail. It slid, tumbled, snapped up in surf and foam, flipped, and swallowed into the bubbling, boiling sea.
All four children, now on their feet watching, caught sight of the snail scooped up in retreating swirling sand and glittering pebbles of a retreating wave. “There!” The children shouted to each other, pointing to a distant crescent wave pulling away from the shore, “There” on the surface, sitting tall, proud and smiling, was the snail. He looked back at them, waved and shouted an exhausted but jubilant, “Tally Ho!”
They simultaneously faced each other, eye to eye. “Huh?” Then, pumping their fists, all exclaimed, “It made it! YES!” Then grabbed each other’s hands with a burst of laughter; apologies were unanimously accepted. They skipped and dragged their feet making their own squiggly trail, left then right along the warm drying beach.
Supper on the grill, chocolate milk, and stories of a “swooshed up snail they ‘FOREVER’ followed,” were animated in the evenings’ bright open fire light of flaming marshmallows, burning, blown out, and squished on chocolate squares between graham crackers and pushed into sticky lips with anticipated delight.
I heard it all slide into the clapping sound of incoming waves announcing the tides transition from low to high. It was bedtime, clean up, and evening prayer. Kissing me on the cheek and with a blessing, they all took their day in stride, sharing in the applause of the snail’s completed race and an encore for the ever-changing tide.
Listening to the tide, as we watched the children disappear into the tent, I on one knee poke the dying fire. Good thoughts were sent to the children; forgetting their disagreement without anger, melancholy, or disappointment. And, a mindful poke from Katie’s marshmallow stick, smiling at each other, as she spread the dimming embers, for a happy jubilant snail.
Draft 12: Pine Cone Diary… Hermit Island, Me.
An October Morning
Leaves are dancing in rhythm with the wind.
Frost embraces its partner —holding Fall within.
Colorful chaos prances through woods and on soil.
I kick dust-up behind me —before it settles cold.
I go forward alone, remembering an old friend,
humming those ole “dirt road blues” again.
The Soul of Maurice J. *[A dedication to Paul Lenzi]
*( written 5 yrs ago with another of my family’s Patriarch’s Passing)
It was three days
And three nights
Before he could rise again.
Death invites itself
Long before we receive
Its invitation.
The Soul with grace
And poise
Accepts the moment.
Who then is preoccupied
With judgement
Of this one;
Of this mist
That is dried by the sun
And returns as the pond?
The passage
Is insignificant
If balance has been achieved.
Only the witnesses
Are important
As another soul is freed.
Bobby, Michelle, and Priscilla [A Mid-1950’s Tale]
Lightning in a thunderstorm flashing —streaking through the sky.
Hidden in shadows —frightened by the glow;
Richard ran home in darkened skies
before the thunder —could shake the ground.
Quickly finding a door unlocked, he opened it.
Kerosene cook stove glowing; he took his seat at the table with a sigh
—finding himself, not alone, with baby Bobby
and his older sisters, Michelle and Priscilla inside.
(this day after 5 yrs. having been separated by age and gender, we left together from St. Peter’s Orphanage, holding each other’s hands, knowing this is, are only home)
Love’s Illusion~ rev:71a
Yes, Love, I was born with the first waxing moon.
Bald, without a thought for a tea’s afternoon;
—we embraced, dancing in every crook and cranny of my mind,
only to find myself as no one, and finding no place there.
~~~~
Oh failing heart, why did you forgo me?
To enter space where I would thirst?
Then, drowned me in a sea of deserts bleached sand.
Perhaps, in the essence of moonlight and sunlight
—I will find You, where their lights both meet, and see
what I have never lost nor have ever found.
Notes Found On The Refrigerator March 2018
I don’t want to do the dishes!
Screw it!
I have a saved pocketed packet—
from Wendy’s four for four dollars;
salt and pepper, fork, and a napkin.
I’ll eat out of the can.
*****
They complained I stayed in bed all day.
That’s not true.
I get up to eat
and go to the bathroom.
*****
[Chorus]
I have spent my life pleasing others
Whether friends, lovers, or out of respectability.
I did it without regret for the experiences.