Been in a bit of a funk due to health, finances, a general existential ennui – haven’t even posted my new poems.
The health is Lady’s battle with eye cancer (successful it seems) and my right shoulder replacement in 11 days. Already have a metal hip, a metal left shoulder, two metal rods in my neck, and a 2-year unhealed broken kneecap, and set off metal detectors.
The finances are like Sisyphus – eternal. Born poor, live poor, looks as if I’ll die poor.
In spite of all this I am a rich and lucky man – have Lady’s love, a fine cat, cool friends, decent in-laws, and a past fully lived. Plus I had a fine poetry reading at Mac’s Backs last week.
Here’re my two most recent poems, plus a few news updates.
~ ~ ~
Conversation with Wife 37
“Sweat’s so weird,
I woke last night in a cold sweat.”
That’s a James brown song.
“Think it’s menopause.”
How long’s that last?
“10 years.”
10 years?!?!
You mean you bleed for 30 years
then spend another 10 getting over it?
“Yes, aren’t women wonderful?
All to make more of us.”
Why can’t we just order babies from catalogues?
“Are catalogues how we get cats?
Dogs from dogalogues?”
Captains from the Captain’s log.
“Humans from humanalogs.””
I used to belog to a club,
but they wooden let me stay.
– Smith, 9.28.2017
~ ~ ~
Lady K’s cat scan came back negative for cancer, which implies her eye cancer has not spread. They’ll check again in 6 months. Doc says her eye tumor is shrinking, and she has only a 2% chance of it spreading.
~ ~ ~
Status Report 259
I hunger within
for the things without,
yet the things without
cannot feed me
for they lack substance.
– Smith, 9.29.2017
~ ~ ~
Electricity was out 14 hours. Our neighbor saw the pole go down. Said a man cut across the traffic circle half a block away, blew his tire on the curb, gunned the gas, raced through the red light, lost control, hit the electric pole half a block the other way and knocked it over. Our neighbor is a male nurse. His first thought was stroke, so he ran over to see if he could help, saw no signs of stroke, smelled no alcohol, so his best guess based on the way the guy was acting is heroin. 12 hours later as we watch the repair, we hear an explosive KEERACK right across the street and see a massive tree branch as large as a medium tree fall, missing a man’s house by a few inches. He comes out, sees there’s no house damage, and says “Looks like I have some firewood.”
