Posts for June 28, 2022 (page 4)

We squeezed in tight to a semi-circular booth
Held Court in a Tilt-a-Whirl swirl
Placed decorated talking stick in our prize elder Suzanne’s hand
Tales of Monastery seclusion following the Rio Grande
Listening to river’s wisdom as the rise and fall of rapids talk story over patient rocks 

An Aristocratic transplant to a high desert commune
Sparse clothing cave dwelling silence journaling a soul’s surrender

Fried food spicy hanging red hot peppers on porches remind us who came here first
Deep words lie waiting in a tiny blue book set atop the toilet
Recovery’s wisdom keeps it simple on the throne

Early spring in the high desert confetti snow descends in airy puffs  
Chilling bites sting like a scorpion’s tale
 
We thaw weaving stories in and out of ‘where-we’ve-been-and where-we’re going’
Was that our last good-bye?  

I picture you now eyes closed sitting composed doing your inner work
Cards align and wrap you gently in your tribe’s blanket painted with many stories

Wisdom murmurs in silence and gives you time and space as you seal a life 
as sweet as a cup of Mexican Hot Chocolate

I once was a powder puff

A dandelion fluff

A teenage girl

Floating through air

Holding court in

Our booth, us girls

Ordering cherry cokes

Studying teen magazines

With engineered haircuts

Shoes not for comfort

Arriving home to play

Card games of Fish

Writing in my diary

Though some days

Climbing trees

Playing soldiers with

Neighbor boys

Saw the second coming of Jesus last Saturday. 
You know how I knew for sure? 

I saw Him with arms open wide, 
giving free hugs to everyone at Pride, 
adorned with all the colors of the glorious rainbow 
His father created as a promise of better days to come, 
now worn to show boundless love for all humans
no matter how or who they love 

and, try as I might, 
I can’t imagine anything truer to my Jesus than that. 

Some days, my mind
is like a thrift store,

racks of beautiful
colors and patterns

streaming through the
window, but all I can

lay hold of are the rags
in the bargain bin.

I am not
ambitious
by nature.

I do not
place targets
to aim at.

I do not “set”
“personal”
“goals.”

When I try,
I rebel
at the attempt –

Who am I
to tell me
what to do?

What I do want,
I can not know
I have achieved:

To understand.
To be
understood.

Already the cart paths
have chipped,
sprouted ankle-high
weeds green as
the goose shit spotting
constellations on the asphalt.

The brush has turned
the tin-roof shed
into a rusted secret.

Only a few yards away,
men scatter like pill bugs
to their polished trucks.

How long can a rock
keep its head up?

Stop for a breath
and the earth pulls
you back into her breast
and covers you
in moss and blossoms.

This is the struggle
of a species handed
machetes at birth.

Perhaps we set down
the blades, let things
fall together, stop
being ashamed
of kissing our mother
on the cheek.

                     Before he finishes his beer

			My friend tells me:
			“There’s a place you have to go—
			Hathaway, Montana…

			Before I ask, he tells me:
			“Story has it a nun ran away
			from the convent

			& stopped there for gas…”
			He takes a long sip from his bottle
			& looks at me to see if I’m listening.		

			“She drank with the owner,
			the bartender. They drank all day,
	       & by the time night arrived,

			she made him an offer 
			on his place,
			& he took her up on it…”

			My friend looks at me,
			non verbally asking me
			if I’m going to ask about her 

			offer.
			I don’t.
			He chugs his beer.

			“Her name is Star.
			How about that name
			for a nun?”

			I don’t answer his question,
			but I’m wondering about the name 
			of her bar.

			He looks around the bar we’re in:
			“Do you know how to tell a Baptist
			from a Catholic in a bar?

	       I shake my head.
			“The Catholic will speak to you.”

The mind makes stories

relying on the five senses,

dependent on synapses’ skills, 

right, wrong or on a sliding scale.

The mind hears stories

relying on the narrator,

dependent on the narrator’s skill,

entertaining, helpful, or otherwise.

The mind sees stories that the mind 

wants to see, and, sometimes, 

stories the mind doesn’t want,

right, wrong, or entertaining or not.

The mind, a world all on its own,

works all on its own until

it doesn’t. Then, slowly or quickly,

it pauses too often, or it stops, altogether,

or it falters just before it closes, or it closes.

I always said to myself “I will not grow old gracefully”
Fighting it tooth and nail: whitening, painting, covering. Running.
From time, from myself.
But I was younger then and the fight seemed like a battle to be won.
Today, I have stopped running and the decades contained within these 18 months have caught up with me.
The fine line between “MILF” and “Grannie”, a prescription and wrong step away.
In the mirror I see a glimpse of my future self: silver blonde hair, laugh lines -if I’m lucky.
Sunspots from days outdoors in the fresh air where nothing matters but dirt
Because that’s where I’ll end up.
And the only way to get there
Is through Grace

A found poem drawn from the New York Times, June 27, 2022 

They died in San Antonio as temperatures topped 100 degrees.
The truck was abandoned near a salvage yard.
It was a refrigeration truck but there was no working A.C.
                                             It was discovered by a worker.
                                             The doors were partially open.
                                             A number of bodies were inside.
People taken to hospitals were hot to the touch. Officials did not say
                                             how the people died.
                                             Extreme heat was thought to be the cause.
The death toll appears to be one of the highest in recent years.
The mayor said, “I urge you to think compassionately.”
A woman who came to pray said, “It’s sad. And now I’m hearing
                                             there were kids.”
Her husband said, “They jump off the train and get picked up.”
A congressman wondered if the Secretary of Homeland Security will                                                                                         even mention their names.
San Antonio locals known the area as a “drop-off spot” for migrants.
Police were searching for the driver who abandoned the truck.
                                             They had canines going through the woods.                                            More than 44,000 illegal crossings recorded last month.
Governor Abbott wants to defend the country from migrants.
They are driven by violence, natural disasters and COVID.
San Antonio is a major transit point. He’s spent billions                                                                                                                on border guards. But it hasn’t stopped                                                                                                  the flow of migrants. But he has statistics.
The governor points to deadly open border policies                                                                                                                       and deadly consequences.
                                             He says, “These deaths are on Biden.”
Migrants from India, Russia, Senegal and elsewhere
                                             cannot expeditiously be removed
                                             because their countries cannot accept them
                                             and so they can enter the U.S.
It was not clear where the people who were found on Monday                                                                                                    had come from.
The governor’s roundups are dubbed “Operation Lone Star.”
                                              He pays for buses to take migrant to D.C.
                                              and drop them off at the U.S. Capitol.
                                              He is a regular on Fox News.
A pandemic rule expelled migrants swiftly. President Biden used it
                                              to turn away millions. But canceled Trump’s                                                                                        stay-in-Mexico policy.
                                              The pandemic rule will be lifted and
                                              Federal officials expect thousands daily.
                                              The policy has also given migrants  to come.
                                              Biden will appeal.
Beto O’Rourke wants human smuggling rings dismantled
                                               and replaced with legal avenues.
Archbishop Garcia-Siller said on Twitter,
                                               “Lord have mercy on them….
                                               The lack of courage to deal with immigrations                                                                                     is killing and destroying lives.”
As temperatures climb, migrants dehydrate and die.
The Frio River west of San Antonio has been drying up.