John Prine "All the Best"

1990.   Anglo/Irish TV, which is really just another soundstage at the Zen and Tao Acoustic Café

Overread at Table 1: A Fold of Sun by Magdalena Zurawski

A Fold of Sun

Magdalena Zurawski

We decided I
should go alone
on foot. I  

would find
him in
the pharmacy. If     

he said ‘In
the head of
God all propositions    

have existed    
always,’ we would make    
the exchange.

He was standing    
in front of the     
calamine lotion.

He spoke to the
air. I slipped  
the envelope into


his pocket and   
bought a topical     
analgesic to


avoid suspicion.      
When I left, I           
had a face    


again, could open
an account, drink         
coffee in the


sun. On the street two    
women talked     
of money. I paid them


no mind. I    
could now always      
walk with my light


to the front.  

Copyright © 2016 by Magdalena Zurawski. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 21, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.

Overheard at Table 2: What Our Days Are Like Now

Billy: Feel like we're living in London during the Blitz.


Joe: How do you know what it was like living in London during the Blitz?  That was 3 generations ago!


Jim: Well, this must be what it must've felt like.


Bob: There are no bombs falling from the sky.


Billy: Why does it feel like that, though?


Joe: It's the tension of our condition which leads to uncertainty and anxiety.


Jim: Someday, there will be one word what sums up that general condition.


Bob: Trump.


Billy: Yup.


Joe: Yup


Jim: Yup.


Bob: And a fourth to seal the deal: YUP.

Poem: from 360s: Polaroids

Polaroids

Float back to yourself,

Thirty seconds down
You will have a memory.

 

MR

2017-0118

Poem of the Day: The Shoelace by Charles Bukowski

The Shoelace

a woman, a
tire that’s flat, a
disease, a
desire: fears in front of you,
fears that hold so still
you can study them
like pieces on a
chessboard…
it’s not the large things that
send a man to the
madhouse. death he’s ready for, or
murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood…
no, it’s the continuing series of small tragedies
that send a man to the
madhouse…
not the death of his love
but a shoelace that snaps
with no time left …
The dread of life
is that swarm of trivialities
that can kill quicker than cancer
and which are always there -
license plates or taxes
or expired driver’s license,
or hiring or firing,
doing it or having it done to you, or
roaches or flies or a
broken hook on a
screen, or out of gas
or too much gas,
the sink’s stopped-up, the landlord’s drunk,
the president doesn’t care and the governor’s
crazy.
light switch broken, mattress like a
porcupine;
$105 for a tune-up, carburetor and fuel pump at
sears roebuck;
and the phone bill’s up and the market’s
down
and the toilet chain is
broken,
and the light has burned out -
the hall light, the front light, the back light,
the inner light; it’s
darker than hell
and twice as
expensive.
then there’s always crabs and ingrown toenails
and people who insist they’re
your friends;
there’s always that and worse;
leaky faucet, christ and christmas;
blue salami, 9 day rains,
50 cent avocados
and purple
liverwurst.

or making it
as a waitress at norm’s on the split shift,
or as an emptier of
bedpans,
or as a carwash or a busboy
or a stealer of old lady’s purses
leaving them screaming on the sidewalks
with broken arms at the age of 80.

suddenly
2 red lights in your rear view mirror
and blood in your
underwear;
toothache, and $979 for a bridge
$300 for a gold
tooth,
and china and russia and america, and
long hair and short hair and no
hair, and beards and no
faces, and plenty of zigzag but no
pot, except maybe one to piss in
and the other one around your
gut.

with each broken shoelace
out of one hundred broken shoelaces,
one man, one woman, one
thing
enters a
madhouse.

so be careful
when you
bend over.








- Charles Bukowski

Overheard at Table 2: What Happens When Trump Takes Over?

Lucky Moran: So here's the deal, every time I see that dipshit tweeting something stupid I just have to tweet back "You're an idiot" and the guy keeps on tweeting stupid things that make everybody freak out and do other stupid things and we're all running around like chickens with our heads lobbed off and we can't find our assess anywhere and now I'm wondering, "hell, this guy wants to take over the CIA.  Are those of us who insult him on Twitter going to be marked for termination?"

Otis Redwing: Speak for yourself.  The only thing I ever tweet out are cute puppy videos.

Overheard at Table 3: Making Sense of Work

OK, so let’s see here:

The Vietnamese thinks that Latinos are arrogant, but she wants to make friends with a co-worker only because the co-worker is Vietnamese.

The Latino blows off the white woman in order to talk to the white man.

The Latino is concerned that the German doesn’t know what he is doing, and the Vietnamese told the Latino that the German is overwhelmed, and that they told the Swiss about it and the Swiss hasn't done anything about it yet, because the Polish wives of the German and the Swiss are sisters.

The Americans are silent.

We have no idea how the Brazilian fits into all of this.

Relaxing afternoon on the farm

Overheard at the Counter: Happy New Year

Verble Gherulous: Happy New Year!

John Steppenwolf: To 2017!  May she be a damn sight better than 2016!

Lucky Moran: Glad that year's over!

Otis Redwing: It wasn't all bad.  The Panda population is growing.

The Barista: Coffee has been proven to help curb cancer.

Niall Carter: And for better or worse, we all now know that complacency is death!

Verble Gherulous:  ... and for those of us who made it through, we still have each other.   God bless you all, and here's to the new year!