Poem of the Day: Untitled September 14th

How are you with your back to the ground?

Pinned down by fire on all sides?

You dare not lift your head above the sight line.

Some people feel the same every time they open their eyes;

did you know that?

It seems such a harsh comparison: to compare waking

in your own bed, your head on your own pillow,
to being hunkered down in a foxhole with the night sky peppered
with explosions from shells so close that your eardrums burst.

But some people awake like that.

How can the quiet of the morning be, for some,

so much like the encroaching fear of having your
flesh flayed off your skeleton and your bones shattered to dust?

It seems such a sad thing,

But here we are:

With our eyes open, and the neighbors’ dogs barking somewhere

in the distance of the neighbors’ yard.

And now it is time to lift our shoulders,

above that sight line,

and face the fires and the explosions of this tragic little war

that we call our daily lives.




MR
2018-0914

Overheard at Booth 4: Mack and Kris Discuss Madame Secretary

Kris: I love Madam Secretary.  Halfway through Season three.  Just LOVE that woman.  Tough as hell.


Mack:  Yeah, she reminds me a lot of you.   Only without the sailor's mouth.


Kris:  Fuck you.


Mack: My case in point.

Overheard at Table 2: Dad's Pot Belly

At Table 2 sits a middle-aged man with his middle-aged wife and their late-teens son.   The mom is telling the son how proud she is that he's been working out and he's looking good, fit, and in good shape.


The son says, "Yeah, it takes a lot of dedication, going to the gym and all.  Hitting it every morning at 5am before I go into class at U of H.  But I just remember seeing dad one day mowing the lawn without a shirt on, and really sorry to say this, Dad, but I just don't ever want to get a belly like what you got."


"Hey!" says the husband.  "This belly is the proud result of two decades of your mom's fine cooking!"


The wife reaches over and pats his rotund midriff protrusion.  "That and all the Wendy's and Burger King you keep sneaking for lunch," she says, laughing.


"They're all made with love," the man replies.  "They are all made with love."