Overheard at Booth 2: Cutting Hours

I can't believe it!  My wife actually said she wants me to cut back on my hours!  She says I'm working too hard and not paying enough attention to her and the kids.  I couldn't believe it.  I mean, we are in the middle of a pandemic here!  People are losing their jobs right and left.. of all times to cut back on hours, this is so most def not that time!

Overheard at Table 1: Viral Load

So I was hearing over the weekend that the viral load can be different for each person and people may even have the virus but never show any symptoms and just transmit it and never get sick and just move on.  Even if they test everyone, there might be some people who won't get tested because they won't feel they need to.  That means the virus can hide and explode again.  It's a nasty and tricky little bugger to be sure!

Overheard at Booth 4: Poetry Movements

I just noticed... or just became aware... or just
woke
to the realization
that there are no poetry "movements"
currently.

In times past, there were surges of poetical movements,
something that identified generations,
something that brought forth new life
in the way that this artistic expression was used,
a new way of speaking poetry, a
new way of living through poetry ...

now, it seems as though there is nothing

No Romanticism,
No Harlem Renaissance,
No Modernism,
No Beat,
No Post-Modernism,

One might say that 1960s rock and roll
merged poetry with music, and perhaps that is where
poetry now lives, through rock
and then through rap
and hip hop.

Perhaps the spoken word movement of the 80s
and the poetry slams of the 90s
turned poetry into performance art in the 21st century,

But that seems to be to be more the method of
transmission, than of a coherent, unifying
theme that brings all humans together
to better understand the moment in which we are living.

Right now, it seems as though
we are all writing poetry alone
alone
alone
alone
on our phones,
desperately hitting post
send
and praying that we will
see some small bubble
pop up in a moment,
a little trigger that tells
us,
someone has read us,
someone has heard us,
someone out there,
for an instant,
clicked a button

to validate
the painful loneliness

of our self-isolation.



MR
2020-0405

Overheard at Booth 2: A Prayer for Forgiveness in the Time of Corona

A Prayer for Forgiveness in the Time of Corona

Forgive us, Lord,
for our concupiscence,
for our arrogance,
for our haughtiness,

for our blindness.

Forgive us, Lord,
for not preparing for this day,
for pretending that
the problem could be left
to our children to solve.

Forgive us our iniquities,
for the hardness of our hearts,
forgive us our racism, our xenophobia,
our willingness to blame others
for a virus that sprang from the world
You created
and which we have abused.

Forgive us our vain thoughts:
thoughts that one group created this
to kill another group, without evidence,
thoughts that one race, one country,
one government,
created the virus to kill another race,
country, government, without evidence.

Forgive us our insatiable delight
at following conspiracy theories.

All is vanity.  Vanity.

Forgive us for coughing on Asians,
Forgive us for coughing on Jews
Forgive us for coughing on cops,
Forgive us for coughing on Latinos,
Forgive us for not covering our coughs,

Forgive us for not loving each other
the way we love ourselves.

Forgive us for not loving you
above our own self-love.

Forgive us for spitting on others, Lord,
for what we do to the least of us,
we do to You.

Forgive us, Lord, for believing
more in ourselves than we
ever did in You.
Forgive us for choosing religion
over faith,
and for choosing ourselves
over others.

Forgive us for not looking to the
mountains for where our help comes from,
and for not keeping our minds
on those things of beauty
and of good report.
Forgive us for allowing ourselves
to be carried away like spoils
by our philosophies and our vain deceit.

Forgive us for not ever asking
where were we
when You spoke the universe into existence.
Where were we
when you formed the particles of every atom
of every world?
Where were we
when you lit the spark of innumerable
suns and stars?
Where were we
when you walked with ancient
fauna through ancient flora
of the world which we
now only inhabit
and which we have destroyed
in much the same way that
this virus now destroys our bodies?

And so, for this, Lord,
I do thank You
for this time.
I thank You for this
pause in our endless, ceaseless vanity
of running about, bowing to Mammon.
I thank You
for bringing us into our homes,
our closets, for prayer to You,
instead of our vain repetitions of
our public mantras to wealth,
pretending they are to You,
as though we are nothing more than some
modern Balaam.

Thank You for these moments,
and I pray that our prayers
now center on You
more than ourselves,
and that our hands help others
as much as they help ourselves,
and thank You
for loving us so much,
that You gave us Your example,
Your son, to die for us, and
Your spirit, to dwell in us,
so that we may have a peace
in this world
that passes all our understanding,
and a life in eternity with You
that surpasses all joy.

Thank You, Lord.

In the holy name of Jesus Christ, I pray.

Amen
and Amen.








MR
2020-0330
2020-0404

Overheard at the Counter: Hágame

Hágame una más
una más para la calle,
me voy a buscar la estrella
más distante
y durante el camino
quiero una memoria de ti,
solo una memoria sencilla.
un abrazo
o besito
o sonrisa.

tu sonrisa sería lo mejor.

Overheard at Table 3: Talking with my Drummer

Tommy: Hey, man, about the track we're gonna lay down tomorrow...

Mickey: Yeah?

Tommy: Now, I just want you to hear me out, OK...

Mickey: OK.

Tommy: Now, on this track, I have this perfect sound in my head, and that perfect sound ... well, you're gonna need to use brushes.

Mickey: No.

Tommy: Now, Mickey...

Mickey: Dude!  You KNOW my rule!

Tommy: Now, don't get mad ...

Mickey:  MICKEY DON'T BRUSH!!  YOU KNOW THIS!!! MICKEY DON'T BRUSH!!!

Tommy: Jeez, Mickey, chill...

Mickey: MICKEY!  DON'T!  BRUSH!!!!!

Tommy: FINE FINE FINE!  How about just using a shaker then?

Mickey: Yeah.  That's cool.

Overheard at Table 3: Cooped Up

and then we could be cooped up for weeks and how is that gong to be OK for anyone's sanity? hell sometimes I have to get out of the house just to get away from my own crazy... I just don't see how so many people can stand other people's crazy!