We're not in Kansas anymore

There is a tree in the hallway.  The color of everything feels a bit off but it is the tree that has my attention.  Am I outside looking in at it, and if so, what is a tree doing inside?  If I were someone who took drugs, I’m guessing this might be a normal vision, but I don’t, so what’s going on?  I’d like someone to explain this to me. 

Maybe this is a tinted window.  That would explain the odd color.  I can’t really tell where the light is coming from.  I don’t see a distinguishable shaft of sunlight.  Just what is this place and how did I get here?

Is that even a tree or is it a stack of pots with a plant in the top one?   Maybe I need a CAT scan. 

 

 

 

Self-inspection

 

When I reach the end will I regret having spent my life writing?  What end did I expect?  Was this a quest for something?  A search for purpose?  Will I have wasted my life playing with inactive verbs and mannequin nouns? 

I have turned thoughts into images, ideas into stories, all the time, not even once, riding a seahorse or taking an active part in anything requiring sunscreen.  I have wiggled my fingers above this keyboard as if they knew what they were doing.  Planting words and spreading commas like fertilizer.  Believing things would grow while I remained just an onlooker, sitting along the sidelines watching the sprinkler rotate back and forth. 

Always missing were the sound effects.  With any luck the last thing I ever write will be…

 

Ta Daaa…

 

 

 

It looks much more serious in Russian

 Пришло пора, — сказал Морж, — Поговорить о разном: О башмаках, О кораблях, О сургуче и печатях, О капусте И о королях.

The time has come

the walrus said

to talk of many things,

of shoes and ships

and sealing wax

of cabbages and kings

 

Bagged & Tagged

 

Locked up in the evidence room, the DNA was awaiting trial, all set to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

The surprising twist in the trial came when the defense attorney showed actual footage of the defendant using this brush on Margie, the family dog, who can prove she was chasing the cat at the time in question. 

 

 

 

The other side of Art

 

Only the shadow of the pen is real.

Eternal Schwinn's

 

That we are steering the ship is mostly an illusion.  Some would have you believe our fates are already written, we are simply turning the pages as we go.  If that is the case, I have to ask, written by whom?  There seem too many variables, odd occurrences and random events for things to be following a predetermined path. 

I might consider that instead of a prewritten chart we are on, it could be an etch-a-sketch.  Each time we stumble or wander off in the wrong direction, the overall picture gets erased, lines disappear and suddenly we are on a new path.  That makes more sense. 

Because Lucy fell off her bike and hurt her knee, in high school she didn’t make the track team.  Because she was not active in sports, her interests changed and she found herself, years later, teaching French class, which caused her to be invited to a party where she met Francois. 

Eventually they were married and moved to France, where Francois opened a cute, little bakery on a narrow cobblestone road.  Lucy, when not teaching English at the local school, would help Francois by delivering loaves of bread.  One day, with a basket full of fresh bread on her handlebars, her front tire jerked sideways and she went tumbling down to the road, striking her knee.

 

Fate, or cosmic humor? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Slight Breeze

 

I figured out how to catch the breeze and so I grabbed on and gently flew across the neighborhood.  As I traveled over the yards that had dogs, they looked up as I went over and barked at me.  Some, of course, got scared and ran and hid.  I seemed to pick up a little speed as I traveled over the various ponds and small lakes in the area.  That surprised me and I almost lost my grip. 

Other than occasionally being hit by flying insects, the adventure was fun, and I don’t know if I flew into them or they flew into me.  I guess it doesn’t matter.  I’m sure it surprised them more than me.  The other thing I had not counted on was just how much the wind swirls around.  Because it is something we can’t see, we don’t think about it dancing about as it goes along.  

I should mention also that there are all different kinds of smells in the air.  Just one more thing we can’t see, but Wow!  Some are quite strong.  Several times I had to hold my breath.  As I got carried along on the breeze, it dawned on me that I was going to have to let go and do it without hurting myself in the process.  I wish I had thought of that before grabbing on.

 

 

 

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