Small Town Boy

I’ve been in hospital for a week after testing positive. Looks like I’ll go home Wednesday I feel the love of family and friends From Fla to Alaska From california to illinois From Portland to the Dallas From the coast to the mountains Love abounds Love heals God is love; Love is God But especially Betsy And my Charisma. Go in peace and love and be healed. Dear lord let me accept…

Waiting…

I’m waiting for breakfast to be served.

Waiting for Betsy’s birthday and Thanksgiving.

Waiting for church to resume.

I can’t avoid it.

Waiting comes with everything.

You might as well be patient.

I have been called impulsive.

Impulsive is the opposite of waiting and implies impatience.

And so I’m waiting and thinking…

About being impulsive.

I’m waiting for big things…

I’ve had so many wonderful thoughts today …

And I’ve forgotten nearly all of them.

The problem was s that I remember that they were wonderful thoughts,

But I forgot what they were about.

I had a thought about a wonderful afternoon snack…. what was it?

I had a great idea about doing something with my Golden Doodle, Toby. What was it?

I remembered my brothers’ birthday because it…

My girlfriend, Charisma, has family in The Dalles, Oregon.

On Sunday last we drove nearly three hours from Corvallis for a visit with her mom, Charleen, and her sister Audrey.

After lunch Audrey suggested I take Toby my 2.5 year old Golden Doodle to meet her cows.

She asked if Toby had seen cows before and I told her no.

As we walked from the house to the cow pen, Toby sniffed. New…

Sitting in my car in Bi-Mart’s parking lot,

I was privileged to witness a woman talking

To an elderly couple in an SUV across from me,

Who was talking loudly and with animation about

The other presidential candidate, the other side.

She went on and on saying her candidate was the only one for the job,

Complaining that some didn’t understand him,

Including young voters, who all agreed were too…

I am living in Denial.

I have lived here for a very long time.

I didn’t know that I lived here.

I saw others living here, but not me.

See, I was already in denial about living in Denial.

I have discovered Denial, the place where I live, recently.

It took years and years to find out where I was living.

I am in denial about death, loneliness, global warming, politics, and pineapple.

I am most certainly in denial about…

Start by telling me what you liked most about the recent isolation due to the pandemic?

I liked the reduction of automobile use and the good environmental impact.

Did that have a color associated with it?

Green, I guess. And multicolored like the flowers we saw in the neighborhood.

And a size? How big was it?

All around me, in the immediate neighborhood.

How did it make you feel?

Two carts

Two carts, small ones, one from Safeway, one from Bi-Matt were found together in a corner of the Sunset parking lot.

They were clearly runaways.

Cart people would be seeking them out, one from Safeway, one from Bi-Mart.

But for the moment they had found each other in the sheltered nook out of wind and rain.

Away from the hustle and bustle of their respective stores.

It…

I don’t get it.

Where has all the quiet come from?

Many are masked and isolated, socially distanced,

Because of the great pandemic of 2020.

We sit at home,

In the quiet.

I have been quiet myself from tome to time,

Meditation, prayer, school, church,

So I recognize it.

You can hear the birds.

The trees are singing spring, quietly.

But I ask again, where has all…

No one was in the lobby and the sign on the door said absolutely no visitors!

No one was in the dining room and tables and chairs were shoved to the side with yellow caution tape around them.

There were no cars on the streets and the park was empty. There were red danger tapes around the children’s playground.

Banks were closed and churches too.

No one walked the streets unless they…

Once there was a wee small village, and in the village lived a wee small germ, a virus.

The little germ could do amazing things: it could multiply and divide.

Soon it took over the wee small planet it lived on.

The other planets hoped it was contained there.

Where are all the big people who live on the planet, you say?

They are alone.

They are being quiet and thoughtful.

They…

We no longer eat together; now we eat separately, in our rooms.

Food is brought to us by servers/housekeepers on trolleys of coffee and oatmeal.

A bug, a virus, from China, destroyed our communal meals.

What did I order last night? Is this mine or is it my S.O.’s?

Oh, that’s right, I wrote mine down on an envelope so I’d remember.

Where did I put the envelope?

I think I ordered…

Apart

Distance

Loneliness

Sabbath

Quiet time for prayer and meditation

Walk the dog

Take a nap

Read

Write

Eat at a distance

Reach out to others

Wait

Don’t go nowhere

Think

Remember

Wonder

– Small town boy

It blows, the wind.

Blows from east to west

Blows from the sea.

Blows my head in my hoodie.

Where or what it is

I don’t know.

My neighbors ACE text

Says it’s God’s breath.

My science says it’s

a pressure difference.

Who’s right?

I don’t know.

The wind just blows.

-Small town boy

I dreamed we flew

To Kathmandu

You in my lap

As I tied my shoe.

I dreamt that we sailed the Nile

You by my side

Me with a smile.

I dreamed we rocketed to the moon

You holding me by the neck

As I cleaned my silver spoon.

I dreamed lots of dreams

All about us

Telling the world

Of our love.

You see, I knew it,

And so did you,

But the universe waited

To see if it was true,

And laughed in great joy.

-…

The chlorophyll green is gone

And revealed is the fire beneath .

The fire is out now for everyone to see

And feel. It lights up my soul.

Like the sugar maple I too have lost my green cast,

Some say my moss,

And have emerged with fire in my heart

And red everywhere ninety percent of my body covered in Viking fur.

My fire burns again fed by a great love,

Causing me slough off the dour shell,

Not…

She blew into my life,

Tornado hugs,

Tornado kisses,

Tornado sex.

And then she left me.

Left my heart in shambles,

Left my life in shambles,

And left me in shambles.

Wow.

– Small town boy