Month: July 2023

Amends

SHAWL wrapped tightly against the wind as I
WRITE my apology for yesterday’s words
ALONG the river not far from here where the
DEMON on my shoulder won the argument.

Whence Wealth

VALUE: a belief declaimed when its strength is fragile,
ALONG with certainty about other’s lack thereof. To be
ALIVE is to justify, to defend, to deliver apologia—to fight for being more than
LEAST. Least has only grace, and least is rich.

Totem of the Age

TOTEM of the age: the virtual place away from place
BASAL stratum: not what is, but what we choose there to be,
PULSE, synapse spark, controller button mashed.
COUCH, raft on the world river, floating in the pixel flow.

Adolescence

BLINK and you’ll miss the distinct sign of
HAIR growing, some might say barely inked, on the
HIPPO’s chin. The hippo, teenage, is on the brink of
LIMITing his minimal shaving and shrinking his parents’
LIVERs by making a stink, though not taking to drink.
QUARK! he croaks, like some missing link, a noise
ROWDY enough to make father hippo turn salmon pink:
‘STUFF and nonsense,’ father shouts, ‘you need a hippopotamus shrink!’

Hippo teenager shouting ‘Quark!’
Hippo father bemused by his son.
Both photos courtesy of Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE