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Jack the Crow did gangster rapping,

up high in his oak tree,

Chantal the Gull sung power ballads,

at the seaside, on the quay

Peter Sparrow tweeted,

in places far and wide,

just where the fancy took him,

with no bird at his side

Then an impresario,

had a good idea,

let’s have a singing contest,

for the birds that all live here

Seduced by fame and fortune,

and some celebrity,

many birds did enter,

this singing fest for free

The Woodpecker was supported,

by her very small Blue Tits,

a Blackbird and a Jenny Wren,

Both sung some Beatles hits

Each week the birds all voted off,

the ones they didn’t like,

first gone was a Wood Pigeon,

“Get off son, on your bike”

The next loser was a Budgie,

followed by a Jay,

things were hotting up now,

Birds of Britain had their say

Then the grand finale,

there may be a desire to screw

over the brain-dead Republicans

or to give what’s coming to

those moronic Democrats

kick the Tea Party in the nuts

or tell the Socialists to go to hell

.

how clever has everything become

to make us all feel as if we have

voices and that we can be heard

when all that’s true is that there

are some fat, bloated, pasty,

white men gnawing on cigars

somewhere who own this show

and own all of us

.

we do their bidding, we

fulfill one purpose – to make

them richer, fatter, more

bloated and allow them

to buy more expensive

cigars, cars and escorts

.

to overthrow the government

you’ll need to begin in

the smoke-filled board rooms

———————————————————–

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I was astonished that Walmart decided to stop selling Confederate flag-themed merchandise. Astonished like I was when Richard Nixon, Mr. Anti-Communism, went to China, deciding that his and others’ decades’ long campaign to demonize countries with communist governments was a strategy going nowhere and, besides, it was hurting the balance of trade big time. Even though there was an economic motive, the doing of it, seeing this rabid anti-Communist strolling the Great Wall and smiling at Chinese leaders was worth getting up in the middle of the night to watch it on live TV. (It was in 1972 for all you history buffs out there.)

That’s what it takes. The retail king of the earth, born in the deepest South, just deciding to stop selling Confederate goods. Done. It didn’t take them weeks or months of pondering, they just pulled the plug. And then Amazon and Sears and then big…

Here are my ten thoughts about the world today.

1. Sometimes I miss carrying people but it’s nice to swing my arms when I walk and have no worries.

2. I had lost touch with how intensely self-conscious my Nicaraguan children sometimes were in places  we went as a white family but I am remembering it now and wish I’d really understood what I was seeing when I was seeing it.

3. If there is a God, I think he or she frequently gives people more than they can handle but they survive mostly because they decide to focus on what’s going to happen in the next five minutes.

4. I will never fully understand the concept of forgiveness although I do understand reaching a point of letting go of one’s rage before it becomes lethal.

5. Martin Niemoller’s caution still rings true even though we like to see it as…

One day my husband had no children and the next day he was the stepfather of an 11-year old girl. It happened that fast, overnight.

None of us knew what we were doing.

We just lurched. We lurched from getting along well enough to detesting each other and wishing an Annulment Angel would appear and make everything a hazy, long ago memory. My daughter’s eye-rolling matched my own ambivalence, having married a man I’d only known five short months after living as a single person for a very long time. The phrase ‘what was I thinking’ was on perpetual echo in my brain. The two of us, my daughter and I, had made a life. It was occasionally short on cash and clouded by unpredictable and undependable relationships, but otherwise we had our routine. We had our tuna casserole and we were fine.

My daughter also already had a father…

“Anguish”
Painting by Dena Cardwell
From fineartamerica.com

I have
no words
only hatred
for evil
no pity
no mercy
hot anger
eyes cry
burning tears
my violent
anguish
wants only
a sure stroke
of vengeance
from justice
one life
for nine
nothing less
and I’d do it
myself

I know
I must be a
poor Christian

but a man
who brings
bullets to bibles
with vicious
intentions
who slaughters
the innocent
prayerful
at peace
in their
holiest
gentlest
expressions
of faith
such a man
is no man
but the vilest
of beasts

poor Christian
I must be
I know

but forgiveness
comes hard
to this sinner
who loves
and who hates
with what
I surely pray
is a moral
distinction

With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday I’d like to acknowledge the obvious individual…Mama.

She still laughs remembering Daddy’s funny stories. He artfully told his silly tales and endless supply of jokes to keep everyone entertained. Daddy could be truly funny and Mama was the first to laugh. After sixty years of marriage there’s no doubt she’d heard his material several times over but Daddy loved to see people laugh and Mama wouldn’t have him disappointed. She loved him and laughed hard at his jokes, chastised his colorful language, and coyly prompted him to repeat her favorites. Daddy enjoyed making others laugh and Mama happily served as the perfect straight man even if she occasionally found herself the brunt of his playful banter.

An aunt grinned and asked Mama, “How in the world do you live with him?”

“It ain’t easy.” Mama answered, shaking her head.

Daddy’s vegetable garden was perfection…