Hot Stuff

Posted on by

You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive. ~Author Unknown

Think you’re hot stuff, don’cha?

Zipping around in your souped-up car

Shimmering silver body, slightly elevated rear

Muffler announcing your presence better

Than trumpets proclaiming royalty’s arrival.

Think you’re hot stuff, don’cha?

Baseball cap turned backwards on your head

Heavy metal music pounding its rhythmic beats

With wailing vocals sufficiently intense

To pry the dead right out of their graves.

Think you’re hot stuff, don’cha?

Pulling to within inches of my rear bumper

As if you’re eager to hop in my back seat

And join me for a little spin around town.

Refusing to move over to another lane

Even when I deliberately slow to a crawl.

Think you’re hot stuff, don’cha?

Forcing me to change lanes

Forcing me to lose my temper

While you swoop around me

As if I’m in a car park or some driveway

Woolgathering or taking a siesta.

Think you’re hot stuff, don’cha?

Approaching that traffic light beside me

Then flipping me the universal sign

Of disdain. Of anger. Of disrespect.

Then zooming off in a cloud of exhaust.

I can be as crude as you, fella

But I choose not to

Not because of you

But because of me.

Still think you’re hot stuff, don’cha?

Note: Details changed to protect the guilty.

Sunday’s Gem — Obsidian

Posted on by

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist

Feeling under stress? Suffering from pain or a wounded spirit?

Then get yourself some Obsidian!

Tumbled black Obsidian stones, approximately 1″ in size, $2 each. Available at https://www.el9shop.com/product/black-obsidian-tumbled-stone/

Continue reading →

Conquering Fear

Posted on by

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~John Henry Newman, English theologian and poet

Because of the pandemic, I haven’t had a flute lesson in months, and I’ve missed it.

It’s bad enough practicing the same pieces assigned to me back in early March; but knowing that I might have slipped into bad form/habits without somebody to supervise me is worrisome.

Continue reading →

Wolf in Sheep’s Skin

Posted on by

Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level. ~ Joyce Brothers, American psychologist

Waiting for the other shoe to drop perhaps?

You

pretend

to be so

solicitous.

Offering umpteen

suggestions and gimmicks

designed to show me that you

aren’t the Mean Girl I fear you are,

that you have my best interests at heart

and there’s no way you’d ever bring me harm.

 

Why, then, do I lie awake pondering?

Why, then, are my dreams tormenting me?

Why do I wake up shivering,

my heart pounding, out of breath?

Wait, now I remember —

I’ve been here before.

Intuition

is at hand,

warning

me.

Note: This is a Double Etheree.

Ten Things I’ve Learned Since My Third Decade

Posted on by

I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. ~Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President

By the time a person is thirty, he or she should have learned a few life lessons.

Some, we gain the hard way, by experiencing the consequences of not living as we should. Others, we glean from the folly of friends or family.

Here are ten lessons I wish my thirty-year-old self had embraced:

Continue reading →

Time for a Break

Posted on by

If you’re always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you’re in? ~Author Unknown

Stella D’Oro Daylillies

Even nature takes a little break.

She pauses between each season

To catch her breath, so to speak.

Within a season too,

Flowers bloom and rest.

All of us need

Some time off.

Don’t you

Think?

 

Note: As you probably guessed, it’s time for me to take a wee pause. Happy Fathers’ Day to all the dads reading this, and I’ll be back shortly. By the way, this poetry form is a Nonet, nine lines with a decreasing number of syllables in each line.