Medusa's Kitchen

—Photos by Caschwa, Sacramento, CA

TOWER OF BABEL
—Caschwa

Current events so extraordinary they
just stun reporters who are normally
never at a loss for words

now we hear them assembling a hard
puzzle, starting with the straight-edge
pieces to form a predictable border,
then working inward from there

throwing normalcy up in the air, they
stack the border pieces several layers
high, unwittingly blocking the other
pieces that belong in the middle.

ultimately, mating pieces can’t mate, no
recognizable image can form, and total
confusion reigns while the reporters’
trusty diaphragms keep pushing air up,
up, and out, like airplanes taxiing with
no runways to guide them, until our
civilization crumbles to dust.

BAG A—DON’T ASK, DON’T—TELLE
—Caschwa

We might as well just
put old Vladimir Putin
on the Supreme Court

***

FBI’s so-called
investigation was just
a pompous no show

***

People offered good
evidence, only to be
denied audience

***

Witnesses afraid
of the police will stay in
the shadows for years

***

In high school we learn
to celebrate our very
worst indiscretions

***

Throw the man in a
Mexican jail to enjoy
walls they paid for

***

We need to see those
tax returns before hearing
“No collusion!” claims

HOUR-GLASS ECONOMICS
—Caschwa

There is plenty of money
   buy some real estate
        funds run low
            Nothing
        flip the house
    take the proceeds
buy some more real estate

__________________

DAILY HISTORY TEST
—Caschwa

If someone asks me, I can tell them when
and where I was born, from memory

not my own, independent recollection, of
course, though I was certainly there

but drawing from the memories of other
people who came before me

people who rendered accounts of events
well before I was in a state to do that

The same goes for my motorcycle crash
that broke bones and left me in a coma

I can tell you now, over half a century later
that this event occurred on the same day,
in the same town where 2 famous music
stars were recording a hit song together

That is also not my memory at all, I looked
it up years later on the Internet to see what
else was going on while I was busy deep
sleeping…

A ONE-SIDED ARGUMENT
—Caschwa

(response to “Forest Murmurs”, 
a cinquain by Claire J. Baker,
Medusa's Kitchen, 10/05/18)

Where the texture of trees
is replaced by an
artificial sheen,
at least the north side should
be colored green.

APHRODITE AND THE DISAPPEARING DWARF
—Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA

I eat these things that are no good.
I know it.
They know it.
They do not stop me.
I do not/cannot stop myself.
Everything is broken.
The bottom is on top.
The last is first.
Things are getting Biblical
And I hate that.

I hate Biblical!
I like ordinary.
Maybe I should go for a walk
And stop thinking?
I think things that are no good,
Things that are useless
And spoil my mood.

Aphrodite regards me with eyes-crossed,
Lips pursed and shakes her head.
She knows the kind of man I am.
She’s been around.
What could I possibly say to her
That might interest her, like
“Come here often?”
I, an ephemeral, disappearing dwarf!

DANCING FAIRIES
—Joseph Nolan

I wish the sundered autumn leaves could say
What springtime feelings let them give away
When all was new and green and water, pure
And dancing fairies shined a brave allure
Above the landscape, cast at dawn in gray,
When fairies must fast make their getaway
Into the shadows of the farthest glen,
To keep unto their own and linger there,
When Autumn breezes blow the leaves away
To leave the world stripped naked in the day.

THE STOP SIGN
—Joseph Nolan

The street sign
Stands in silent opposition
To the progress of time.
“Stop,” it says.

But time does not obey.
It just goes on and on,
Moving in loops
That circle in,
Like sharks,
For the kill!

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

A BETTER MAN
—Joseph Nolan

If I could just cruise through this day
Make my way through traffic
Get back home
Put work away
Play with my children
Be nice to my wife
With a kind word to say,
I’d be a better man
Than
I
am.

___________________

Our thanks to these fine artists for today’s poetry and photos! Poetry events in our area begin tonight at 6pm at the Placerville Sr. Center in Placerville, with the Poetry in Motion read-around. Then at 7:30pm at the Sac. Poetry Center in Sacramento, Beth Spencer and Mary Mackey will read, plus open mic. On Thursday at 8 pm, Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe in Sacramento presents featured readers and open mic.

Then this weekend, Speak Up: The Art of Storytelling and Poetry presents poets and storytellers on the theme, “Holy Ghosts, or NOT!!” on Friday at 7pm at the Avid Reader in Sac. On Saturday morning, Maceo Montoya and Javier O. Huerta read (plus open mic) at Writers on the Air at Sacramento Poetry Center, 9:30am-1pm. Saturday afternoon, Poetic License poetry read-around meets from 2-4pm in Placerville in the Sr. Center lobby, 937 Spring St.; the suggested topic for this month is "embroidered garden" but other subjects also welcome. And in the evening, 8:30-10pm, Three Men & A Mic will feature poets and comedy at Magnum Opus Studio of the Stars in Sacramento. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.

Cynthia Linville writes that the Fall issue of convergence is now available at www.convergence-journal.com/fall18/.

And don’t forget that this coming Friday is Sacramento Poetry Day! We here at Medusa’s Kitchen are celebrating the day with poems about any and all facets of Sacramento. Send your poetry, photos and artwork to kathykieth@hotmail.com/, and the sooner, the better! For more about Sacramento Poetry Day, see Patrick Grizzell’s article at www.facebook.com/patrick.grizzell/posts/10208638162724506/.

—Medusa