Red Rose
—Photos by Michelle Kunert, Sacramento, CA
5/2/2018
—Kim Clyde, Sacramento, CA
Being
A woman of a certain age
And temperament
I have taken down
The mirrors, yet
I see the passage of time
In these old hands of mine.
These hands
So deft at holding babies
And lovers
At digging
The earth
And washing up
At slicing and cooking
And generally turning pages
In this book of life.
They are everyday
More beautiful
Unlike this face
With a seventeen-year-old’s eyes.
—Sue Daly, Sacramento, CA
Facebook is my friend.
It’s good for reading articles
and seeing pictures of my
grandkids half a world away.
Perfect for collecting
gorgeous photos with
inspiring quotes that use
up all my storage capacity
or for following political pundits
I may agree or disagree with —
(Have to see what they’re
up to, don’t ya know?)
Facebook’s great for hearing
about all the interesting things
happening around Sactown,
Davis and Placerville too . . .
Fantastic for finding long lost
friends and family,
sharing good causes and
Go Fund Me pages.
But what about those
security nightmares
I keep hearing about?
I’ve had enough nightmares
to know there’s no real security
in this life, the next one
or even the one after that.
Immunizations from nightmares
are definitely in short supply.
I’d like to think
I’m smart enough
not to fall for foreign influences
(at least I hope so, LOL).
Not much money for
scammers to hack into,
but I have some time to
read poetry since I retired—
and when James Lee Jobe
updates his blog page,
or D. R.’s on Medusa’s,
I deem it’s worth the risk.
So I guess I’ll say thank you
thank you to Mark Z.
thanks from all the nanas
and grandpas,
the poets, and me.
fill it up
—william yates, ft. bragg, ca
blank page
old age
cold feet
white meat
overnight
success
work hard
eat less
sleep hard
take a walk
come home
can't talk
telephone
ding dong
quick lunch
write a song
drink wine
relax lean back
two cats
clock spins
time wins
night time
closing in
easy chair
wild hair
rapid breath
wild stare
moving on
pour it out
empty cup
fill it up
After Dad’s mom died
Dad filled up some unpacked suitcases
Stuff that reminded him the most of her
including her diaries, scrapbooks and photo albums
collected in cases labeled “Lydia Swandt-Kunert”
things he wants to pass on to my brother and me when he is gone
—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento, CA
Imagine having to figure out how to place your whole life into a suitcase—
Not as a traveler
But as a “refugee” of political and social times
So I learned at the California History Museum
Many of those of Japanese ancestry in WWII in this state were forced to do just that
For the exhibit,
there are these donated suitcases with these American-Japanese families' names marked on them
though now standing empty—
they were used when these otherwise tax-paying American citizens were sent to “relocation camps”
—forced out of their homes and communities to board trains and buses,
sent to live in these camps from which they did not know if they would ever return
They just hoped they would be eventually allowed to return to their homes and farms if they “complied"
At the camps they held dearly what they chose to pack along in their suitcases—
anything that could give them comfort and hope of returning to a "normal life” once again in California
even little home-made stuff such as hand-knit scarfs, mittens or slippers
But alas many were also not recompensed with their lost security or property
—Michelle Kunert
Holocaust Suitcases in Poland
—Anonymous Photo
HOLOCAUST SUITCASE
—Michelle Kunert
During a 2005 Paris exhibition in remembrance of the Holocaust
there stood a pile of suitcases on loan from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
A young French woman along with her father
spotted a battered cardboard suitcase with the name of her grandfather who “disappeared” in 1943
Many who were headed to the camps carried travel luggage, thinking they were being “relocated”
The father and daughter immediately asked to have the suitcase
because they had nothing else left of his
and no other records revealing whatever happened to him
Like so many whose likely fate was to be gassed and burned up in the ovens,
his suitcase was now his only “tombstone”
and they wanted to decide how to properly preserve it
The father and daughter were regrettably informed by the curators
there were no plans to return anything they obtained to present-day family survivors
All suitcases and anything else “named" would go back to be on display at Auschwitz
And so the suitcase will likely now continue to decay away with the rest—
which will continue to allow people to forget the victims' names on the suitcases.
GOING ALL THE WAY
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
Never been to Paris
or to France, or to Europe
OK, never set foot outside
of North America
But I have my bags packed
eager to go on a miracle
adventure vacation
at last.
Camera gear: set and ready
Clothing: enough for now
Itinerary: not starting with one
Empty suitcase: for what pockets
can’t hold.
Maybe include the Riviera, where
I can sunbathe uncovered in the
warm glow of the moment, or giggle
uncontrollably, forever fated to
remain a little boy.
Look at that! Readers are already
taking mental pictures for me and
cramming them into my empty
suitcase…a nice slide show when
I return.
FORKED TONGUES AND RATTLES
—Caschwa
(Agreeing with James Lee Jobe’s
“The sun never sets on the American
Empire”, Medusa’s Kitchen, May 5, 2018)
In World War II, willing volunteers populated
our factories to build the machinery of war, while
unwilling “volunteers” filled internment camps.
All together this created a foundation for future
business ventures based on the premise
that
if you set your goals high enough, America
will help you find people to do your bidding for
free.
Enter real estate marketing, a core element of
building an empire, which thrives on amending
our original principles of democracy to include
Highest And Best Use, and Location, Location,
Location…
Until now, somewhere in metropolis, beneath
endless tons of asphalt and concrete and steel,
a whole political party left behind by astounding
changes in science, technology, and law, cries
out:
Don’t take our jobs, don’t take our guns, don’t really
free the slaves, don’t help the poor, don’t believe
climate science, don’t vaccinate my kids, don’t, just
don’t.
TOO QUICK
—Caschwa
Hindsight:
The view when a flasher
turns around
20/20 hindsight:
Now it all comes together
Amnesia:
Nothing triggers a memory
Retrospective amnesia:
Everything triggers déjà vu
Perfect recall:
All the cars were fixed before
anyone got killed
Perfect attendance:
Top prize goes to ants at picnics
Limited warranty:
No coverage for the most
likely problems
Lifetime warranty:
limited time offer
AN HONORABLE DAY
—Caschwa
True to the mission
to the very end, duty
bound, come what may
Spilled blood a certainty
some die trying, most
face unspeakable pain
Fully deserving of
voluminous merit orders
and decorations
But no place for that on a
receiving blanket, maybe
the PTA bowling league…
They do this over and
over, no ticker tape
parades, silent pride
Let us take a moment to
appreciate our mothers with
full pomp and circumstance.
Today’s LittleNip:
EMPTY SUITCASE
—Kevin Jones, Elk Grove, CA
Poems
And butterflies.
All
Escaped.
_________________
Our thanks to this wonderful collection of poets today, and to Michelle Kunert for her dazzling shots of spring flowers from the Sacramento Rose Society show at Shepard Garden and Arts Center on April 28. Our Seed of the Week is “An Empty Suitcase”; about her third “suitcase” poem, Michelle writes that it is “based on the story at brucemhood.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/the-holocaust-suitcase-2/“.
Lummux Editor RD Armstrong is calling for submissions for his Lummox 7 Poetry anthology and the new Angela C. Mankiewicz Poetry Contest; see www.lummoxpress.com/lc/2018-lummox-7/. Deadline is May 31. Note that there is a $15 reading fee.
Poetry events in our area begin tonight at Sac. Poetry Center with Phillip Larrea and Katy Brown, plus open mic, 7:30pm. Wednesday will bring the Poetry Off-the-Shelves poetry read-around in Placerville at the Sr. Center, 5-7pm, or the Poets and Writers’ Sacramento Library Roundtable Meeting at Sac. Poetry Center from 6-8pm. Then on Saturday, from 6-8:30pm, SPC’s Second Saturday ART Opening presents a showing that centers on Mental Health Month. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa
—Anonymous Photo of Anonymous Camel
Celebrate poetry that’s so brilliant that
you need shades to read it!
Celebrate poetry that’s so brilliant that
you need shades to read it!
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