Life Creates Life

Ann Keniston, reading at Sac. Poetry Center

last Monday night, March 24

—Photo by Michelle Kunert, Sacramento

I got a video from email "How to train your cat"

They've got to be kidding—

The majority of cats instead "train" their owners—

getting their people to serve them

even if it means waking up their owners at 4 AM

telling them when they want to be fed

and where and how they want their litter box 

which they've probably done since ancient Egypt

If one wants an animal that enjoys doing tricks and jumps on command

(as this video claimed a human can spend time doing)—

get a dog... 

—Michelle Kunert

______________________ 

For my March cat photo calendar I got at a dollar store

There's a striped kitten that seems to be kissing the beak of a duckling

It's as if the duckling doesn't know he or she is with a little carnivore

and for a grown, bigger cat the duckling could be food instead of a potential friend
                         

—Michelle Kunert

_____________________

DEMOTED
—Caschwa, Sacramento

Come quick!
Grab a powerful
Telescope and

Train the lens on
That fuzzy area
Out beyond Pluto

Orbiting the sun
But not really
Part of our system

Can you see them?
Busy, energized
Swarms of adverbs

Those parts of speech
They only teach
In grammar school

And then when we
Grow up they are
Jettisoned to

The farthest dark
Corners of our
Solar system

So how does one
Get corners in an
Orbit? Don’t agonize

About it. The
Answer is found
Among the adverbs

Now put that
Telescope down
Delicate and ginger

_____________________

HUMP DAY
—Caschwa

Good morning!
A cup of coffee
Please with sugar

One lump or two?

Well, how many
Humps are there
In hump day?

I lost count.

Perfect. Just keep
Adding lumps until
You lose count

David Koehn at Sac. Poetry Center

Monday, March 24

—Photo by Michelle Kunert

again, spring
—Ann Wehrman, Sacramento

slow, sad, heavy
thunderstorm broods
spring reveals herself
budding, lush, fragrant
wet, soft air
storm passes over
rain will not fall today
maybe tonight
earth craves rain
sad, expectant
like the gaze
of a shy, sixty-year-old
woman in love

______________________

life creates life
—Ann Wehrman

smooth white ovals
eggs drop newly laid
inside each a world of soul
unique     life unknown

escalating heights pleasure, pain
destiny, great accomplishment
birthmark, sixth digit
your laugh, her willfulness

eggs impersonal opaque
thin shells, dense blinds
hide multifaceted inhabitants

which order will they take?
which goes with which?
if I break this one into the pan,
will mayhem or peace result?

in her great imagination
life creates life, bubbles, eggs
inside each, Wonderland
outside, just another egg

bubbles floating on air currents
floating away

_____________________

BLESSINGS
—Ann Wehrman

at my desk tonight
working late, alone
hazy with exhaustion
late dinner fails to blunt my loneliness

I am chided
to count my blessings
by a stranger’s words
in a horoscope

I remember
feeling completely safe
feeling relaxed
feeling infinite wild love

standing in a field
under vast stars
fireflies all around
muggy Midwestern night

sleeping cherished
poor, hungry
warm in my lover’s embrace
fire of our wordless bond

losing, then finding myself
kindred souls
favorite authors’ minds
through reading their books

Christmas Eve too excited to sleep
my sister and I
Nutcracker Suite on the stereo
still believing in Santa

each day a
brave act, tense against fear
loins girded for battle
foes real, perhaps not

let it go, breathe
let it go, cry
then remember
warm with gratitude

_____________________

Today's LittleNip:

MUSINGS BY DON GIOVANNI IN HELL
—Ann Wehrman

race through eating
food without taste, smell
appetite not hunger
like a machine
food tastes like nothing
like cardboard, air
dribbles down my chin
starving, I reach for more 

_____________________

—Medusa

 Brother Hypnotic's daughter Ayinana Antwine

reads her published poem at Sac. Poetry Center

on March 17

—Photo by Michelle Kunert