Sacramento Sky on the Night Kobe Bryant Died, 1/26/20
—Photo by Rhony Bhopla, Sacramento, CA
—Photo by Rhony Bhopla, Sacramento, CA
SUNSET OVER AMERICA
—Rhony Bhopla
The day you died, the moments after they said you did,
my love told me you are dead. I didn't know
you were dead. But, in your death, I remember you
alive. The moment when you made history as
the first basketball player to make it big time
from high school straight to the NBA. How you
made it all true for kids everywhere, who knew
that college was only going to be a dream. You.
You made a dream for love of bounce, for love
of the richness of sweat and work, the love of
making the odds work for you. You knew that
there were only going to be a few of you.
Those few who show the world that it is possible.
No matter where you live, no matter how dark you
seem to others, you felt the power of dreams and you
flew, nothing less than 30 at a time.
You are dead now, but
we are alive. We know what you meant every time
you flew up to dunk. We know, we know.
—Rhony Bhopla
The day you died, the moments after they said you did,
my love told me you are dead. I didn't know
you were dead. But, in your death, I remember you
alive. The moment when you made history as
the first basketball player to make it big time
from high school straight to the NBA. How you
made it all true for kids everywhere, who knew
that college was only going to be a dream. You.
You made a dream for love of bounce, for love
of the richness of sweat and work, the love of
making the odds work for you. You knew that
there were only going to be a few of you.
Those few who show the world that it is possible.
No matter where you live, no matter how dark you
seem to others, you felt the power of dreams and you
flew, nothing less than 30 at a time.
You are dead now, but
we are alive. We know what you meant every time
you flew up to dunk. We know, we know.
—Anonymous Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
NECESSITY AND FATE
—Joseph Nolan
Necessity, with bloodshot eyes,
Peers into the wind.
What most needs doing
Must be done
Over and over again.
Little things
And grand,
Though long since
Lost adventure,
Once more,
Your hand.
Ultimately,
You may not relent.
This is necessity.
You must,
Until you’re spent.
Finally accepting
That your fate
Was always planned,
Since long before
The beginning,
And,
Your ending,
Just a cloud—
Carried by the wind.
__________________
TOO MUCH FUSSINESS
—Joseph Nolan
I feel
The universe is healing
With a scab
Across our throats,
Since we were those
Who oft
Complained the most,
With constant railing
Against the moon,
The sky and brilliant sun,
And when
The Universe would listen,
It felt
Our fussiness
Should be undone.
—Anonymous Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
MY DARLING AARDVARK, ARMITAGE
—Joseph Nolan
Armitage,
My darling aardvark,
Armitage,
Lived inside his shell
As a peaceful creature,
Who wished the world well.
Armitage
Hardly bothered
To cast a social spell
And went around in circles,
Listening to bells.
Bells,
To Armitage,
Seemed so perfect:
The way they’d ring
And ring and ring and ring,
Beauty,
Meant everything to
Armitage!
Since the world was
So full of suffering.
___________________
REMOVAL HEARINGS
—Joseph Nolan
Have you ever had an inkling
That what is going on
Is just like professional wrestling?
A psychodrama in which
A villain must take a fall?
Where nothing is real, at all?
In a world of us against them,
Whoever they are?
Where the plots
Are entirely scripted,
The dialogue,
And the call
For the villain
To eventually lose it!
To fulfill the dramatic brawl?
—Anonymous Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
THE RIVER AND I
—Joseph Nolan
I tried to draw the river into myself.
I knew it was out there, near me, somewhere.
I tried to feel it and draw it
Toward me, into me, through me,
By imagination and force of will.
I felt a trickle of the river’s flow
Running through my veins
And it changed me.
I knew I was the river
And threw myself in.
Grooming by Opportunistic Birds in Search of an Easy Meal
—Anonymous Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
VEINGLORIOUS
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA
Modern, computer age formula
takes away the pains
to cover your veins!
spider veins no longer unsightly,
just apply our formula
daily and nightly
never before so wonderfully vague
the World Wide Web
glows brightly on your leg
available in all stores
that carry good stuff
costs everything you have
you just can’t get enough
_________________
PLAYING POLITICS
—Caschwa
Things were quite fine as
long as it was just a game
your daddy took out
from the high shelf in
the closet of mysteries
good family fun
but now it’s become
real people seeking to have
Constitutional
rights and privileges,
as if all folks could enjoy
those entitlements
that had been reserved
for a select few persons
like in royalty
—Anonymous Photo Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE XIX
—Caschwa
when the big text book is
only available in print format,
and the teacher begins the
lesson with a surprise open
book test
_________________
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE XX
—Caschwa
when you shake the hand
of a president, or a prime minister,
or a general, or an admiral,
or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company
and then you part hands and
part company, and go back to
your modest means somewhere
buried deep in the fabric of giant
databases and statistical probabilities
where nothing at all has changed
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
I SAVE RUBBER BANDS
—Caschwa
because they are handy
sometimes
because I have a rubber band
gun I built myself last century
that I use to kill flies
because I was influenced by
my Depression Era parents
who saved things, just because
I also save sarcastic barbs…
_____________________
Another week, and more gratitude to our contributors today: Rhony Bhopla, Caschwa (Carl Schwartz), and Joseph Nolan, who came up with some amazing shots, including—can you tell?—spiders’ feet!
This is a red-hot week in our area for poetry events. So red-hot, in fact, that I’m not going to list them here, but let you 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.
—Medusa, busy knitting booties for tiny spider-feet ~
—Anonymous
For more about the aardvark, go to
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.