That Daily Dread

Otters Sheltering-in-Place

—Poetry by Joseph Nolan and Caschwa (Carl Bernard Schwartz)
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Joseph Nolan

DEEP VALIUM
—Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
 
Unicorns,
From rainbow bridges
Fly across a star-lit sky
On moonbeams.

Gnomes and elves
Are fast at work,
Building castled-dreams

For princesses,
Who drop bright, silk scarves,
Dipped in sweet perfumes,
To start the knights’ a-jousting.

The winners
Will take a knee
With no-one’s neck
Underneath.

ECSTASY AND OUR DAILY DREAD
—Joseph Nolan

The onset of ecstasy,
When the mouth
Drops open
And spit drools out—
That is the best moment!

Until the next—
When pleasure
Grows stronger!
Stronger and longer
Than you hoped it would;
That is a better moment
Than first,
It should
Be remembered,

Compared to the evening news
When the world
Mourns its dead
As the new report
Is read
To cap-off
Our daily dread.

TIME TO COME OUT, NOW?
—Joseph Nolan

Is it time, now?
Is it time, yet,
To make another start,
To start all over?
We’ve been so far apart—
On a social vacation.

Is it possible
You’re still there,
After all?
Do we have no inclination
To come out from our little holes,
To find the light outside
Too terribly bright
For little moles
Whose eyes grew used to shade,
Since shade and shadow
Were most our dreams were made,
While we floated along, alone.

THE PROBLEM WITH STARS
—Joseph Nolan

The problem with stars
Is that they drift apart,
Farther and farther apart,
Into forever,
Into eternity.

All the stars
Are light-years apart!

But every star,
Ever made,
Is still
Inside our hearts,
Since hearts
Are just that large,
Or
Our memories of stars
Are just that bright! 

PARADISE, BURNED
—Joseph Nolan

They destroyed the world
For envied beauty
And let the prairie burn
The entire Town of Paradise,

As if we’d ever learn
The meaning of deliverance
From dreams of having earned
A simple place
Beneath the sun
To rest
As the world turned,
Restless, throughout the night,
Memories, nightmares, were,
Never to return.

Sealed off,
Shut down,
Maybe just a
Practice round
For how to kill
A village
To save it.

 Have Chisel, Will Carve

WORRIED
—Caschwa, Sacramento, CA 
 
Summer
kids out of school
families take them to
river parks and regional parks
for fun

I will
go there also
to take pretty pictures
have a nice stroll and enjoy the
fresh air

danger
may be closer
than is comfortable
when a juvenile rattlesnake
rests near

centered
right on the path
basking in the sunlight
not allowing any human
to pass

the snake
hissed at me once
then slithered off the path
leaving room for me to proceed
unharmed

guided
by providence
that I wish I could share
with all the children everywhere
indeed!

ROOT CANAL
—Caschwa

were we
supposed to just guess how long it
would take for racial heat
to rise and boil
over?

lynchings
innumerable rap sheet of
cruel and unusual
brutal actions
daily

countless
children left without their loving
fathers on Father’s Day
celebration
hollow

signs say
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter
Wall Street says the bottom
line is all that
matters

return
on investment is why slaves were
brought to America
in the first place
MONEY

count it
put it where it will work for you
realize a good gain
count it again
bravo!

ideals
handwritten on parchment paper
easily forgotten
keep them in a
safe place 

AT LEAST
—Caschwa

boo ha ha shoe ha ha
anarchist President
total incompetence
easy to see

voting results will be
thankfully different
juxtaposition
female VP

***

wishy washy oh my goshy
Science negated by
miracle remedies,
amateur docs

thumbs down to quarantine
lessons of history
most arbitrarily
tossed to the rocks

***

golly gee willickers
Cops can’t communicate
have to kill subjects they
cannot condemn

maybe we all need to
sit down and talk about
proliferation of
us versus them

AHOY!
—Caschwa

everything is different now, oddly so
calm and peaceful, had been sailing along
in the wake of a freighter, very slow
a penny in my pocket, and a song

in my heart, decided to divert to
what was supposed to be a good fishing
spot, and it sure was! caught the limit, who
gets that lucky? maybe, just the wishing

of good thoughts brings good results, but if I
hadn’t then gotten so lost until a
flagship appeared nearby which caught my eye
and unleashed a memory of the way

back to where I parked my car, in the whole
big lot it was over near the flag pole

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

SUBBING 
—Caschwa

tiny children from migrant farmworkers
happy I let them call me Mister S.
sure didn’t need any further duress
their stories a book of real tearjerkers
the school was out in a strawberry field
where no one worries about having less
by manners alone, I’d grade them well-heeled

____________________

Our thanks to Joe and Carl for today’s early-morning feast!

And wow! It’s almost July!

Here in our area, Sac. Poetry Center uses Zoom for weekly readings and workshops. For more info, go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.com/. Tonight on Zoom at 7:30pm, SPC will presents A Reading for Black Lives Matter, hosted by CharRon Smith and Frank Dixon Graham. That’s at us04web.zoom.us/j/7638733462/.  Meeting ID: 763 873 3462 ("P O E T R E E I N C”), Password: spcsdv2020. Again, for more info, go to www.sacramentopoetrycenter.com/.

Also this week, on Friday at 7:30pm, check out the video poetry reading on Facebook by Davis Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe at youtube.com/jamesleejobe or on his blog at james-lee-jobe.blogspot.com/.

For more about El Dorado County poetry events up the hill, check Western Slope El Dorado poetry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry/.

—Medusa, trying to stay off the banana peels ~

 Is it Monday already?

—Public Domain Cartoon

 

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.

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry and/or
photos and artwork to
kathykieth@hotmail.com.
The snakes of Medusa are always hungry!