No Beginning or End

—Poetry and Photos by James Lee Jones, Davis, CA
 

We will build this house with glass, all of the houses, a city made of glass. Glass walls, glass ceiling, and streets paved with glass. Then we will encase our city with a dome of glass. It will be beautiful, ethereal. Who, I wonder, will be the first one of us to cast a stone?

A nice day like this, there should be a river to cross. There should be a mountain to climb. Warm, but not hot. There is a breeze, but I wouldn’t call it windy. The air feels good, clean, and the sky reaches from heaven to earth. Maybe just being alive is the river to cross, the mountain to climb.

I tend words like a shepherd tends a flock of sheep. I have spent a lifetime with this work. And the flock has grown larger, healthy and fat. Look now. See the morning sun on their thick fleece.

A time of disease, people are dying by the thousands. Hundreds of thousands. The pandemic. Grief and fear are in the air, thick, yet so is the sweet fragrance of my jasmine, my roses. Finches appear for the seed that I scatter. Life and death perform a mad dance in these times. And in all times. Blue sky in the springtime. 

A family? Yes. I have one. One son is dead, another is somewhat less than sane. Something whispers in my ear that I failed them both. There is a daughter, now sober, who also has a daughter; the little one is a delight and commands more magic than the rest of us put together. And my wife still tolerates me. Can you imagine? Married to the most minor of poets! Poor dear. Family, come and bring the mops! I will pour the soapy water on the floor, the same old floor as always, and together we shall begin to scrub our dirt away.

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Today’s LittleNip:

Geese flying in a wide V. A blue sky, no beginning or end. Grace and beauty. Beauty and life, above.

—James Lee Jobe

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Our thanks to James Lee Jobe for the grace and beauty of his poems and photos today! A warm beginning to a warm week.

Tonight is another Mad Mouth Poetry Reading (Week 8) from Davis for Black Poets Matter, featuring LaLa DeVille, 8-9:30pm via Zoom at us02web.zoom.us/j/84225455829/. Info: scroll down on Facebook at www.facebook.com/madmouthpoetry/. To see videos of previous weeks’ readings (plus a lot of other cool poetry videos besides), go to www.facebook.com/search/str/ack+poets+matter+video/keywords_blended_videos?f=AbqKk3w7lsIQlCacZAUDXLEHjod7qbYFKLKdRrSAijebY_1dthhhPF_06f5u5O7n3UtPaK5RSw_NHgl8Ml81Qe5QYNn1mKePlcePH3vc6IvUx2eU95kj0thgONVxr4UCwqVS6nId-Oe_fJfD5Ya31W6j&epa=SEE_MORE/.

And don’t forget Fridays, 7:30pm, with video poetry readings by Davis Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe at james-lee-jobe.blogspot.com or youtube.com/jamesleejobe.

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—Medusa

 —Photo by D.R. Wagner, Locke, CA

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