Signs of a COVID Xmas
—Poetry by Joseph Nolan, Stockton, CA
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of Joseph Nolan
A COVID CHRISTMAS, NOT!
A COVID Christmas, not!
I dripped a purple spot
On the dot for 25.
Glad we’re still alive!
But not together—
—Not this year—
Like bees lost from their hive,
We drift away.
Sad to say,
This year’s been a devastation.
When will we slurp coffee
Over scones with jam,
Once again?
I miss it so!
Watching people
Come and go
And linger on,
Taking off their
Hats and scarves
To get warm
At tables
In cafes
And smile into
Their friends,
Like life and love
Will never end,
Shining laughter,
Laced with tales
Of neighbors
And raptures and
Pulling weeds from gardens
And children’s needless~ends!
But this year
I’ve bled a dot
Onto spot
For 25
Upon my Garden-Calendar,
And so, this year,
—We have—
A COVID Christmas, not!
A COVID Christmas, not!
I dripped a purple spot
On the dot for 25.
Glad we’re still alive!
But not together—
—Not this year—
Like bees lost from their hive,
We drift away.
Sad to say,
This year’s been a devastation.
When will we slurp coffee
Over scones with jam,
Once again?
I miss it so!
Watching people
Come and go
And linger on,
Taking off their
Hats and scarves
To get warm
At tables
In cafes
And smile into
Their friends,
Like life and love
Will never end,
Shining laughter,
Laced with tales
Of neighbors
And raptures and
Pulling weeds from gardens
And children’s needless~ends!
But this year
I’ve bled a dot
Onto spot
For 25
Upon my Garden-Calendar,
And so, this year,
—We have—
A COVID Christmas, not!
GREETINGS FROM PLANET COSMIC!
Maya!, oh Maya!
How hard to pierce thy veil!
Try and try,
Through thousands of lifetimes,
Most find they always fail!
Whenever things got hot,
Up-close and personal,
A little confrontational, perhaps,
Demanding some commitment
To making a firm decision,
Adopting an opinion or point of view,
He’d always jump off
To Planet Cosmic,
Start talking about an eternal self,
Cosmic-consciousness
And how opinions are inevitably wrong,
And deserve no endorsement or commitment,
So much so,
That I began to believe
That his appearance in this world
Was only a holographic projection
From Planet Cosmic,
Like a ghost or an apparition,
Nothing you could hold onto,
Shake up or wrestle down,
Since he was basically
A spiritual person
And should have been a priest or a monk
Instead of a marketing expert
Who knew how to appeal
To the lowest common-denominator
In the Dark Hearts of Men
Without ever getting his hands dirty,
Since he held himself above the fray,
As though he were always floating
At least six-inches above the ground,
Through the power of non-attachment,
Which is just the first lesson
Of kindergarten they teach
On Planet Cosmic.
____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
There is no gap between the ignorant and the wise. A foolish person is a wise person; a wise person is a foolish person.
—Shunryu Suzuki
____________________
—Medusa, with thanks to Joseph Nolan for today poetry and photos. Already it’s January 3!
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. We post
work from all over the world, including
that which was previously-published.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
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. We post
work from all over the world, including
that which was previously-published.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!
