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Thursday, June 20, 2024

Get Your Shoes On

Come In
—Poetry and Visuals by Smith, Cleveland, OH 


Sitting in hot water
sweating salt water

Sipping cold water
sweating more

Less of me to rue
 
 
 
 Straight Ahead


Slow walking edge
abyss below
void within
 
 
 
 Angel Tears


Freight train chugging down valley
hauling my old sins away
making room for new
 
 
 
Trippin’


SIMPLE SIMON SEZ

It's your world
I'm more flotsam or jetsam
not cargo
not passenger
couldn't pay passage
no where no way no why

Yet here I am
part stowaway mostly fool
dancing your sins
your money bins adding empty to empty
pretending they're full
printing what you don't have
to buy what you can't use

Shiny tomorrow dead yesterday
you know
sow reap rip sew

Been lotta sowing heading for reaping
big heap of ripping

Mess larger math smaller

I choose to move in moments
sit in sun
walk dog
pet cat
hug wife
toke home grown
you know
lightening my corner of are

We're meant to mend
watch trends but not follow
avoid the fallow the shallow the hollow

So I mine the mundane
like our white picket fence
ending in dead-end street

It's precarious
the good
the bad
the living
the dead
the taken and the left behind

Best to sit a bit between the troubles
soak in sun and silence



Baked


Ahhh, a temporary temporary
in this big world always

dark sky black clouds slow rain
wet leaves dampen sound
suck light

the human virus crouch inside
quiet
hide from cleansing

Earth don't care
lotta life before we came
lots after we gone

manflesh dies
decays
new life grows

green is green
feeds on failure

small am I
ooh minor moments
sing song with new ears
 
 
 
 Isolation


Walking garden
see what see
night light dim
moon drips me
fullfool man
shadow show
must expand
serve soul
trip meat path
string about
Bashō frog splash only out
not quitting
day by day
no letting big pain sway
pain moral
pain flesh
pain oral
pain mesh
doing good
happy been
8-fold road
mindheart yen
rest tonight
rise tomorrow
seek light
serve sorrow
 
 
 
 Rat Attack


Trump
MAGAtz
red rat rising
 
 
 
 Sunspot


The closer you look
the more impossible it becomes

I don't know when
I learned what I learned
but I ain't the be I been

It matters most tomorrow
what you do today
all overlain by yesterday's sorrow

Gonna go out and find the truth
got one shoe on
 
 
 
 Love


Today’s LittleNip:


Whatever bad I may be
when I pet my cat she sees me
as highest form of we

—Smith

___________________

’Tis our lucky day, when both Smith (Steven B. Smith) and the Summer Solstice have joined us, bringing fine poetry to this wonky third rock from the sun. Thanks to Steven and to his (clearly enlightened) feline pal for shining extra light into our lives on the longest day of the year.

___________________

—Medusa
 
 
 
 Stop
—Photo by Smith















 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A passel of NorCal poetry today,
starting at noon with
Third Thursdays at the Library
in Sacramento; then
Sac. Poetry Center’s second
Meter and Flow workshop
at 6pm;
Cameron Park Workshop
meets at 5:30pm tonight; plus
Poetry Night in Davis features
Autumn Newman, NSAA,
and Bob Stanley, 7pm.
For info about these and other
uture poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
(http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html)
in the links at the top of this page—
and keep an eye on this link and on
the daily Kitchen for happenings
that might pop up
—or get changed!—
 during the week.

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.

Find previous four-or-so posts by scrolling down
under today; or there's an "Older Posts" button
at the bottom of this column; or find previous poets
by typing the name of the poet or poem
 into the little beige box at the top
left-hand side of today’s post; or go to
Medusa’s Rapsheet at the bottom of
the blue column at the right
 to find the date you want.

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
Guidelines are at the top of this page
at the Placating the Gorgon link;
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—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!