ETCETERAS 

1.   IT RAINED LAST NIGHT

        There was a charcoal looking streak line that went down from the center of his crown along forehead, across nose and lips and chin, and dropped below his T-shirt.

        From the back, the same line went along his neck and disappeared at the size tag of the shirt.

       His fingers were melded to the keyboard of the computer he sat slumped at, and the computer screen was scorched black, but somehow the strike had jarred the printer to function.

      The white page of paper in the printer tray was from a google search that read  ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES INDOORS    WINDOWS CLOSED    LIGHTNING  STORM

                                          (could have been a cartoon, but I can't draw)

2.    SEE YOU

     The You you see

     In the mirror

     Is not the You

     Other people see

     The You you see

     Is not you

     You see

     You?

             more etceteras to come--- less than a story. not yet a poem. I won't post annoucements of these on facebook, just hope you'll check from time to time

    ("See You" might be a poem, but I have no more room on the poety page, would have to start another)

3. WHAT SHE SAID

     I met a ghost

     Who kept weeping

     And I asked

     Why are you crying?

     She said

     Because death is sad

     But, I said,

     Its only sad for the living

     Who miss the dead

     Why are you sad?

     And she said

     Because I'm dead

(I'll try being more cheerful next one)

4.  HUH?

      Is it me, or does a question mark look like a shoulder shrug? (?)  A head and a heel? Head and big toe?

5. WHO'S SANE?   

       Einstein is often attributed with saying the definition of insanity is doing the same thngs over and over expecting different results.

    After a little research, the consensus seems to be that Einstein would not have given so narrow a definition to such a broad condition, and there is no record of him saying such. 

     While I don't agree either with that as a definition of insanity, its certainly a description of stupidity (Rats in a maze do better)

     I do think  however, total madness, or at least fustration to the superlative, can result from doing the same thngs over and over KNOWNG the results will be the same. Perhaps appropriate here a quote by Thoreau, who did say,  "Ordinary peolpe live quiet lives of desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them."

     Whad-a-ya-say?  Let's all sing...

6. WHAT'S HAPPENING

Everything that happens happens for a reason, and even if it didn't happen for a reason, it still happened.

 7.                                      BORN ON MARS

                                                     PART 1

                                                ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

                                                ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

                                                     PART 2

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      8.                                                         DUTY 

      Dog accompanied Jova everywhere. When Jova fired an arrow and hit prey, Dog retrieved it. He did this from the time he was a pup. Jova always said “Zumb bow,” and stroked his head for that, fed him a little extra next meal.

     One day camping, Jova didn’t get up. Dog waited a long time, then went and barked at Jova’s family so they’d help. They came and cried, and then washed Jova, and then they carried him on a long pole and put him in a hole in the ground and filled it.

     Dog stayed a while by the disturbed earth that grew no grass, but then he went  back to the hunting field. As always, he waited silently. He knew sometimes it took hours before Jova would fire the arrow, and Dog was patient. At some point, he would run. There was no prey to find, so he’d pick up a big stick or a full branch and carry it back. There was no pat on the head, no meal. He waited longer. He retrieved again.

     When they stumbled on Dog, they could see his ribs and extended stomach. They didn’t wash Dog, but they carried him on a long stick, and put him in a hole in the ground and filled it in. The earth there was disturbed, and grass no longer grew. That place was not far from where they had left Jova.  If Jova’s spirit ever hunted, Dog would be close enough to retrieve, to continue doing what he’d always done, to be what he had been.

   9.                                               THE LUMPS

        When the lumps broke out he would wander on the street with a vacant stare. He felt ethereal, lacking a physical reality. They would grow off the top of his head exponentially. He couldn’t work, so was always losing the job he had and looking for another. Everyone he’d ever known, if they didn’t outright laugh at him didn’t want to be associated with either

     He left that place but of course when he went to the new one it was just a matter of time. The lumps always receded and that was when he changed locale, knowing of course they would come back. People in the next place hadn’t seen them before, were accepting, but he knew as the cycles continued they’d get like the folks in the old place.

     He came across some people who knew what to do. They gave him a treatment regimen, and said as long as he would maintain it, the lumps wouldn’t re-occur. He discovered they were right. He found himself. Back where he came from, they’d always talked about finding yourself, so he expected they’d see him as an affirmation of that belief, and he returned.

     Most seemed resigned he was back, but not all. There were those who remembered well. They hadn’t found themselves, just talked about it, and couldn’t acknowledge that he had. They ridiculed as they had when he’d had the lumps, and if they didn’t dare do that, whispered it. They knew the lumps were gone and couldn’t stand it. They missed them. They had expected him to be lying in the street pouring out puss and were angry that he wasn’t, that now he might even do better than them.

     Yet he had to admit that if they remembered, it was only because the lumps had been there. What had been was, and in the present what is is. It all happened and was happening. He could go on, but everything remained.

 10.                            STRANGE TRANSPORT

                                   Roses are death

                                   Violets are marriage

                                   After them both

                                   You ride in a carriage

11.                                                      NIGHT MOVIE

      The automatic sled went up with a big dog sitting in it, several kids, and a couple of old amatuerish guys. We were waiting for it to return. A lot of sleds did. Coming now, in a haze of winter fog, there is a sled with only two little kids in it, and instead of stopping it whipped around the curve where we were waiting and continued down the mountainside. The checker ran around the curve and shouted after them, "What's your number?" One of the kids shouted back, "When was it sent?" The checker said something I couldn't hear, the reply from the sled was something I couldn't hear, but it was plain this was not the sled we were waiting for. What happened to that? Ill crewed, without adequate supplies, they're still up there somewhere on the mountain. Am I going to have to go up there with nothing but a pen and a piece of paper to find out? Why are there no conclusions?