signs of the season

1. heat and rain, rain and heat
2. mosquitoes colonizing my legs
3. fireflies fooling fairies
4. spring buds pushed inside out
5. mimosa trees get distinguished again
6. light and insomnia, insomnia and vamp

today’s word: gallimaufry \gal-uh-MAW-free\, noun:
A medley; a hodgepodge.

6 things de la finca

1. crawdad
2. mountain minnows
3. 2 ft diameter cowpatties
4. acres of uncomfortably open space, vulnerable
5. kids making out by the fire
6. crazy man threatening your camera with a fiery death

trains

The backs of cities, towns and planned communities face the train tracks, revealing broken-down, rusted cars, a school bus waist deep in grass, power lines, dead end streets, fencing–miles and miles of chain link new, old, overgrown with dead vines, downed by fallen trees, silver, green, rusted, with barbed wire–bits and crap like stained couches, old tires, fridge, futon frame, bottles, a periwinkle leather suitcase, a toilet seat, abandoned brick train stations.

There’s the space left for nature, wild unfeeling nature left alone after being ravished, healing or full of health, (depending on whether she’d been ravished or not or how long ago, critical). Such a small thing to do, and then there’s a golf course.

I will still be watching you watching him and I will be sad because I can’t stop this train or the scenery from going past.

mulberry trees

6 things:

1. Mulberry trees have mulberries that taste like mild blackberries. They’re what silk worms eat, and what stains the sidewalk purple.
2. Low moon, heavy orange, bright; three women gasping at beauty, together.
3. There’s a huge floor to ceiling, wall to wall mirror at the entrance of my apartment. I noticed today that my thighs look strong and muscular.
4. Two herons flying low over the Potomac.
5. While I agonize over the pain of a heavy kayak on my shoulder, technology trumps and I get passed by a grandma with her kayak on wheels.
6. (one more) me: rolling in my kayak! I can accomplish anything.

rain storm

6 things

1. in the crosswalk, baby’s shoe fell from the carriage. dad ran back and crouched down to it up, abandoning his charge for seconds. It was daddy’s babysitting day.
2. dad walking two grown kids across the road by their elboes; he’d missed the few years when his kids learned to safely cross the street.
3. people scattering to get out of the rain–oh! my armani!
4. poor woman, face petrified in humiliation, her wet white t-shirt revealing a sexy teal bra.
5. rain so hard, so wet, it fought against me (i won).
6. budding lilies among the weeds.

en·co·mi·um  /ɛnˈkoʊmiəm/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[en-koh-mee-uhm] –noun, plural -mi·ums, -mi·a /-miə/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[-mee-uh]

a formal expression of high praise; eulogy: An encomium by the President greeted the returning hero.

[Origin: 1580–90; < L < Gk enkmion, equiv. to en- en-² + kôm(os) a revel + -ion n. suffix]

i hate cars

6 things

1. A white van, popping a u-y, disregarding my rights to the road, made me stop and ignored my curses
2. 100 yards later, a shitty blue honda, popping a u-y, nearly hitting me, made me go into a tourette’s-like rage, screaming gawddamn it, maathurfudders! An older gentleman was startled, and gave me a look
3. there’s an elephant in the room
4. the kitty puked in front of a guest, how embarrasing!
5. the price of rich-people’s art goes up in millions
6. we sat in a room of glass, gov’t employees rubbernecking us

baby bus

6 things I saw today:

1. 16th street nearly finished, sadly sans bikelane.
2. one-wheeled bike
3. series of motley flags: cornflower blue, turquoise, salmon, plum
4. Mary’s Center’s Mama & Baby Bus
5. knock-out roses
6. bearded iris

“These may be words.”

doughty

\DOW-tee\, adjective:
Marked by fearless resolution; valiant; brave. Doughty comes from Old English dohtig, “brave, valiant, fit.”

Not to be confused with dowdy: not stylish; drab; old-fashioned. From Middle English doude, immoral, unattractive, or shabbily dressed woman.”

6 things I saw this weekend:

1. barren appartment–no overflowing bookshelves, no excessive furniture: overwhelming peace
2. discarded necklace, piled in golden mess
3. drunken couple falling over each other (he was giving her a piggy back ride and fell over), my parents walked past, holding hands
4. Chevy Chase Circle, without him
5. 1000s of individual cuts to fit tiles to a pretty pattern in the floor.
6. Happy birthday in chocolate syrup, with cheesecake.

“There was so much that was real that was not real at all.”

newman-o’s

6 things I saw today

1. a crew of workers cutting down one tree in a forest
2. 2 women on a walk, we talked, one had money sewed to her shirt
3. purple house, purple car, purple clothes–the Takoma Park Purple people were out
4. my newman-o’s were flawed! One face was turned cream-side
5. parking lot opening from underneath the Cathedral like a big maw
6. woman putting coins into the parking meter where my bike was locked

moil

moil, an interesting word; one that makes some English Lit useful. Without understanding that the Norman invasion made middle english a lower class language, it would be hard to imagine why “soft” would turn into “to soil ones hands” and then to “drudgery.” But, since the Normans made french the hoity-toity language, our balls and Beowulf got left behind.

6 things I saw today:

1. a beautiful man riding a bike in a suit
2. a woman with short cropped hair
3. construction on 16th street–it looks like they’re painting a bike lane!
4. gardeners planting loads of wave petunias in front of the FOE office
5. a 50 + man walking around in nothing but boxers in front of the National Geographic Building
6. veins crawling seductively over his metacarpals, long fingers, gasp!

“The scam-baiters seem almost like a spontaneous evolutionary response to a threatening predatory species–think of them as the T cells of the Internet’s immune system. But they also seem an embodiment of the devolution of discourse and increase in abuse and invective that’s come to be known as “cyber-disinhibition”–the tendency of people to engage in hostile interactions when they aren’t inhibited by face-to-face contact.”

“Most articles about foreign policy are op-ed pieces masquerading as political philosophy.”

Black swan (did you know these existed)?

click the image to get a closer look…