Counting days and nights and putting in a poem with the line– I like counting things– and then taking the poem from there to wherever it goes, one never knows. And then the whittling away and adding a pinch of this or that. Moving into summer, but it’s been largely cool this year yay! and the roses don’t seem to be producing as many blooms. I’ve got nine bushes, but I’m far from being an expert despite their being here for 3 years, but I didn’t plant them, they’re from someone else who occupied this house before we did. I often wonder what her life was like here I think it was a woman who lived alone. The woods to the other side of the fence are pretty much growing up to the fence, which is good because a lot of people used to walk through there. A rare straggler still does, but it’s like they have to blaze a trail where it used to be a pretty clear walkway. Some of the characters walking by are shady– one of them even decided to try to do suicide right there off of our patio with a knife. Thankfully he did not succeed, but there were bloody clothes… remnants … evidence of life…that he left everywhere on the other side of the fence. Life and trauma pushing their way into our little world. Still working all the time using my creative energy for poetry and teaching Spanish …still excited by both. Now don’t have to expend that energy on a job or two like I did for decades.  The weather is good enough for kids to be out and I hear them playing in the yards and I remember how we used to go out in the morning, come back maybe for lunch, and then again for dinner, and our mom wouldn’t see us between those times… and riding our bikes everywhere. Nowadays parents must worry about the danger of their kids being kidnapped and sold or abused or murdered. Dangerous times, unfortunately. 

The news in our country is still infuriating with the Republicans in control of Congress who won’t do anything except cruel things to hurt people and help the rich and prop up the incompetent dictator fool/traitor.  My entire retirement I’ve had to get mad at this every day. Fortunately, around here tons of people feel the same way, and we go out into the streets and protest, shouting, “This is what democracy looks like”,  and “No Kings”, and “Hands Off Our Immigrants”… who make our country shine and put food on our table among other things. Bless their hearts and I only wish Republicans could find theirs. They’ve all sold their souls. The mainstream press is not doing a good enough job by any stretch of the imagination to educate our populace. So many people are willfully ignorant and letting their racism show when they used to try to hide it. They’re due for a wake up when a lot of the policies that will hurt them too may soon go into effect. We’ll see what that does to the slobbering MAGA cult of personality and goofy performance.

We are still resisting the forces that would destroy our democracy and tear up our constitution. To keep my mental health and distract from all this horror going on, I play music, read, watch films. Try to still find the humor in life. Try to stay alive in the world.