Green grass

It was a pasture man!
With green grass and fences too.
Spring grass cool to the touch.
It used to be a pasture man!
With cows and milk inside!
Milk made by cows, fed by hand.
Green grass is better.
Green grass of home on the other side.
Brahma and nubian goats
and the aforementioned bulls.
A stream and songbirds
and a simple life.
Man oh Man how dirt replaces time.
Filth and the containers of filth.
My family grew the grass.
The green grass of yesteryear.
the green history before my time
I long for the times past Man!
Times greener and cleaner.
Times with a fresh breathe of simplicity.
Lay me down.
Lay me down in a bed of grass.
I watch the clouds pass.
A cow and the milk.
All gone. All gone.
At least in my mind I know it was.
I know how clean and green.
My memory. A place of peace for thee.
Do not see it now. Do not think of how.
Only a place of rest for thee.

Rain rolls down

The buzz of the amplifier. The cold coffee turning colder. The rain rolls down the single-ply glass pane. It is Saturday in late March.

Squirrel at my work

I just went to the break-room. Got some coffee. I then looked out the window at the late winter morning. Looks more like spring. I look in the maple tree about twenty feet from me and see a Eastern Gray Squirrel. He was positioned in a nook between a large limb and the trunk. His two bottom feet were clamped to the limb and his front arms folded underneath him. He had large round brown eyes. He was still as a statue. But then I thought, "What is he thinking?" So the question remains. What was this squirrel thinking? Do squirrels think? At what was he staring? Was a ferris wheel of thought turning through his mind? "Where are my nuts?" "What about that leak in my nest?" "Is it time to clean my tail?" "How am I going to find a mate when I have fleas?" I just can't live with the fact that a squirrel has no individual free-thoughts. I am sure that he is not in that tree as I write this. He has moved on to do other rodent-esque activities. I wish I knew what made him tick. He seemed to be very agitated in general. I should know. Over the course of a year period I captured and relocated about (52) fifty-two such beasts. All were angry and agititated. I let them go in a Baptist church parking lot about a mile from my house. They wanted to claw my eyes out or perhaps worse. They would spring forth from the catch-and-release trap like an mis-aligned catapult. Shot from guns! Out of the truck and into the woods and up a tree. I have no answers only observations and a list of questions. I think it is out of the question to be friends with a squirrel. Too much anger. Too many claws. Too many rodent instincts. I just keep asking myself," If I had a 4 foot long fluffy tail would it change my life?" I guess it depends on how fluffy it actually was.

La Sal Ridge

Which seems better to you? Shall I ride a train or a bus. Would it be better if you left me in the fall with a gray rain or a summer evening. Sweat on my brow. Bags in my hand. Two days ago things seemed so cheery. So much sunshine. I smell smoke. The tip of your fingernail is broken. I unwrap a piece of cornbread my sister packed for me on the trip out here. I didn't mean it. I can figure it out. I wish we had second chances. Instead of down here in this train car I wish I was high on La Sal ridge. Looking up at the stark white precipice. Wind in my ear. Glare in my eyes. We talked about what we would cook for dinner. I close my eyes again. I feel the humid heat from the steam release. The blast of air. We move. You only live in my dreams now. Only think of the good things. No sense of time. No order or rhyme. A patchwork of people I know and knew and YOU. Preachin' and teachin'. I see the same few people over and over in different forms. I am never any closer to them. My brain will never let them go. If you read between the lines you only see white. I will plant a field of white flowers. I will paint the sunshine. I will speak your name.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers and bugs. Tiny bugs and bees. That is all I could see. Beautiful sunflowers and you were happy. You were laughing. Mostly at me and the bugs. You laughed with your eyes. A million yellow hearted flowers. Flowers on the side of a long black country road. Far as the eye could see. Around the bend. Flowers and trees and bugs and a road. The hot summer afternoon sun. Smile for me in the sunshine.

Sometimes good things inspire more good things. I was looking at this painting but I couldn't see it too well. I started thinking of what I could paint in a similar way. Wood corners and more wood underneath. Let's spend some time together. Sit real close in a corner booth. Watch a crazy man on the corner. Hold hands under the french fried napkins. I really thought it was a blue elephant with wings but I don't know if it was. Maybe a friendly tarantula with a jockey on his back. A woman on my left and a woman to my right. I didn't know either of them. One was married. Diamond ring shining in the dark. I don't want to give too much away. My knees hurt a little. I haven't spoken in a couple hours but my mind is racing. I do a lot of thinking. A lot. Too much I have been told. I hope I do not explode. She asked me to have a picnic in the rain. We could still be happy. Love you... I don't eat meat but if I did we could take a box of sausage biscuits in the car with us when we drove to the mountains. I love the green valley. Look at the stream. You have beautiful eyes. Good music makes me think and I wish I could taste your tears. Bittersweet in my brain as I walk up the cracked and rumpled sidewalk. I walk by your old house. She wonders why I say "You." I pack 57 parts into a 55 size box. One after the other. Take them out and start again. Bleed off the excess pressure. Take a break man. I have the answer but I can't speak the language. Raindrops in the palms of my tired hands. Drip between my fingers. I give up.

Watching Planes

I take pictures while I drive.