Crete

  
   

Crete in late October

stay at the Domes Noruz

beach resort in Chania

a feast at breakfast 

rental car required 

to visit Elafonisi

most beautiful pink beach

follow winding road

through countryside

visit a monastery 

hike Imbros Gorge

so much to do

on an island

or do nothing

  

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dVerse prompt on travel.  Hoping for the day I can return to Crete.

Crete

Irreplaceable

Sometimes I hear his snort

smell his fart

drop a food morsel

on the floor

expecting him to come

and find it

he stopped on his own

pulmonary embolism

cremation ashes return

Irreplaceable pet

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NaPoWriMo prompt on a pet. Deuce was irreplaceable.

Irreplaceable

When I Think About Rooms

When I think about rooms

the one that encompassed me

front door corridor

entryway

dark hardwood door

no windows

rarely used

darker in its none use

where no one went in or out

(always the side door)

but this room

with its front door

that held a way in and out

held me as a three year old

who sat on the bench

with hinged top for boot or shoe

other side was closet

a closet rarely opened

such a small room

for my small person

remembered now

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NaPoWriMo prompt on describing a room remembered

When I Think About Rooms

Ninth Grade English Class

It was the ninth grade, in Sophie Pouch’s English class, we passed the reading of Macbeth from reader to reader until it went all around the classroom yet still was not done. The next day we did it again and again, when finally, it was finished.

And Shakespeare’s words went out into those hallways of the school with a morning greeting of “How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?” as we congregated around our lockers. A commanding response of “Speak. Demand. We’ll listen.” “Had I three ears, I’d hear thee.” And on it went into our school day.

Autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut. Basho

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dVerse prompt to consider Shakespeare and Basho in a haibun. I will never forget Sophie Pouch’s ninth grade English class.

Ninth Grade English Class

A Review of Groceries Delivered

Searching on the website

like going down each aisle

I want this— out of stock

I want chips— not a healthy choice

I want pantry foods— ones that keep

red lentils

split peas

garbanzo beans

make a soup— better than canned

make the order Sunday night

Monday 7 am

the joy of groceries delivered

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NaPoWriMo prompt to write a review. My experience with online grocery shopping. I miss going down the aisles of the grocery store but this will have to do.

A Review of Groceries Delivered

Wonder Uterus

Sunny gardenia

gothic drink in the morn

gecko or fox in a hole

this penny & tulips

wonderful uterus

lover of countries

democracy & t-shirts

a tornado of Hemingway’s

sunshine

Dear Jane

Kim is dead

turtle & Goodnight Moon

rebar into birds singing

of governments & ferries

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NaPoWriMo prompt to take the quiz presented and make it a poem. The Wonder Uterus graffiti was found in Lisbon, the land of graffiti.

Wonder Uterus

Dystopic Thinking

Dystopic thinking today

as I work in the garden, contemplating Voltaire.

How has education

brought me to this point

of doubting all that I know?

History is not repeating itself.

How can this pandemic

be compared to the Spanish Flu of 1918?

We know so much more but do little.

Communication is faster

so what is going on in Italy

I can know right now.

In Spain the same. Now the US.

But look at the geography.

Look at the size of countries

and compare it to US.

Italy is smaller than Washington State.

How can there be comparisons?

The one common factor is

that the disease spreads quickly.

Test- track-and isolate. Too late.

The microbe is loose.

By accident or design?

Nobody knows or somebody knows.

Maybe we will never know.

What we do know is

that staying home keeps us safe.

Not everyone can stay home

so in Italy

there are still new cases regardless of a lockdown.

People have to go out to get food.

Whole families die at home.

After a month of staying at home,

groceries delivered and sterilized,

no outside visits,

I can’t say that I am lonely or stir crazy.

I like to stay home.

But what would it be like without internet,

without the food supply,

without air conditioning and lights?

In the winter, what if there was no heat?

What if there was no gas

to keep the car going if I wanted to relocate,

live in the mountains, hunt for food?

Are we being tossed back

into the Neanderthal of life

or just a temporary bleep in the radar

of what we always thought was progress?

Too many questions and who cares

what the answer is.

I find answers to be too dystopic.

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NaPoWriMo prompt to write 20 minutes spontaneous writing and make it a poem.

Dystopic Thinking

Ripening

Just a few more days

these bananas will be ripe

for banana bread

that is if no one eats them

can’t let that happen

going to hide them now

there will be banana bread

tomorrow

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NaPoWriMo prompt on a fruit. So hungry for banana bread. With the family sheltered in, it is hard to keep some foods from disappearing. Cashews are banned so we can’t fight over them anymore.

Ripening