Of peaches and hyphens, of politics and jazz! / Poem: The Peach Tree

RIP Andy Rooney. He died today at age 92. He was a decorated soldier in WW2.

I'm two-thirds finished with the Compass. Great issue. The hardest part is the Editor's Corner. I had a question about using hyphens such as "a 25-year-old man." So I called Alan Kerr, the editorial page editor of the Intelligencer and he told me what the AP style book says. I used to have a copy of it when I worked as a copyeditor at that paper.

He said, "It's important to be consistent." His wife grew up on my street, 194. Just checked it out on my walk. Dunno who lives there. It's got a three-car garage.

For the first time this year I baked a whole wheat bread. (No hyphen?) I couldn't find the carb count on the Internet so I called Mary Ann Moylen, Giant nutritionist, and she told me 15-18 carbs.

Am trying to finish El Compassino before our New Directions' first musical benefit. My fantastic son/law Ethan Iverson arranged with Chris's Jazz Cafe downtown for him to perform with two other jazz greats. I sent out an AWeber.com email to my mailing list.

My poetry group now meets twice a month. The bad thing is: less time to spend with Scott. The good thing is: more poetry.

Wrote a poem this morning about our peach tree. Am letting it rest and will then take another look at it.

Five hours later.

Nice turnout at our Writer's Group. Beatriz Moisset was the leader. New woman Pat is a friend of Carly and showed her stuff by a well-written email she sent to someone she hasn't seen in 40 years. She recently moved from Brooklyn to Cheltenham. Viva la difference!

Kym wrote a very short story a la O. Henry. Do they still give those out at Halloween? Carly wrote a poem about her new grandson called Cooper's Eyes. I have a relative in TX by the name of Cooper. He used to work for Frito-Lay. The first time I ever tasted a corn chip I thought it was the most delicious thing I'd ever had in my life.

Now I'm munching on super-fresh roasted almonds after a great salmon dinner w/Scott.

We asked Linda how she like working at the Horsham Giant. She said it's lots more crowded than the Abington one and the supervisors are stricter. They tell her when to take a break.

Before I left for poetry, a politician put a note on my doorstep. I had no idea what the candidates' platforms were, so, if you can believe this message, I now know who's lazy and who does nothing. I sent the following email to some of my neighbors.

Please read the Election Notice that was put on our doorstep a few minutes ago.

Quoting from the message from Republican commissioner Jim McKenna and Dem. commissioner Lisa Romaniello:

The present leaders of our Board... including Sam Valenza, are either unwilling or unable to provide the leadership required...These one-term commissioners show no interest in addressing the problems and challenges of our Township but would rather play divisive, partisan politics while slowly dismantling the transparency required for good, responsible government.

So if you are happy with unsafe streets after snow storms, payment of $325,000 to other Townships to settle earned income taxes somehow never paid by our tax collector, budget overruns exceeding $1 million b/c of mismanagement of the one and only revitalization project in our township, secretive meetings which exclude public oversight, and an inability to develop and adopt a plan to maintain our roads, parks,resources, and services in our Township, then vote for Joe Lavalle and Sam Valenza.

I just put my Susan Worth-LaManna sign on my lawn. Read more about her here http://uppermoreland.patch.com/articles/meet-your-ward-6-candidate-susan-worth-lamanna

She'd be happy to come out and talk to you, if interested.

I had previously contacted Sam Valenza - twice - asking him to email me his past accomplishments in the township and also his campaign platform. That should be easy, right? He never got back to me.

Election day is next Tuesday! Please share this email with your neighbors.

Thanks for doing your research so we have the best Upper Moreland possible.

Ruth Deming
204 Cowbell Road
215 659 2142

THE PEACH TREE

just a babe, her leaves flutter in the autumn breeze
stalwart beneath the telephone wire
she admires sparrows perched in grown-up trees
for now she hasn’t much to give
a show of strength, perhaps,
days survived
in the glassed-in nursery
malodorous juices spritzed onto her
still-green body
the truck lofted her
to a huge warehouse
smelling of wood and paint
an indoor zoo
of bustling people and
orange shopping carts

could Scott hear her calling?
he picked her up and
put her in his cart.
for him, she will survive
will lose the warmth of
leaves like a peach tree
must
will shoulder
the winter without complaint
will watch her young
adolescence unfold
as her nippled buds
return in spring.

to Scott alone she whispers
I will bear you peaches like
the children you never had
and you will sit on your
porch and eat them
juice
dribbling
from thy mouth.

The group liked the poem. I've gotta leave for group at 1:20. I kept revising it, making it tighter and tighter, printing it out and running upstairs where the printer is. Then I took it next door to show Scott. He was downstairs in his weight room where he procrastinates 45 minutes before lifting. That man sure has big muscles. Feel em! Lats on his back. You'd never know cuz he's always wearing Eagles sweatshirts.