Coffeeshop Writers' Group - Not another pair of new shoes! - My two poems written in 25 minutes - Real Leather Uppers - She came back

 I first saw her when I was washing the dishes and looked out into my backyard. She was limping but really enjoyed the vegetation.

 Hello, little deer. I'll write a poem about you later, cuz I couldn't think of a thing to write about.

Around 12 noon, I was exhausted and took a nap on the Red Couch while watching a YouTube video. Hmmm, what should I watch. Oh! Something with Joe Don Baker. Let's see if there are any complete films with him.

Yes! "Mitchell," a 1975 flick in which he plays a cop no one likes.


I only watched 20 minutes - slept thru half of it - the dimpled woman is the beautiful Linda Evans.

On the other hand, everyone likes Beatriz. She surprised us with a beautiful short piece about her own history back in Argentina. When she was a little girl her father left for Europe just before the outbreak of World War Two. Her mom reluctantly left her children and went with him.

Returning home, many Jews were aboard the ship in an attempt to escape from Hitler's Germany or other countries. Her own country passed a decree that Jews couldn't move to Argentina if they exiled from their native land.

In a brilliant last paragraph, Beatriz writes let's pretend the decree never passed and Anne Frank, herself, spent the remainder of her life in Buenos Aires, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Beatriz also wrote of the changing fall landscape at our beloved Pennypack Trust.

Martha was surprised that we all praised the prologue of her book "Eve." Exquisite writing.

Here's a poem "The Lost Book" she left with us. It's happened to you. You're reading something very compelling and you can't find it. Your heart sinks. Where can it be?

When Donna sat down, she said, "I'm engaged."

She's not telling her kids about it as they're giving her a hard time.

"If anyone deserves happiness and a good life," I said. "It's you, Donna."

We loved her poem "The Engagement."

My fave person to photograph is Linda Barrett. She's always into her own world. Look at that big stack of books she has. She was probly one of those kids who was told to go to bed and had a flashlight where she'd draw and write under the covers.

Her poem "A Brief Candle for Mr Ihnat" is about an actor she admires. You've heard of 'biopics' - biographical movies - well, Linda's poem is a "biopoem."

Linda's Steve Ihnat.  1934 –1972

 I'm wearing a new sweater I bought on a non-manic shopping spree at Walmart. My sister Donna pronounced it "hideous," a favorite Greenwold expression of disdain.

 These aren't exactly sneakers but they're a reasonable facsimile. Fifty dollars at Journey at the mall.

Going home from the Giant I passed the level ground where a new Wawa with Gas Station is being built.

Since it's Saturday, these earthmovers were still. Komatsu. Looked very strange seeing a Japanese name on them, altho we take our foreign compact cars like Toyota or Nissan for granted.

Komatsu is the second largest makers of construction equipment after Caterpillar.

I've been obsessing over shoes for my trip to Europe.

"Where shall I buy comfortable shoes?" I asked the group.

Brianna, Marf's granddaughter, suggested I buy Nike Go-Walkers or Sketchers.

Go to DSW, they suggested, or Aldo's at the mall.

I went directly to the mall and stopped at a place called Journey.

Hannah waited on me. A Cheltenham high school student, she wants to be a documentary filmmaker. She and friends made a doc about the Make-a-Wish Foundation. I only pretended to know what it was but now, you and I find out together what it is.

Seriously ill children. 

Quick! Change the subject, it's so sad.

REAL LEATHER UPPERS

The more I wore them
the more they hurt
reminds me of a former lover
who specialized in
braggadocio
I did the sensible thing
took the shoes to the
kitchen sink
used a bottle brush
to scrub their
undersides
pleasingly called soles
dug out the mud
and the grass
remembering all the walks
my new lover and I took
he’s pleasing most of the time
shall we forgot about his
“You’re the worst girlfriend I ever had?”

Let cool water flow over the bottoms
hold them up to the light
Can I fool them?
Ran upstairs and found the box
Naturalizer
a sexy-looking box that fit the shoes
better than they fit me
They’re drying now in the living room
on the purple swivel chair
“Spin me, Daddy, spin me,”
says Grace when she comes over
“I wore them only once,” I practice
in the Marshall’s line-up
It’s not about the money
Like the braggadocio lover
I never want to see them again.


SHE CAME BACK

Whoa!
so unexpected
you’d vanished
for months
we knew you were there
footprints deep in the grass
black pellets like tiny pebbles
asparagus stems
gone in the compost heap

You stood
unaware
unaware of your
beauty, your grace,
knowing not
that time stops
every time you appear
God incarnate
who shows us
forgotten wonders
of the earth
who forces us
to stop our frantic lives
and contemplate the noble
simply in the shape of a deer.