My new poem - My new short story Ten Days and Ten Nights - plus What Happened at the Giant - Turquoise Nails

Yes, I wrote a poem about my new nails.

Usually I blog about our Coffeeshop Writers' Group, but have too many things to do today.

I have six books due tomro at the library and wanna sit down and reeeeed!

It was great seeing everyone in the group.....

 Kym has the same color toenails as my fingernails.

 Oh, Ruthie, comb your hair for pete's sake. Look, if you hadn't mentioned it, no one would notice. You are SO VAIN!!!

Before I began reading my poem, I asked if anyone had heard of the poet Mary Oliver.

"She's my second favorite poet," said Allan.

"And I'm your first," I said.

"Think of icicles in the winter.....FROST on the trees."

TURQUOISE NAIL POLISH

Blue Horses, Mary Oliver’s

new book boasts

lines like

“wanting to see the most beautiful thing

that has ever been in my house.”

It’s not about owls or gray sparrows

or bluebirds or that large mansized dog

she’s been photographed with

rather, meet Anne Taylor, her new love.

As my breath catches on each line,

she is nearing eighty, and diagnosed

for several years with cancer,

I must confess that I too am

stunned by the most beautiful

thing residing in my house

my turquoise nails, which stop me

every few minutes, like Rita Hayworth

turning men’s heads whether they

like it or not.

Surely in the forests of the Amazon

birds of this color strut before

their would-be mates –

plumage sprouting like crowns

from their quickly turning heads.

And the noises they make!

Listen and you shall hear it

unlike any other -

not Samuel Barber

or Bach or Ethan Iverson –

the voice of the lone

turquoise wonder

Hush and hold it

in your hand

and when sorrow

comes, listen

to its song.

*

When group was over - and many from our group went shopping at the Giant - I ran upstairs to ask Robin about the bomb threat thother day. 

The whole store was evacuated for two and a half hours, she said. Canines were sent in.

There was no bomb. 

But you've gotta treat the threat seriously. They do not know who had issued the threat over the phone.

Robin was really scared. After all, she works there. 

*

My new short story - Ten Days and Ten Nights - was written b/c I wanted to understand something. My friend Stephen Weinstein passed away of cancer on August 28, 2014.

Since I'm not close friends of the Weinsteins, I didn't know the details of his death. Scott and I did attend services at Goldstein's and sat shiva. 

Stephen was a truly great man, very active politically, a Democrat like we are. Had many Letters to the Editor published in the Inquirer. He also had his own blog "Stephen Views the News."

People read and commented on it from around the world.

Stephen and Arleen were very generous, donating each Thanksgiving to The Breathing Room. 

So my short story, which takes place on my 10-day bus trip to New Orleans, is an attempt to grieve his death.

Here's what The Weinsteins look like.

And now, I'll start reading. I highly recommend Jim Garner's autobiography. He died this year.