Monday, October 2, 2017

Mass shooting in Vegas- Bought a new camera - Poems: The Mind of an Assassin - Puerto Rico: Gotta Move On

Image result for nikon coolpix A10My Nikon Coolpix A10, which I bought at Larmon Photo in Abington, takes great pix, which you will not see b/c I don't know how to use it.

You download your pictures with a chip.

The latest mass shooting in the U S  took place in Las Vegas.

Read about it here.



While I was eating my egg omelet outdoors in the chilly but delightful autumn air, I realized I must write a poem about it.

THE MIND OF AN ASSASSIN

Spiderweb filled with
the good, the brave,
the just.

Its weight too heavy to
bear. Never insane, just
savvy smart, a black stone
brilliance that finally
found a way to take
revenge.

Never had life felt so good.

***

Of course I goggled the name of Stephen Paddock, 64, and found nothing of interest.  The cops have now discovered his female roommate.

And like Hitler, he was not shot, but killed himself.

***

I wrote a note to the new editorial editor of the Intel asking why he didn't publish my Guest Editorial, knowing that recovery from addiction and mental illness was constantly in the news.

Sent him this note from the Warminster PA weekly email:

 Greetings,

In this month’s edition of the Warminster Weekly, the Police department would like to highlight a new program that is taking hold in the county.  The program is the Bucks County Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery initiative or BPAAR.


***


Here are some poems I have lying around.


PUERTO RICO: GOTTA MOVE FORWARD

Photo Essay by the NY Times

Click here for their essay

Our cruise ship arrived
last February. Like a puppy
let out of its cage, I trotted
onto the sands of San Juan.

My feet were cooled by the
sandy waters. O, Puerto
Rico, I thought, I am
here once again.

A tanned woman, originally
from Brooklyn, was selling
earrings in a huge case.

Her dream was to move to
the tropics.
"Those look nice," she said,
as I tried on a red pair
that looked like a
juicy watermelon, then
a blue pair resembling
a night full of stars.

From my pocket I handed
her a twenty and told her
to keep the change.

Where are you now,
Brooklyn woman? You are
helping other people
recover. Gotta move
forward is the island's
motto.


***

The below poem brought forth a lot of comments on Facebook. 

SATURDAY

Some Jews choose to celebrate
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Mom is one of them.

I cannot say for sure if there's
a God or not. But there are a
number of godlike creatures
here on earth I do celebrate.

The long-necked giraffe,
The thick-barked maple tree
growing in my front yard
Dappled leaves that plunge
to the ground,
My neighbor Zeke who just
learned to ride a bike at 7

And sipping on a cup of tea
hot and spicey as it slides
all the way down, as I
sit here in my winter
pajamas.


***


GOOD MORNING MARGARET FITZPATRICK

In the waiting room, I started reading
my book, when a flash of light came
from the next seat.

A baby blanket! Crocheted. Yellow and white
with ABCs on raised letters.

I exclaimed.Who wouldn't! Guess
they didn't wanna know the sex, I said.

I'm gonna see the owner, I said, with the
pride of someone visiting our former
first lady.

Her husband had finished his therapy. Walked
out as if he'd just finished a chess game
at Golden Gate Park.

Margaret discoursed about pain. Then we
practiced exercises, the suppleness of my
aging body, standing on one foot, then
the other.

Like a school teacher, she praised me often.
We discussed the great Guy Lee, MD, who
took care of my sciatica, and sent me here,
how we marveled at the handsome Guy Lee.

She thinks a few sessions will have my
protruding disk back in place. How it loves
to move, she said, move move move.

So where dyou think I'm heading for now?
A chair in a movie theater at the library.
I'll sit on the side and stand and sit
a couple of times. What a beautiful
yellow and white blanket that was!


***


I've been doing my exercises which are very painful. When I woke up at 2:30 am, the pain had really subsided for the very first time.

Do you know what the largest religious shrine in the world is?

Angkor Wat in Cambodia, built in the early 12 th century.

Front side of the main complex




1 comment:

  1. Very sad about the Las Vegas shooting. The shooter was 64 and lived in Mesquite, a beautiful and very green retirement community about an hour east on the Interstate.

    My wife and I looked at the place, you've got golf courses, the Virgin River, mountains on both sides, very Edenic.

    I'm hoping that the shooting is not politically motivated, but that he just snapped. I'm usually in Las Vegas this time of the year. It makes you wonder.

    ReplyDelete