New Pope Elected in the Book I Just Finished - catching up on Daily Poems - Readying for Kidneyversity

What a great book! Quite long. My daughter Sarah reminded me that it was her husband Ethan who recommended it to me.

Was in a foolproof cocoon as I read the book. First, tho, I danced to my new favorite band, Six O'Clock News. 

How I enjoyed my instant coffee. Managed to take a nap with Scott as we watched the evening news. El presidente is doing very cruel things to our immigrants and to our environment. Cruel is the right word.

Theories, anyone? Undoing Obama's legacy? Showing his autocratic Putin-esque power?

When I saw the moon out tonight I knew I had to write a poem about it. I left the door open so I could bask in moonbeams. See the tiny moon above?

My neighbor, Zeke, 5, knows I love the moon. He asked me if I look out my bedroom window at it?

I certainly do, Zeke. Left his dad, Pete Lytle, a message on FB. The family is moving out on April 3. Will miss them!

IS THE MOON OUT TONIGHT?

You bet it is. Caught on the topmost branch
of Bob and Judy's house, staring down at their
new Pella Windows and white picket fence.

Everything glows white.
White as the skin of
Christ hanging from
the cross on Golgotha.

Were you there?

The multitudes brought
picnic lunches to celebrate
his destruction, which soon
became his liberation.

I salute the cold mirror
of the moon and the rolling
of the stone that marked
the Saviour's Rising.

Ed Quinn liked the poem and told me to read ONE SOLITARY LIFE. It's an excerpt, he said, from a series of six sermons delivered by a Protestant minister who moved from Canada to Texas in the early 1900’s.

He knows it by heart and it never fails to move him to tears.

Many years ago we had a retired pastor and his wife attend ND. All I remember about them was that for some reason, she would get catatonically depressed around him but refused to leave him. I believe he wouldn't let her get medicated and said, God will take care of you.

Hmm. I need to write a short story for tomro, might I write about dat?

Finished my meatless chili. Listening to this audio book when I'm in the kitchen: Trevor Noah: Born a Crime, his South African childhood. His crime? He was the son of a black woman and a colored man. He looked white.  Excellent!

And who opened up the pasta sauces? Why, Tucker did, part of the family who are moving.

I keep our family abreast of who's bringing what foods to the party.

What? No meat? Nikki said.

It will be taken care of.

Laboriously, I changed my sheets for when Sarah and Ethan sleep here. It takes literally an hour.

Here's some daily poems I wrote on Facebook:



Used to belong to LA Fitness and loved to swim.

One of my fave swims was when Sarah, Ethan and I were aboard the Jazz Cruise ship about a year ago. I swam in a salt water pool on the top deck. It was so damn cold I thought I'd freeze to death, yes, I did!

Read all about it.





SWIM

 I have never learned to swim. I have never voluntarily immersed myself in any sea or stream. - Gerald Murnane, writer from Australia

The kings and queens of fitness
arrive early, shower, towel off
and plunge into the blue blue
waters of the lap pool.

I know. I was once one of them.
Swimming's like meditating.
Think of anything you like.
How delicious bananas are.
The jonquils lifting up their
pretty yellow heads in the backyard.

Ascending the ladder to leave.
I realize not I will never be back.

***

 UNDERNEATH MY BERET

Sure, I sleep in it
It's cold up here in the
Philadelphia winters

When I took it off
this morning
how surprised I was
to find

A tiny bird's nest
with two blue eggs
ready to hatch

I heard them crack
even though a Pella Window
truck was backing in
across the street

The dark-eyed juncos
flitted across the living room
Before they could poop
I ran downstairs,
grabbed my newly painted birdhouse
and popped them inside.

Outside they are.
Hope they're happy
and prosper, and like
their window as much
as my neighbors like
their Pella's. 

***

Hello Roly-Poly groundhog in back yard.

The night before I had a terrible dream. A furry animal was caged in a large glass jar. I was panic-stricken and had no idea how he'd get out. I was the furry animal. I looked for Sarah to help me out but she was nowhere to be found.

The next morning I did a double-take when I saw the ground-hog.

My niece Jade made a video about the Delaware River. Watch it on YouTube here.

You'll never guess who commented on it.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

We played badminton
on the back lawn
Where's the birdie?
The shuttlecock in
official-ese?

There I'd go, flat
on my belly
making a save

Just like in later
years, we'd play
volleyball at
Masons' Mill Park

Broke my wrist
while making a save

Two breaks then
Wrist and ankle
What'll they think
of me when they open
my King Tut's tomb?