This, that and the other thing Poems: Jump In about the Adams' pool - Ohio Fever - Where are all the people? - Dining with the Demings

Am watching the frightening THE RAIN on Netflix. The last episode was about cannibalism. All mythologies have stories about cannibalism. Martin, one of the stars, found tiny shoes, from tiny feet.

Yet he didn't see any children.

Gulp! My they tasted good. Mythology is filled with people eating other people.

The series is very long, but I can't rightly tell how many episodes it is.

When I climbed out of bed this morning, I thought, Ruth, you have nothing to worry about. Take your time.

And then I saw it on the edge of my Red Couch.

Kronic Renal packet to be filled in. Just made a copy of it. With a shock I remember my kidney doc must fill it in. He's on medical leave. Last year, he did it incorrectly.

What me worry?

My late father had a T-shirt WHAT ME WORRY with the head of Alfred E Newman.

Poems - a few may be repeats.

JUMP IN

In the kitchen I prepared my omelet
to the strains of a Dvorak Cello Concerto
on WRTI-FM, as the sounds of birds filtered
through the windows and then a few neighborhood
dogs joined in, and the voices of the hombres
next door redoing the tile on the pool.

Jump in!
Listen for the sound of the splash.
Like cream going into your coffee,
if only you can get the tiny little creamer
to open.

I drank it with cream back in high school.
Nothing like the swirling colors that with
no help from me, just physics, made a
beautiful three-dimensional portrait
too lovely to drink.

***

OHIO FEVER

In my audio book American Spirit by David McCullough
the winters in Maine back in the 1800s were fierce,
good only for for sleigh-riding.

Off they went to my home state of Ohio on roads
non-existent, led by two or four horses in a
covered wagon.

Death awaits us, they thought, but dared not say.
Providence was good to them.

Look at the sheer wonder of those trees,
cried the group botanist!

In fact, before my own family left Ohio and
headed toward PA, they planted two maples
on the front lawn.

Dad said, when you come back, the trees
will be high as the house.

He was always right, though quite dead now.

***

DINING WITH THE DEMINGS

Bought burritos, a pillow-soft cover
enclosing shredded chicken, beans,
and melt-in-your mouth sauce.

Grace, a glass of water please?
With or without ice?
Without, I say.

The little lady balances a
huge glass with straw.
Ooh, I love straws.
Thanks, Grace.

I take a long sip as if I
just returned from the Amazon
and gave an enormous sigh...
sigh... sigh...

Bubby, said Max, from the other
end of the table did you just
take a long drink?

Yes, I said.

I do that, too, he said,
looking up from his iPad
where he compared cars.

On the red rug in the den
we hit the floor and played
a card game: Uno.

https://www.unorules.com/

Like a choreographer in Wicked,
or Cats, Grace told her
compadres every move to make.

I obeyed since I knew not what
I was doing. Max was reluctant
seeking independence at age five.

Love you guys, I said, packing up
and getting ready to go. Driving
home in my new high-powered green
eyeglasses, I marveled once again
at the beauty of the world.

***

WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE

Just got back from a
bracing walk around the block.
Not a soul was to be seen.

Just for fun I wore a straw hat
I bought for tuppence at
the New Jersey seashore.

It was then I knew it.
Why there were no people.
I had just stepped into
Rod Serling's
The Twilight Zone.

Confirming it, was a
cigarette butt on
the ground.

Death by cancer.

***

Sayonara!