Kim Jun-un Strikes Again, but this time with his mouth - Poem: We Support You Dear Leader and a bit more on North Korea

People in Pyongyang, North Korea, watched a television broadcast on Friday of Kim Jong-un’s response to President Trump’s speech at the United Nations. Credit Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

WE SUPPORT YOU, DEAR LEADER

O beloved Supreme Leader of the Greatest Country of all
The oceans, the rivers, the sky above all praise your name,
We kiss in absentia your pinchable cheeks as your mother once did when you were but a fledgling
and fondle your masterful hair-do, a modern-day pompadour
worn by the rebel James Dean. You would like his movies. I'll bring you some.

We back you, Supreme Leader, from what the Barking Dog, the Maniac, the Dotord said of you before the world.

Unlike his country, we have Equality for All!
We love the sameness of our buildings in Pyongyang, the drab metallic gray uniforms we're forced to wear.
We love our cardboard faces that know not how to smile.
We, after all, are but children and must be guided by the
timeless dynasty of Kim.

When you let famine starve our people, how could we question you, o Noble One?

Rumors of sedition are only that. Pay no attention.
Your hot tea and rice will be served shortly.
Tested of course for floating toxins.
Your fortune cookie has the happiest of messages.
Dream on, Supreme Leader, in the Dotord capital of the world.

***

As I said on FB, the photo of Kim Jong Un  was so compelling to look at, so utterly ethereal and strange like a sci-fi movie, I had to write about it, which I did in a poem.

Both photos appeared in today's NY Times, 9/22/17.

***

At the HV Library, saw the film THE LOVERS. Was tempted to leave so many times. Few people liked it. It was definitely influenced by Woody Allen. I'll bet Roger Ebert liked it. Shall we have a look?

Indeed he did. I'll read the review later.



***

Afterward went to Mom's to help eat the delicious brisket and also help her afterward with making her famous Sauerkraut Dish.

 Today I ate the cold brisket with ketchup.

 The Tzimmes was delicious.

I had no dessert.

I'd mentioned yesterday that she and I should play Scrabble. When I got home I saw that my poem "My Mom and I Play Scrabble" will be published in Blood and Thunder.

Ellen said, "Oh, you wrote that to boost your ego?"

I was so shocked I said to her, "What are you talking about?"

And my hard/hearing mother couldn't understand the name of the magazine or why it's called dat.

We both grated a huge tater for the sauerkraut dish and also some onion. My mother kept saying - we were reading the recipe from the Settlement Cook Book - I never used this recipe before.

Mom, I said. Stop saying that. You've said it a thousand times.

I went to take a nap on the living room couch. Ellen left for the post office and to buy some caraway seed.

Did I sleep? Not sure. But I heard my mom puttering around in the kitchen, walking about. She checked the huge saucepan on the stove, which I'd partially covered with a lid.

I imagined her losing her balance and toppling the entire contents onto the floor and burning herself, possibly immolating herself like a Buddhist. I would run into the kitchen, lie on top of her to put out the flames, and call 9 1 1

They're also gonna print a diabetes story I wrote called I REFUSE. Meaning I won't die of complications of diabetes. I was low and went into the Burger King to eat a chili dog and knew I was saved.

Anything else? We're on a darkling plain now at 6:39 pm. Twilight.

 Oh hello Gorgeous One!

Was in the mood for cookies.

Got cookies?

Nope, I don't keep em at home.

So I made up a little plate of crackers with peanut butter and with Phila Cream Cheese with scallions.

When suppertime comes, I'll eat one of my stale tacos with the salsa and cheese.

Maybe, while eating, I'll read this about North Korea. I'd imagine loads of people are fascinated by it. Are you?

SUPPERTIME!

Great News From Spine Surgeon Guy Lee, MD - Poem: A Simple Man

It was just like old times but now Guy Lee works for The Rothman Institute, capitalizing on what many consider the best place for restoring movement of various limbs.

There were a few changes since I was last there in 2013 checking out my protruding disk, after having sciatica surgery in 2011.

I carried around this iPad and answered questions about my current condition - painful left leg - and other conditions, whether or not I smoked, used recreational drugs, how many steps to get into my house, how many floors my house has, which floor my bedroom is on, and what are my favorite Netflix films.

My occupation? I had to type that in. I could not quite remember how to spell Psychotherapist on this particular instrument.

I arrived an hour early BY ACCIDENT.

And could not find Maryland Avenue. Well, I did but then it strayed away and I was driving around in circles trying to find it.

Scott gave me an important landmark: Across the street from NRB, or something with three initials. CAB, BAR, HIT.

That's just me practicing using my mind.

Guy and I hugged and proclaimed neither had changed. He thought he looked older and I said absolutely not. He said the same about me.

I'd wrin an article about him on Patch.com and someone recently read it and commented on it. We both agreed that Time has no meaning, when you're grown up.

I complained to Nurse Caitlyn I wouldn't have any time to read. But I did. A new book from the Hatboro Lib. called HUNDREDS OF INTERLACED FINGERS by Vanessa Grubbs, MD.

Subtitled A Kidney Doctor's Search for the Perfect Match. Her BF in real life had been on dialysis for four long years.

 I peek into the X-ray room above. I had an X-Ray for some reason. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Have camera, will photograph!

C'est moi. Hey, my butt doesn't look so fat, does it? See above.

 The lumbar spine above. A piece of my disk is protruding, like a jelly donut where the jelly touches a nerve that causes pain. I rated my pain level from Zero to Eight.

 Front view. Guy showed me some arthritis on my lower left hip? Pelvis? Hey, I'll bet Rich Fleisher could read this, former radiologist. What dyou think, Rich?

Guy wrote me an electronic Rx for physical therapy. I'll see Margaret Fitzpatrick, who both Guy and I think is Z greatest!

He told me that usually these bulging disks go right back where they belong within 6 to 9 months. Without surgery!

"Get back in here where you belong, you dodo-bird!"

"Hell, I just wanted to see what it was like on the outside. Not so great but I'm not quite ready to come back in."

Days pass.

Margaret Fitzpatrick takes charge.

"Give that protruding lumbar a good run for its money," she says, handing me one of those green rubber stretchy ropes.

Peeking through the dense foliage, reminding myself of watching Night No. Three of Ken Burns' The Vietnam War, I saw not rice paddies, women with pointed straw hats, and burning down peasants' huts, not to mention emptying out their canvas bags of rice - what would they eat??? - I saw instead the Best Western Hotel.

I love the color GREY but the building is none too pretty. Perhaps Lenin designed it. Albert Speer?

 This Smart Car above has a Rubics cube design.

 And when I pulled into DQ I was stunned by this Geico Car.

It was terribly hot outside. Late 80s I'd say.

I'm celebrating, I told Pauline.

We tried to figure out what my passion is. Finally got this. Quite good. Caramel. Pecans. Chocolate and Vanilla ice cream and of course those cute little Geicos.

Testing my courage, I walked/crawled up the hill behind DQ to eat my treat sitting down on the side of the hill, savoring every bite.  See my car below?  

Guy Lee and his band, Rose's Cross - his wife's name - are in demand, raising money for charity events.  New siding for my house?

View it here.



Rose's Cross Band.

If I'm not mistaken, the Temptations or Persuasions took a pic like this bc their voices echoed on the stairwell.

A SIMPLE MAN

Inexhaustible, we think,
but who really knows the
makings of this man.

Movie-star handsome in
his white lab coat
black pompadour proclaiming
James Dean intensity

The Almighty bestowed
him with healing hands
his patients walked in
bent over, howling in
pain

He made the crooked straight
God is good, so good.

He took a liking to the
guitar. Practiced in
the basement. "Enter the
Sandman" by Metallica.
Raw and peaceful all at once.
Plays it during surgery. 

The luck of the Irish is
with Guy Lee, MD. Married
to Rose, three healthy
children, and a rock band
Rose's Cross, that thrills
the audience and heals their
souls.

He makes the crooked straight
gets them out of their wheelchairs
the old and the young, the rich
and the poor.
Of course he does!
He's Guy Lee, MD.
"What for dinner, sweetheart?"

Oh, hello! Sending out Pumpkin Cards to The Lucky Trifecta - Poem: Drugs

Oh, hello there!

What we're listening to:

Crosby Stills Nash and Young at the Fillmore East in NYC, 1970.

See, I just finished my article for the Intelligencer. I began with a quote from the Stephen Stills' song he wrote for his then-girlfriend, Judy Collins. Suite Judy Blue Eyes.

What could be more beautiful.

With a word limit of 700, I winnowed it down to slightly over 700. I'm working with a new editor, Guy Italian last name.

I sent it over to Ada to review.

With my new Microsoft Program it took me 7 minutes to find the WORD COUNT button. Also the page numbering takes three steps instead of one.

This morning I had the idea of sending PUMPKIN cards to various friends. I made three cards.

Is nothing sacred, Ruthie? Sharing your cards with the thousands of people who read your blog? (Shhh! It's really only 30 people with great minds.)

 First I used Julien's Sunbeam Dryer to dry the orange paint. Then I simply put it in the preheated oven, which I turned off after 30 seconds.

 I typed up a message, blocking it with the ..... you're so smart, you figger it out. That's a line from one of my poems. Oh, that's right. It's in my true short story, Spanish Arches or the alternate name, Norman is that You?

Norman: like a bewhiskered magistrate.

Tera McAmis,

Tera McAmis, M.L.I.S.
Public Services Assistant Director
Upper Moreland Public Library
www.UMFPL.org

Tera was our Guest Speaker at ND last night. She's from Oklahoma where they have a wonderful library system and loads of money.

Had lunch at a very exclusive restaurant.

 Scratched in the once-wet sidewalk were the former owners of me house. The Travis Family. Click to see the word TRAV and also, I believe, a heel print.

 I ate a chicken salad platter w sauerkraut, cole slaw, tomaters, etc. They do not make platters but I told Bernadette how to do it. Also after taking a couple bites of the chocolate croissant I returned it for being stale.

Brian Rothkoft and his peer Herb. We chatted away. Brian lives in Bensalem. 

Can you see my eyelids drooping?"

Hey, wise guy. I said drooping, not drooling.

Yes, I continued to watch The Vietnam War. 

DRUGS

Okay, I confess, when I was younger
I tried cocaine. A nice young man
offered me some, but I did a terrible
thing: I sneezed and like talcum powder
it blew all over the back of someone's car.

Now my addictions are few. I haven't driven
to Dairy Queen in over a month, but, hey,
the night is young, and they're open until
10.

Is blogging an addiction? Are watching
Netflix films to procrastinate from
writing a story for the Intell an
addiction?

Stop worrying, Ruthie. Life is an addiction.
I wanna stay around as long as I can. Let
Metallica play. My back doctor listens to
them while he fixes our backs. 

***
Scuse me a sec. Wanna find out if Bill Wonder, Vietnam vet, watched the Vietnam show. I'm a little nervous cause he's a published poet but worse, I may not have his email address.

Hold on.

It's spelled Bill Wunder. You know what?  I think the surname Wunder is a thing of beauty.

And, yes, Dear Reader, anything can be a thing of beauty. 

Okay, I sent the email.

And so to bed. Quite warm so I'll train the fan on myself.

Tomro I see Doc Guy Lee. 

A few photos of Scott's refurbished garage - Poem: Getting Ready to Watch Ken Burns' documentary on Vietnam

 Nice thick garage door for the side of the garage. Most people in our neighborhood do not have attached garages. Or garages at all. My laundry room may once have been a garage.

I love the blue insulation on the left. See below.

Dyou know why I sit on Red Couch every morning?

It's the only thing that helps bad back.

I have a CD of it from yesterday but it wouldn't turn on for me.

At the grands' house the other day I tried to teach Max about skyscrapers but got nowhere - those little devil gadgets are more important.

What a very long today was.

Went to the movies at the Upper Moreland Library. Watched a quite good film called Winter in Wartime. View it here.

  Hu  Hugely popular in Holland. Best pic of the year. 2008.

You know my tiger in the living room?

Well I was making up for my M R I  sleep and I dreamt about the tiger. He was running all over and I remembered I hadn't gotten him water or food.

What a nightmare it was!

Am listening to FAB music on Mountain Stage. Mumble mumble mumble.

I did finally catch the name of keeshi bashi. and his sonderlust album

Look it up yourself, I'm quite busy.

GETTING READY FOR THE VIETNAM DOCUMENTARY TONIGHT

I worked for a bigshot in Houston
Rode to work from my crummy little
apartment on my bike
When I'd walk in the skyscraper
"Alan" would greet me, can't remember
his real name. His shiny shoes would
click on the hardwood floor.

The other guy,"Dick" tried to be a
bigshot but couldn't cut it.

They were putting in the Alaska Pipeline
which was an awfully big job I'd never
heard of.

A huge colored map hung on the wall with
tiny dots on it.

There was literally nothing for me
to do all day. Once the bigshot sent
me shopping for his wife's birthday.

Chanel No. Five, I kid you. Can't you
be more original I thought, giving him
change for five hundred dollars.

Once he asked me what my husband did
for a living. Why, he's a conscientious
objector, I said, looking him in the eye.

We don't believe wars solve anything. Vietnam
did nothing to us. Why should we kill
innocent people?

My husband worked on peaceful projects for the next
two years instead of blowing people up. One of his
finest hours, though, he did reckon with a blown-
up building in Oklahoma City. Was on posse which
helped rebuild the place where 168 were bombed
to smithereens.

I'll think of my ex-hubby, extend my arm out to
the television set as I toast him with a bottle
of orange juice and sparkling water.

***
Got this job thru Kelly Girl Services. I was fired b/c I lost an important paper. I think it slid behind my desk and I simply couldn't find it. After that, I believe I got my great job with racist Herbert G Tigner. He called his 55-yo janitor Boy.

Twill all be in my memoir, written several years after my death.

How would you like a Mallomar  now?

M R I scheduled for 7:15 AM - Poem: An Evening Walk in the Fall - Party next week?

Woke up at 6:30. Was watching a repeat of TOWER, ...."On what seemed like a typical summer day, August 1, 1966, a sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes. 

When the gunshots were finally silenced, the toll included 16 dead, three dozen wounded, and a shaken nation left trying to understand. Using a unique blend of historical archival footage, interviews and rotoscope animation, TOWER reveals the action-packed, untold stories of the witnesses, heroes, and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others."

Years ago I studied library science at UT-Austin. Never finished since I got pregnant with Sarah. Got divorced and moved in with my parents in Huntingdon Valley PA.

The documentary was excellent. Meantime, I got dressed, went downstairs, took my morning pills - including 1 mg of Klonopin. This is the tranquilizer Dr Foxhall gave me to ride out the M R I.

Ate a Brown Cow Vanilla yogurt for breakfast. 

By the time I got in Scott's car I was drowsy. Then I closed my eyes and in a second we were at the Blair Mill Campus and heading inside to register for the test.

This was not my first test but never had I been so drugged.

Reason for the M R I  - very painful left leg. In 2011, same year as kidney tranplant, I had surgery to fix my herniated disk on left leg.

A very nice woman helped me at the M R I. Put my clothes in one of the locked rooms.

Then I tottered outside the room with a robe over my panties and socks. I slid inside the machine. She asked what kind of music I wanted. Classical, I said, and then the machine sucked me right inside. 

Very cool. 

I fell asleep immediately. She would talk to me occasionally telling me things like Two series of three minutes each.

The feared clanging was barely heard. A simple loudness touching on my back.

Once I opened my eyes to see how close the ceiling was to me.

Didn't bother me at all. A plastic white color. Then back to sleep I went.

Finally the woman, whose name I'd forgotten, told me I could get out.

You mean it's over all ready? I asked. 40 or 45 minutes, apparently.

She walked me back to my locked room, where I put on my clothes. 

I walked very slowly, like a drugged woman. It was the oddest feeling. My thoughts were basically stilled.

This must be what first-time medication users feel like, I thought. Could it really be that bad?

Scott drove me home. I kept quiet. And thanked him and went right upstairs to bed.

It was 8 am. Fell right to sleep in my bed.

When I awoke, it was 3:30 pm. Missed my entire Writing Group at B's house.

I was shocked. Scott said he checked on me every half hour.

My mind was clear. I made a salad for lunch. Then went downstairs and slept until 6 pm.

Scott was restless. Wanted to do something fun. He decided we should walk at the mall.

Before we got there, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble strip mall.

We visited Home Goods, where I had bought my broken Buddha, which I spraypainted first, pink, and then, aqua. 


I wanted one item and only one at Home Goods...something to hang my clothes on in my bedroom.

We roamed around and finally found it

A smaller clothes rack in the right corner of my BR. Now I've got two.

AN EVENING WALK IN THE FALL

Scott wanted to go for a walk.
How about the stores around
Barnes and Noble?
We walked up the steps of
Home Goods, crunching on
crumpled up autumn leaves.
Inside it was  bright as
a crispy fall apple.
What lovely hand towels, yellow and green,
Royal blue Uneida plates
"Please pass the corn and sweet potatoes."
How about that transparent vase
huge as a sunflower to sit by your door?

And then I saw it. Standing like a
shy maiden in the corner. A clothes
tree, only $22 and waiting for my
change of clothes from summer to fall.

***

Wrote the above poem bc all five of my poems for Monique Berry and her Halcyon were rejected. It's actually too late to submit anything, but I did so anyway.

***

Beatriz is feeling quite weak and wants to have a party while she can still appreciate it. Earlier this year we had a raise-money affair for our member Kym Cohen who put up a good battle for her several types of cancer but lost.

Once it gets you, it doesn't wanna let you go.

***

Yawning here on the Red Couch at 10:33 pm.

Stay healthy, stay relaxed, stay positive no matter what!

Oh no! Old faucet can't be fixed - New One very expensive! - Ode to Shiny New Faucet

 Joe from Guy M Cooper told me I needed a new toilet. It's all calcified at the bottom, he said. Bob Frisch put in my old toilet.

Scott stopped me from buying a new one today.

 My old faucet can't be fixed. It's an off brand. So he drove to Weinstein Plumbing Supply and got me a new faucet.

Total price for faucet and labor is $871.30. 

Here's tall Joe working on the shut-off valves underneath. Scott is dictating.

His house is being worked on right now by Bob Walmsley.

 Lovely new sink made by Mainline.

 See it posing in different positions?

"He did a great job," said Scott.

That made me feel great! 900 bucks is a huge amount for me.

While Joe was here I was watching a new Netflix show called American Vandal. Top-rated. It's about a guy who spray-painted "dicks" and "balls" on high-school teachers' cars in California. Who actually did it?

Looks like Dylan, but is it really?

So, all this loud cursing is going on while the plumber is here.

ODE TO SHINY NEW FAUCET

May you serve me well, shiny new faucet.
Your left and right handles curve
like the arms of a ballerina
and your neck reminds me
of young women without
a fold or a wrinkle in
their swan-like neck.

You arrived on the day
when the Cassini Spacecraft
which gave its all
plunged to its death
into Saturn.

Coincidence? Or
just the grand plan
of the Wizard of Id
who knoweth all
and see-est all.

Leni Riefenstahl - Poem: It's a Fine Day for a Thursday - Funeral for Cassini Spacecraft as it Plunges into Saturn

 In the children's lit book, l'auteur mentions Leni Riefenstahl's film The Blue Light. He said if she hadn't been associated with the Nazis she'd be considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

She was a very dramatic woman. And very beautiful.  I ate my breakfast while watching her talk about Goebbbels.




IT'S A FINE DAY FOR
A THURSDAY

Tom's Toothpaste
Look up recipe for
yellow squash soup
watch kids line up
at bus stop

Wish you still had
one or two at home

Go back upstairs to
read the one about
Grownups - c'est moi -
who read Children's
Literature

and also a squirt or two
of the new Holocaust book
and the wordy roundabout
writing of Willa Cather

My friend Frankie used to
read her to his parents
before he dropped from
the sky

Is the noise "thunder"
outside or high-up
aeroplanes where
people drink coffee
in those cute plastic cups.

I'll join you in a minute.

***


I'll pick up the coffee and doughnuts
at Weinrich's on Easton Road
Should be a nice day so we'll
have the funeral at the park
Masons Mill, with joyful sounds
of children in the distance
As a kid I read Stars for Sam
by Maxwell Reed. He'll be there
in spirit as will Simon and
Millard, planetary watchmen.

20 years in deep space
The Cassini spacecraft
orbited Saturn for the
last 13 years, celebrating
its bar mitzvah while viewing
the 62 moons of Saturn

Hello! Anybody up there?
As for me, I like to dunk
my glazed doughnut into
dark rich coffee which
makes my senses keen
my grief for the final
journey of the "robot spy"
intense, as I wipe away
my tears with a white
hanky with the monogram
HJG.

***

Cassini spacecraft story in the Times.

Below is final picture.