Saturday, August 15, 2020

Neighborly

Learned today that our next-door neighbor died of COVID a couple weeks ago. I mistook the clearing out of the driveway and carport as their summer cleaning. But no. It came on quick, his wife said. 102 fever. By morning breathing trouble. That day to the hospital. Seven days on a vent — he never came off. 

This isn’t one of those “I’m sorry” things. This is a strange county with more trump supporters who look sideways at my family than not. But this neighbor was one of those that surprised me. I initially cast stereotypes on him. Braced myself for some nonsense. But he wasn’t who I assumed he was. He was the neighbor who made sure it was ok if his sprinkler got my side of the lawn wet because my dogs might get muddy paws. He was the only neighbor in this god-forsaken, trash-burning-obsessed county who always asked if it was ok to burn. To let him know if the smoke was bothering us. Who offered us the use of his tiller at planting time. So I wrote this:

Light blue pickup

in pieces under a makeshift carport,

Rusted brackets with 

razor-sharp edges from 

the hard Georgia rain,

donor parts for his old mower. 


Garden tools with split wooden handles

lined up by purpose,

More than once 

sliced his calloused palms during spring planting. 


Tetanus breeds like squirrels scatter,

Pulling sweet beans from twisted vines that traverse his chain-link fence. 


Three years my neighbor to the East. 

His sun-seared farmer’s tan, stained work shirt,

downturned gaze 

I mistook for bigotry. 

 

Assumptions skew reality. 


Nurturing neighbors like plants,

with quiet concern,

he grieved the loss 

of last summer’s crop 

succumbed to midnight marauders. 


But this spring. 


This spring was rich soil, 

predators deterred,

Afternoon showers ushering tomatoes, peppers, beans skyward. 


And this summer. 


A harvest cut short.  

Crops giving way to 

deep-rooted weeds,

Sprouting fever, chills, choking, gasping. 


Gone, the pickup, 

Gone, the mower,

Gone the tiller and tools. 


Ashes to ashes

vent to vent,

Moonlight mischief

lights a path home. 


And who will tend 

To his garden now? 

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Here We Go Again ...right?

Shall we resume?

It appears the very first post here was October 21, 2001. 74 views. By none other than Jeneane. She who we should panegyrize. Not only do I mean that with utmost sincerity, but I finally found a reason to use that word.

From Autumn of 2001, closing in on 20 years and one show-stopper of a pandemic later, we regroup, say hello, suggest this group blog gain some renewed vitality and see what happens.

Older and wiser? Well, yeah. Wizened? Some of us.

The world as we knew it then changed just before October of 2001. The world as we know it now changed with the pandemic and perhaps, we shall soon see, with politics. A good time to refuel this blog.

Let's have at it.Who's next?


There's a New Sheriff In Town! Actually Two.


Something happened yesterday, August 12, 2020.  Just like some classic old Western movie, where there are bad guys riding around town, making trouble, breaking things, stealing horses, dumping good guys on their faces in the mud, or shooting them in the back, all looks lost,  the frightened country folk are slamming their doors, and latching their locks, looking hopeless, but then (queue new happy, hopeful music)  a new sheriff rides into town, giving the inhabitants a sense of much needed relief -- and everything changes. 

The speeches Joe Biden and especially Kamala Harris gave yesterday on a rainy day -- to nobody, in an empty room -- but to everybody, across the globe, in a very full room of slightly hopeless folks in every country, changed everything. 

There's a new sheriff in town and I feel so optimistic for the first time, in a long time.  Two great new sheriffs and everything just changed. It's fun to see two amazing leaders take the globe and change the way it's spinning, like two top basketball players, twirling a ball on one finger, ready to play. 


Tuesday, August 11, 2020

What if we just blogged together again?

A long long time ago, we used to blog for everything.

It was what we had, we would type in a brief thought and send it out. Maybe a sentence, maybe more. If we wanted to write a longer thing we'd us our blogs for that too. We kept a blogroll and clicked on the people in it daily to catch up.

For a more through back and forth we had group blogs, like this one. I had a nice video chat with some of the people from here, and some others, the other day, and realised I missed this.

Blogging took off and permeated everything and got more complex and more simple, and somehow ended up in four sites full fo screenshots of the other three.

Now I am still encouraging people to have their own websites and do fun things with them, but that can feel like a lot of tinkering.

So, I'm back here, trying again. Thinking in public. Join me?