Dill weed with flowers

We're past
the dog days of Summer
now
Nature
while still bountiful
is not as profligate
or flagrantly female
as it was
a week ago
warming those
who rub their magic lamps
in the hope
of raising a genie

but don't necessarily knock
at her Durin's Door
but speak friend
and enter nevertheless

pushing the limits
of barely passable propriety

Sirius's return
to the night sky
signaled the annual flooding
of the Nile
and this dog star
tucked in Orion's belt

figured forth
for the Greeks
heat and fevers
enough to make even Achilles pause
in his assault on Troy
and enfeebled others
not so admixed
with bronze as he

parching their heads and knees
and feet
in a way
that even the following rains
failed to salve and balm

in these days
of sun burned lawns
and shriveled flowers
some beauties yet grow
and raise their heads
the sunflower
for instance

holding high its many pocketed
hive of a head
to bees and heat
and other tawdry blessings
commensurate with
or equal to
the turning of the season

besides the sunflower
we find the mallow

to all the world
a dill weed with flowers

tolerating the heat
and even thriving
flourishing
in its wish
to brighten
the night
with a tickle
of the shins
and a stroking
of the hands
of some lunar clock
already losing time
to keep the streets shining
with the last sweat
of the day

Image result for cow jumped over the moon

meanwhile
in other grumbling hives

the squirrels
take their last stand
against the dwindling
competition of Spring
and the race
to the bottom
of Autumn
as Winter impinges
as they hide
far too many nuts

reminiscent
of ants milling
and putting by
while the crickets strum
banjos
and pick miscellaneous strings

to fulfill La Fontaine's fable
as if they owed him this truth

and somewhere
along the way
I
too
gave my troth
and it was taken
without ceremony
by Sirius
or some lesser star
that brought sun
and rain
plagues
of locusts

and things
exceedingly more mundane.

Comments

Of course she's not a true red

As the parent of a "ginger", and having red heads on both sides of the family, and having married into two Irish families, I know first hand that ginger covers the whole spectrum from strawberry blonde (to my way of thinking a classic ginger!), to orange (carrot tops), to a real rust red (what my father in law would call a true red). When Pat Todkill first set eyes on his granddaughter, he remarked, "Of course, she's not a true red". For one thing, Emily the Elder lacked freckles on her face and upper body. For another, she really was and is a strawberry blonde. A further observation. Even people with the raven blackest hair have rust red lights--caveman red, soot covered ochre if you like. Woolly mammoth red. Sometimes it takes just the right light to pick out the smoldering ember, but beard and eyebrows tend to incorporate the tell tale ginger strain, like chili pepper in a spice jar of mixed pepper corns. And, of course, brunette...

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Kipling, who made comments about big guns and so many other politically inappropriate things it would be impossible to include them here, once visited Medicine Hat and declared that it had all hell for a basement. It does have natural gas, and a flame is constantly lit in the coulees to mark the spot. Some say it is a waste of gas, but at least you can actually tell the whisperer by his flame. Harder to pin down is the wind. In southern Alberta they say the cows sleep standing up because of the wind. And you only know there isn't a breeze when you get bit by a sand fly. Here I met Danusia, the daughter of Polish combatant, who, along with her childhood girlfriend Bogusia, sold Toni home perms and L'Oreal hair colour to fellow children of displaced persons, who cut hair and did it up just so in the Flats, where it flooded every Spring, or thereabouts. Danka and Bugsy were married, as was the custom, to strapping Polish lads who worked at the IXL brickw...

I double dog dare ya

I double dog dare ya to repeat the story you heard in 3 Trees the shop of Indian incense and beeswax crayons from Germany perhaps a source for Waldorf or Montessori Nepali filigree or Balinese woven silver and semi-precious gems cut loose dresses and butterfly pants from Indonesia or somewhere similarly hot and breezy and yoga cushions maybe made locally and unmentionable remarks harder to tell than listen to I think it was a tall woman of subcontinent ancestry who was trying on bras and dresses and saying she was generally pleased at the selection and the clerk who replied yeah who knew Asian women have boobs and height and take up space and commisserated with her customer who mentioned she didn't think men looked for a mirror to see how their bum looks before deciding and buying down the risk she knowingly showed to me I was there for the sale half price and no tax the gift they give 3 times a year to generate so...

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