Aug 22 plus 180

O'er the fields we go.
Laughing all the way --
Ha!  Ha!  Ha!

With our masks on still, it goes without saying.

Aug 19

I am no scholar of the bible.  I know that there is one book that some have called "erotic."   But to the modern eye and ear it seems comical -- "Her breasts were like two young roes that are twins."  Hubba hubba.

In my dream though, there was another book.   Not erotic, but teeming with what might be called romantic poetry.   In my dream my beloved sat at my left side.  I read the book closely, both in terms of physical proximity and rabbinical seriousness.   With my left forefinger, I traced out for my beloved the passages that were most magical.   This was not a joyful exercise, but the ritual rather an anchor in a storm of sorts, a necessity for our survival, whether separate or apart.

Aug 12

I'm haunted by the cruelty of the long green mantis.  I want to punish the mantis for its cruelty, but in the end that would not reduce the Great Quantum of Cruelty in the world.

Aug 11

Cultural appropriation I know.  But what if God commanded you in earnest to excavate the experience of an old woman of Andalusia, on a Sunday afternoon, in the spring of 1960?

She will walk slowly down the stone steps.   Her neighbor's donkey will be tethered at the gate.  She will smell the bull ring before she turns the corner and sees it.

But first the black mantilla.  The comfort of the familiar.    It is light enough to lift in the breeze, but its cultural weight is immense.  She was displaced during the war, but she carried it with her on a handcart.

The mantilla and indeed all of her trappings create an air around her of claustrophobia, but it is misleading in the extreme.   In her mind she roams free; she surveys the entire scene, from as far away as the seacoast, with the eye of an osprey.  Her voice is known to be gravelly.  When it is heard, the people fear that something prophetic and dire may be said.

Aug 9

Let us pledge to follow the tentacles of moral responsibility wherever they may lead.

Wait.   On second thought, why don't you pledge to follow the tentacles of moral responsibility wherever they may lead.  When you get there, give me a call and let me know how you made out.

Aug 8

In Disney's post-COVID remake of "Snow White," the seven dwarves will have been reduced to three by illness, and the survivors will have been renamed "Nasty," "Brutish" and "Short."

Aug 4

"The sea exhaled by droppes will in continuance be drie."

--Thomas Nashe