AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

unsubtle shuffle

unsubtle shuffle

Bad Kitty – Liz Phair
Switch Blade – Duke Ellington
Hoochie Woman – Tori Amos
I Wanna Be Your Dog – The Stooges
John/Joseph – The Narcotix
Strong Feelings – Dry Cleaning
Agnostic Preacher’s Lament – Todd Snider
Burning – King Buffalo
Fistful of Glass – Tal Wilkenfeld
Crying Lightning – Arctic Monkeys
Mockingbird Hill – Les Paul & Mary Ford
Brotherman – John Cale
TV Spot (Apr. 71) – Can
Egyptian Blues – Ellen McIlwaine
Path of Wellness – Sleater-Kinney
Strange Girl – Laura Marling

weex worx

2021.6.18 – Yesterday
2021.6.19 – The body
2021.6.22 – Money Jungle
2021.6.23 – The tune and tang
2021.6.24 – Yellow blush of green in spring

~ ~ ~

Yesterday

My road map
hope for best
fear worst

I can tell you now
the answer ain’t 42
but thanks for all the fish

Always dark
under dark
under light

~ ~ ~

The body
or the Buddha
temple what you will

~ ~ ~

Money Jungle
Duke Ellington and Mingus
fight it out

~ ~ ~

The tune and tang
sway and swang
of train

~ ~ ~

Yellow blush of green in spring
brings hope to heart
heart to sing

~ ~ ~

famous in the neighborhood

A friend asked for a copy of this poem from The Big Book of Daniel from Bottom Dog Press, 2011, edited by Maj Ragain.

Famous in the Neighborhood

Famous in the neighborhood
Among children and gods
And all living things hidden
I walk about talking nonsense
Inhaling through the ears energy
Putting humor on the mouth showing teeth
In the street I run amuck
Having learned in my quest
For maximum security
A flair for fair play
Everything truly amazes me
How people get up, go to work
How they get through the day
Without breaking down
How at night their dreams let them sleep
Ah, citizens, shopkeepers, servants of the law
This is, indeed, an age of obscenities
The four-letter word has long been outstripped
By its competition from the Pentagon
Pollution is reaching eclipse proportions
We are left muttering to ourselves
Traditional graffiti
And pity poor protest
Bound. Gagged. Held in contempt
Mediocrity sits in the judgment seat
The mad bombers are on the way…
Yet, the rain falls, the grass is wet
The robin eats the worm
The voices of children are heard from the turtle
In the sandbox in the park
As the sun, still famous in my neighborhood
Shines its shoes and walks through the sky

– Daniel Thompson

new strange and old

new strange and old shuffle in the dark…

Home on the Range – Roy Rogers
The Resignation vs The Comeback Special – Todd Snider
Give Me One Reason – Tracy Chapman
Black & Tan Fantasy – Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington
Gimme the Car – Violent Femmes
Night Train – Jimmy Forrest
Identikit – Radiohead
Criss Cross – Thelonious Monk
John/Joseph – The Narcotix
Below This Level (Patient’s Song) – Can
More Big Birds – Dry Cleaning
Restin’ Bones – Primus
A Number of Microphones – Propellerheads
Cantaloupe Island – Herbie Hancock
Spit of Love – Bonnie Raitt

deer, groundhogs, skunk, raccoon, birds, bees, elephant

For $40, you can feed a raccoon 4 fish.

We bought a 141 yr-old house, overlooking the Cleveland Zoo, with a large, irregular backyard bigger than the house.

Lady decided to landscape. Started buying used brick and slate. Began a snaking brick-lined slate path, added a brick patio for the beehive, then dug a fishpool and ordered a lining and fountain.

Once the pool was working, she bought 2 small grey koi and 2 large goldfish (orange & white, black & silver). For two days they hid. Third day one started swimming about mid-depth. Fourth day it was near the top. Fifth day 3 fish gone and 4th dead, with the plastic pond lilies they hid beneath torn to shreds and tossed about.

We figure only answer is one of the raccoons, because the two groundhogs, the hosta-eating young buck, the skunk, and the mangy coyote lack the paw hands to pick up one styrofoam lily and tear it apart and pick up the other and toss it 6 foot away.

Fortunately the pool still resonates because the water fountain sound soothes sitting by it, and groups of birds fly down to sip and bathe… and our bees drink from it.

I love life — trees, plant life, fish, birds, animals (people not so much) — and don’t mind helping out, but $40 for one raccoon’s meal is a bit steep.

And oh, my Lady!

Once she was so sweet and innocent, wished violence on nothing and no one. Now she’s thinking dark thoughts about the deer, groundhogs, skunk, and raccoon. Her slide to darkness began when the Cheeto-colored-small-hands-man snuck into the White House and upped his soiling of our culture… it continued when the groundhogs ate her sunflower sprouts, the buck ate her hostas, the skunk doused her rescue dog, and the raccoon ate her fish.

She’s even giving me the wife-eye as I sit here and chuckle.

And on the animal upside, last night I heard a zoo elephant trumpet thrice.




6/12-17/2021

6/12-17/2021

~ ~ ~

Day is rock
life is hill
wife keeps me going

~ ~ ~

I know the status quo
wife above
husband below

~ ~ ~

My flesh
my bone
what’s me?

~ ~ ~

Good bad
bad good
that’s life

~ ~ ~

Lilacs
soft slow sun
park bench heaven

~ ~ ~

recent words

recent words

~ ~ ~

With dog
there are two mind sets —
now! and why not now!

~ ~ ~

Dark down
fire out
linger

~ ~ ~

Welcome to the future —
costs more
for less

~ ~ ~

Feral cat creeping
dangling from its mouth
a mouse

~ ~ ~

They is
you are
I ain’t

~ ~ ~

Summer repast —
cut cucumbers, cold hard eggs
watermelon

~ ~ ~

Hide ‘n’ seek with the sun
vespers in the night
dark and light

~ ~ ~

Smith 5.7-6.8 2021

a trail of 2 cities


Essaouira, Morocco

Synchronicity…

Everytime I open my laptop, it presents me with a foto from the cloud for me to like or not.

This past week it showed me Essaouira, Morocco, a walled city we lived in for 2 months in 2007. This was probably the apex for me of our 31 months of living in 20 cities in 10 countries on 3 continents from 2006-9.

4 days later it showed me Monte Alban, an ancient city outside Oaxaca, Mexico where we lived for 15 months 2007-9… another truly magic adventure.


Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico

my May Medusa

I quite like my May feature on Medusa’s Kitchen — 9 poems, 10 fotos.

This isn’t always the case since I submit them a month before they appear, and I’m not always happy when I read them 4 weeks later.

Publisher/editor Kathy Kieth’s blurb is much appreciated as well:

“Our thanks to Steven Smith for rocking our poetry world today with his sounds and senses (dogs piss, rocket hiss, cricket creep, frog peep)! Poetry is about the music of words, and Steven is definitely a composer who knows all about that. Thanks again, Smith, for the melodies and rhythms of your poetry and visuals.”

https://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2021/05/spirit-to-bone.html

68 features so far – 563 poems, 596 fotos, 32 songs.

all day I face the barren waste without the taste of water

They’re fixing a hole gushing water in our one-block dead-end street, and turned our water off with no warning. I drove out and got 3 gallons of water, and the street was closed when I got back, so parked and walked in. It looks to be at least an all day thing. I feel helpless relying on civilization for water, food, electricity – pretty much none of which I can supply myself. Felt this way ever since Hurricane Sandy cut off our electricity mid-winter 9 years ago and we sat in cold uncertaintly for 24 hours.
“Only a pawn in their game.”
On the other hand, water and electric folk seem to be adept at getting things working again, so I’ll make myself another cup of strong coffee using store-bought water and wait, hoping the toilet holds up.