Family – Page 2 – WALKING ON THIN ICE

Mother Dwarf Smith, 11 years gone

June 25, 2016 No Comments

Mother Dwarf died 11 years ago after living with me the last 16 of her 79 years. Lady K moved in 3 months later.

Mom had her 1st solo art show when she was 68, her 5th just before she died at 79.

LAB RATS
the quantum collapse of Mother Dwarf Smith
13 April, 1926 – June 25, 2005
by son of Dwarf

I carried mom lately but she carried me first
so these 9 snippets for those 9 months

Do As You Would Be Done
Dead Cat Dead Pap Dead Dwarf Dismissed Sis Dead Baby & I
Sue Sick Sue
As Mother Dwarf Lay Dead and Dying
Death Dance
Good Rat Mom Prey Has No Name
The Flo Flow
Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye
Ash To Ash After

12th death day, 11 years gone
nine shorts at agentofchaos.com/labrats.php

– Smith, 6.25.2016

These are the stories that convinced Lady K there might be some depth to me.

See Mother Dwarf’s home page for art, shows, reviews http://agentofchaos.com/dwarf/

Lady Poem 6-15-2016

June 15, 2016 No Comments

A bit like a nun up from
clean starched sheets worshiping
royal yellow emperor sun unfolding
its robes into the new day to the
plunking strum of Eralio Gill’s harp
somewhere out there a rose garden
in here blessed routine looking out our
green window I write poems, I visit my own home
live my canon law, the right to gently
carpe diem calmly ignore the coaxing
traffic whooshing outside which
wants me bureaucratic
quickly washed and frantic

I’ll sit in a breakfast lifestyle while
husband clinks ceramic plates on the table
and shuffles his slippers on the slate floor

My eyes are fresh in the homeland
perpetual novelty of butter
jam honey on toasted bread

~ Lady

Lady Poem 6-11-2016

June 11, 2016 No Comments

For Lincoln or Liberty

Clay and fountain
bright source, trice August
fresh brew in the sweatiest month
loin fruit, tiny pink-fisted sturdiness
mouth like an illustration for a healthy wail
presentation of a new someone

~ Lady

going to cost you, but it’s the best way to go

June 5, 2016 No Comments

Out at the In-laws 20

1.
After beehive inspection
before they get back
I sit in sun on empty back deck
alone in human silence

Red-winged blackbird darts cross green
frogs echo-pond locution call out the seen
windchimes slowdance their no-breeze way
put my feet up, sip coffee, ease into day

2.
As I pack car to leave
4-yr old nephew says “Do you have kids?”
No, why?
“Then why do you have two doors?”
pointing at the back door.
You telling me 2nd doors are for children?
“Yes.”
You’re a thinker, aren’t you kid?
“Yes.”
Good. It’s going to cost you,
but it’s the best way to go.

– Smith, 6.5.2016

t’was a Goldilocks day

May 31, 2016 No Comments

Out at the In-laws 19

T’was a Goldilocks day
green leaves, blue sky, sweet honey sun.

Dead Man’s Curve 90-degree right
slings us hour east
as Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis
mile us on.

Pa-law’s talking of walking and watching
sitting the land through shadings of season
“Excepting the deadfall of winter.”

Tasting Ma-law’s dish,
“Potato salad’s long been in my life.”
“T. S. Eliot? How?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You said T. S. Eliot.”
“I said potato salad.”
“Close enough.”

Bro-law slideshows his shades of Iraq
remembering Memorial Days done.

In beehive inspection I finally see
my first Queen Bee laid eggs.

I paddle my first small pond canoe ride
with 4-year young boy 7-year old girl
searching for yellow wood ducks.

Put hand through thick spider webbed box
into last year’s fall honey
guarded by black body blob.

Drive back as
Dodge car emblem shades into Rogue,
yellow white flowers become bread & butter,
and glow puffs explode in the sun.

Dean Man’s Curve six hours later
90 degree left finally welcomes us home.

– Smith, 5.31.2016

Generosity

April 19, 2016 No Comments

Generosity

Spring’s watercolor renewal:
wood buds, floods green
over winter’s pencil palimpsest
which is fading, fading, fading,
gone

The old king is here
again

~ Lady

first flesh, then machine

March 21, 2016 No Comments

Spent a couple hours in two waiting rooms today reading a 1958 paperback of An Introduction to Haiku: An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Basho to Shiki by Harold Gould Henderson. Excellent read.

Had a cat scan this morning followed by two hours waiting for our car’s wheel bearings to be replaced.

These aren’t haiku, just what oozed out reading while waiting.

Reading in the Waiting Room

Magnetic machines,
human pain and misery
wanting room.

Two waiting rooms,
hospital, then car repair,
is my life a third?

First flesh, then machine,
waiting room to room
haiku waits with me.

Two hour car shop,
in mens room twice,
mediocre music.

Small wallets,
cringing people wading
cost estimates.

Car repair
free pastries free coffee
six hundred dollars.

– Smith, 3.21.2016

Pa-n-law’s backyard drone video used my song Optional Gravy for its soundtrack >

A Late Winter Drone with Optional Gravy

free coffee

virtual valentine

February 14, 2016 No Comments

Lady working on art

Be Mine, Virtual Valentine

Dawn soon to break
on love’s one winter day
but I say away
to just one
because love’s every day
mine to you
you to me
we to cat
cat sometimes to us
sometimes tooth blood claw
love driven to be forgiven
so happy me with you
happy you to me
happy three we
fine fluxation be

– Smith, 2.14.2016

cat waiting on water

one soup to rule them all

February 9, 2016 No Comments

One Soup to Rule Them All

I don’t cook
though I played one for six months
in County Jail lockup 1970
but wife is stressed and stretched and strung
with work hell so I’ve begun
making one large Dutch oven soup a week
to help feed and ease my she.

I’m good at it, find it fun.

My one recipe fits all –
for today’s chili
pour 1/4 cup olive oil in Dutch oven pan
finely chop 4 medium onions
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
11 sprigs parsley
add to pan
saute over medium flame with lid on
stirring frequently
add 1 pound fake meat soy protein mix
cook and stir 20 minutes
add 2 small cans kidney beans
1 small can black beans
1 large can diced tomatoes
couple shakes MSG, salt, black pepper
4 capfuls cream sherry
bit of water
pack of chili mix
bring to boil
lower flame and simmer 50 minutes
fill a blender with cooked beans and veggies
puree
pour back in
add frozen corn
simmer 30 minutes
eat.

Same basic flow for black bean soup
but replace chili mix with cumin
and fake meat with nothing
or navy bean soup with bay leaf and thyme
and smoked salt
or potato soup with spice of choice.

Soon I’ll can the cans
cook dry beans
cut and cook tomatoes.

Best navy bean soup I’ve had.
Pretty good chili.
Fine black bean.

Secret is simple –
more finely chopped veggies than you’d think
and slooooooow cooking.

Nature and chemistry do the rest.

– Smith, 2.9.2016

Lady has taken over the small family web design business, and trying to get a handle on scheduling 2-3 others, plus admin, plus customer relations, plus doing most of the billable coding is beating her down until she figures out the proper mix.

So I’ve also taken over most breakfasts with egg & muffin sandwiches alternating with oatmeal . . . the oatmeal’s extra tasty slow-cooked with milk, vanilla, and raisins, and sweetened with brown sugar and local maple syrup.

I already handle the laundry and dishes, as well as assorted shopping chores and errands, and usually the catbox. And I normally drive so Lady can work on her laptop or catch up on sleep in the passanger seat.

In a few weeks I’ll be 70. Strange trip. Started writing and singing blues lyrics at 56, took up romance with Lady at 59 after 20 years celibacy, and now becoming a cook in my late 60’s.

Who’da thunk it?

they sat me at the children’s table for Thanksgiving

November 27, 2015 1 Comment

Lady’s Thanksgiving apple pie

I sat at the children’s table yesterday for Thanksgiving dinner with a 4 yr old and a 6 yr old.

Out at the In-laws 18

“Who do you want to sit by you?”
she asks my newly adopted nephew
at the Thanksgiving table.

“That boy,” he points at me.

I look behind me, no one there.

He’s 4 years old.
Almost 70, I’m the oldest in the room.

“That boy.”

Yes.

– Smith. 11.27.2015

Lady’s emergency Thanksgiving shopping list for me