Vacation
It's that time of year: vacation time! So I'm going to take one, at least from the blog. For two weeks, until July 26th, I'm taking time off. I'll go see some plays-- next up on my agenda is to go see THE WONDER TEAM at Pioneer Playhouse. I'll also be working on an oral project about the Looking for Lilith Theatre Company in Louisville. I'm producing the Kentucky New Play Series which involves premiering six (6) new plays by Kentucky playwrights at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville on August 18th. Oh, yeah and I've started working on a new full-length play. I'm sure it will be a restful two weeks. :)

Cat Troubles
meow
  Meow
    MEow
       MEOw
Go Away!
          MEOW MEOW
I'm sleeping
me...ow

No Third Shift
All is quiet.
The lights are dimming out.
The machinery,
    presses and the like,
        have been turned off.
Soon it will be both dark and quiet,
    until the mice return from work
       and  begin to play.

Oldest Steer Roping Competitor
The man could rope and ride
   like a real cowboy.
But sitting atop his horse--
   gray bearded
    with a worn black cap
       and brown t-shirt--
   he looked more like a stubbed out cigar.

We are Insignificant

One of my favorite things about living at Roxford is the hugeness of the sky and my ability to see for miles in all directions. Thunderstorms are amazing to watch as they grow higher and higher, then roll across the landscape bringing much-needed rain, scary damaging winds, sometimes flooding. Whichever it is, the thunder and lightning always make me feel insignificant, a tiny being stranded alone on my hilltop.  ~Jeanine

It was a Good Weekend for a Poetic 'Jump-start'

Wow! What a difference a weekend makes. Was struggling to find something new to say after kind of falling into a mode of repeating myself. Turns out I just needed to get out more to find more material.

Jeanine and I went to Fourth of July celebration at Flat Run Veterans  Park where I managed to get some new material for poems. Some of that will disappear into my "never to see the light of day" box and the remainder will (if it hasn't already) pop up here. The same is also true of our excursion to the Harrison County Fair (last night and probably this coming Friday night as well). Some material will make it onto the blog, other material will just disappear.

It's good to feel renewed.

The Hippie and the Cop
Scraggly beard, tattooed and scruffy looking
   he was one vet with a long memory:
     "Jane Fonda Traitor Bitch"
said a patch on his motorcycle vest.
The cop with crew cut
    and an immaculate uniform;
he probably grew up a member of the school safety patrol
at his elementary school. 
He embodied 'policing by the book.'
So it seemed odd indeed
   when the cop mounted the hippies' motorcycle
and the hippie took the cop's picture.

A Veteran on the Fourth of July
Maybe 30 or 35,
  he walked with a
                 four pronged cane.
But was much younger than his WWII colleagues
  without their white hair,
      and no ride in the 4th of July parade.
He wore a blue fedora,
   that made him look a bit like a color blind leprechaun,
     and sun glasses
       even after the sun went down.
But he was down with Jo Jo Gunn
   and at attention when the flag was raised
        and "Taps" were played.
His story is untold, like that of many other vets,
   but his is an American story:
he stood up for his country
   when the chips were down.

Team Roping

Pursuers
   swinging and flinging their ropes
     captured the steer
       by horns and feet
in 7:08-- clean
Sweet!

Summer Teasel

Youngest Fair-goer
Toddling about on stubby
   pink cowboy-booted legs--
she was wearing more
   chocolate and ice cream
     than she'd eaten.

Barn Lot
Now reduced
   to a pile of wood and tin
the land on which the barn stood
has a new future
as a road
a building site
    for another barn
or perhaps
   a house.
Then again
grasses may be allowed to grow
and the place
become a crossing space for deer
opossums and the sort.
Or maybe a field mouse
may make for itself
a house and home
all its own.
    

Summer on Route 36
First
  I noticed
     bikined goddesses
        standing in the road.
Then I saw their car
"Do you need help?"
"It's on the way."
So ended my fantasy of being
 a  knight in shining armor
   to beautiful damsels in distress.

A New Month
Another resolution to write more.
Now if I just had more to say.
Before you decide
     to stay away.