dreamstate writing 31 May 2017

Two others and I were working in a brightly-lit living area. It was a single room bifurcated by a shaft that opened onto a less-well-lit area below. The right side of the bifurcated room was fully furnished and finished, whereas the left side needed sleeping accommodations as well as work done on the walls and floors.
 
The man and I worked inside for a while setting up curtain rods and curtains, then exited through the tall, wooden front windows to unload mattresses from a truck parked outside. The mattresses were inflatable models, a light blue bladder underneath a darker blue woven covering, complete with tie-down straps.
 
He’d hand them to me, I’d heave the mattresses up onto the railing above us. and then the blond-haired woman would pull them inside. After I had delivered a couple, though, she closed the blinds. And when I leaned up to pull them back, I disturbed her in the process of fixing something, or setting something up, in a corner.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

haiku 29 May 2017

It went by quickly,
This day of memorials.
We spoke of the dead.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

haiku 26 May 2017

What seems obvious
Is in fact a mystery
Too deep to fathom.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑

haiku 24 May 2017

How does one best make
Man from boy, adult from child,
Without a guide-book?

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

haiku 22 May 2017

There is waste yet left,
Stored up deep inside many folds.
It voids slowly.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑

haiku 17 May 2017

The veil of this world
Is perfection manifest.
How dare I seek faults? 

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

on the logic of cleaning dishes

When I was a teenager, in 1991 or ‘92, my parents had my siblings and me do the dishes each night after dinner. Two of us three kids would wash and dry everything by hand then put it all neatly away. Just before my sister and I had finishing the chore one night, our mother came in and spoke to us, pointing out that water had collected on the counter and in the sink. “When you’re finished,” she said, “leave so few traces that that not even Sherlock Holmes could figure out what had occurred here.” We wiped away the clues, leaving the area sparkling, and spotless.

Now, nearly thirty years later, I still do my best to stick by the logic related above. When I dirty a dish or pot, I clean it up immediately. When the dishes are dry, I put them away. Used laundry goes in one place, clean clothes in another. If something is out of place or damaged, it gets fixed or discarded. In this way, my work gets done while it is still small - before it becomes a burden.

With a glance at my living quarters, a trained detective could gather lots of information about my habits and proclivities. What he would not find, however, is that I am a messy person.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

​

haiku 12 May 2017

While living this life
I struggle to remember
To find fault with none.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

run on war

Many times over the past century, one country decided that it had the right to go around bombing other countries in pursuit of its political or economic goals.

Should that country be surprised, then, when people from some of the countries it bombed in the past decide to bomb it, or its friends, in pursuit of their political or religious goals?

A country that doesn’t go around bombing other countries is itself less likely to be bombed. A country that bombs other countries - legally or illegally - is more likely to be bombed. This may seem like a logical equation, but logic doesn’t prevail in economies that run on war.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

haiku 08 May 2017

Instead of camping
They chose to go out dancing
Which lasted all night.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

haiku 3 May 2017

As these knots loosen
The sharpness dulls, and dust settles
Will love yet prevail?

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥

jar of bee

The ants smell the honey, but they can’t get to it.
I keep the honey container in my bed-chambers because,
Otherwise,
If I leave it in the kitchen or pantry
It drains too quickly.

Next to it is a jar of bee pollen. 
I let a few grains dissolve in my mouth
Every few hours.

I suppose I should thanks my apian friends
Since,
It seems,
I eat anything they excrete.

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥