Walk the Line

The men stood, lined up, single file. There were a few young children strewn about unchecked in their activities, looking uncomfortable with their parental arrangement. The men marched one by one into the place. Moving in a robotic and obedient fashion, like an altered version of an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale with Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work playing in the background. The faces determined, eyes darting seeking camaraderie, and a hint of fear in the air. They disappeared into the place and reappeared with purchases, swiftly making their way home.

It was Mother’s Day morning at Cherry Bomb Coffee.

Inspired by last Sunday, and The Handmaid’s Tale. Photo by Wendy Whelan.

The Good Doctor

You hear him before you see him pushing his shopping cart. His kindly face and long beard and sturdy legs. One time, after a particularly robust round of exhortations he returned from No Frills with just two frozen pizzas. That night at a dinner party I recounted the event only to be schooled about food insecurity. This lent Larry David vibes to the second telling and the soubriquet Dr. Oetker to our hero. But this dear man walks by my house every morning, praying, preaching, sending us blessings and magical numbers. I think he’s holding the world together right now.

Inspired by Beyond. Image: Daily Blessing by Laurie.

Stumped

To drabble thus can be a chore

The goal, you see, is not to bore

But entertain with a few bon mots

Tell story smart and in the know

With crisp tight plot and punch line clever

No hanging threads, uncertainty, never

Sometimes though, nothing'll flow

Without idea or inspiration

Fuelled by angst and perspiration

I stare at page in search of words

And generate a gross of turds

I should’ve learned the trick by now

Not who or where or what, but how:

That at the point where you are stumped

Just grit your teeth and write some bumf

Inspired by writer’s block. Image by Elliott Park.

Beyond

Beyond fast clothes bought and shed like dead skin by celebrities and those who follow
Beyond moneyed pursuits of influencers and those who follow, their need for all-things-shiny, cars and guns, mansions and jets, adulation and new pussy
Beyond genocidal war lust of singular men and those who follow, yearning for rape torture child-killing and other thrills of conquest
Beyond god
Beyond even our precious feelings
Here it is and here it comes
Bebop-de-doo-wop
With hard teeth and clenched red hands
Tra-la-la
And a big ol’ morningstar spiked hard-on
Fa-la-la
Climate is karma
La-di-da
Climate is karma
Blah blah blah

Inspired by Sour Cherries. Photograph by Fred Ni.