Goose Egg

Everyone talks about temps being plus or minus,
But there's another temp, kind of a zero, known for its awkward shyness.

Preparedness

If you think it's overly cold weather,
You haven't put enough layers together,
To cover your skin,
The most important layer you're in.

Library Play

I wrote a ten-minute play for the Heartland Theatre Summer Festival contest. I've submitted to them 4 times before. I've only made it into the festival once. But those are pretty good odds, all things considered. A ten-minute play is a fair amount of work, but if you're under enough pressure it can be written in a day or two. As a matter of fact, when you write for a 24-hour festival, you have to write your ten-minute play in about 9 hours, max.

I liked the way this one came out, which makes me a little more optimistic about it. And my wife was enthusiastic about it, another good sign.

They choose blind, without knowing the author of the play, so they don't discriminate either way as to prior successes in getting into the festival. And despite my success there with Space Cat Graduation, I didn't create a "space kitties in the library" play, so they won't identify me as the author that way, either.

The theme of this summer's festival is "The Library". You might say it's more of a writing prompt than a true theme, but you get the idea. They get a lot of submissions, and I heard from them that there's a tendency to get multiple submissions touching on familiar ideas about a topic. So I figure they will get a bunch of plays about long-overdue books and the "Shush!" rule, and probably a bunch of pieces touching on the fact that books are going digital.

I had a complete false start on Saturday. Wrote about 3 pages and froze up right where I was going to put a 3rd character onto the stage. Rethought the whole thing, and stuck to just 2 characters.

Well, I'll know in a couple of months.

It was fun to create,
And now I wait.

Going Polar

It’s silly but I feel like a hero
When I show up at work when it’s way below zero.
That’s Fahrenheit, where zero has some force.
Chicago endures Celsius zero as a matter of course.

Alert

If you see spots on your weasels
You might have your vet check for measles.

Genetic Revisionism

23andMe said I was a tiny percentage Sardinian, and a tiny percentage Ashkenazi. In both cases, it was under 3/10 of a percent.

Now, those percentages are mysteriously missing when I visit the site.

That's okay, because I never knew where they came from in the first place.

At least my tiny percentage of Native American is still showing. Maybe that's actually real.

Since they were less than one percent,
I don't much wonder where they went.
All in all, it's simply fairer
To say they fell in the margin of error.

Depressing

Watched security footage of 2 winter-coat robbers, who got out of a white Mercedes, and forced a 54 year old man to give up his pricey Canada Goose jacket.

Stealing the coat off your back.
They’ve got stuff, but it’s conscience they lack.

Treasure Planet

I'm reading Treasure Planet from the Man-Kzin War series. I did not realize that it was going to be a direct take-off on Stevenson's Treasure Island. But as I was reading along, the pacing of the book just felt... 19th century.

I've got nothing against Stevenson. Take-offs like this can be interesting. I read the Pournelle-Niven scifi take-off on Dante's Inferno and enjoyed it. But I like to know going in!

The most jarring thing is this talk-like-a-pirate thing on another planet, without any particular explanation offered for why the giant space tigers should sound like Long John Silver. Well, maybe the authors will present an explanation before they're done.

Of course, the name should have been a warning, if I'd really been thinking!

For now I think I'll keep reading
To see where things are leading.

If Dogs Have Dreams

If dogs have dreams,
And I think they do,
Are they just as chaotic
As those I view?

Mine aren’t just viewed,
They’re also felt.
And for dogs, I bet,
They’re always smelt!

As an afterword, I'm not the best recaller of dreams, but I know that I sometimes smell things in my dreams, because I have occasionally half-woken, seeming to smell something in the air - usually something burning. I lie there, half-awake, trying to figure out if the smell is real. As a rule, it is not.

Moonshot Memories

I saw a moonshot launch when I was young,
One of the last, of course, for then they stopped
Our trips to that great ball of rock that’s hung
Above our planet like lighted lure.

The cylinder was lifted on a column
Of blazing fire. We knew that it was topped
By men who risked their lives, so something solemn
Caught in our throats as they began their tour.

I’d say that we are bound to go again.
I’d say our sister rock is out there still
Awaiting visitation from our kind.

The tech improves, the prices drop, and then -
Though many claimed we’d simply lost the will -
The thirst to sail rehaunts the human mind.

Asp in Her Grasp

Went to an art museum in California that I’d never heard of: the Norton Simon Museum. People I went with asked what my favorite piece was and I said Cleopatra about to kill herself. They said they hadn’t seen it, but when I showed them the picture they had in fact seen it, but hadn’t read the caption, and hadn’t noticed that off to the side she had her hand on a dark serpent.

It’s easy to make a mistake
If you don’t see the snake.

At the Train Station

In case you just love pics
Of bricks.

Transmission

I don’t like when people cough
Behind me on the train.
Of course it’s the season for colds, but I...
Would just as soon abstain.

Whispering Safer Than Texting

It is rude that a man should write passionate things and then learn
That his words have been plastered all over the net - what a burn.

Crystalline H2O

I’ve always read that birds require a lot of food each day to fly about.
So when the snow is on the ground, what do they eat or do they go without?

Real Life Laughs

Sometimes I search the news
For items that amuse.
I thank the world's reporters
For a steady stream of snorters!

They Arrive Unannounced

When, with little warning,
At one o’clock in the morning,
You get a great idea,
You should write it down, that’s clear,
But check it in the daylight
To see if it will play right.

Mortality

People say that life is short. Of course, compared to eternity, it's true. Our ability to comprehend time far outstrips our ability to occupy it. But, compared to most other animals, our lives are long.

The human mind can comprehend
Far more than it can occupy.
We take, we give, we love, we live,
Before we die.

And after,
I hope to be remembered, at times, with laughter.

My Father

RIP Jack Enright, 1927-2019

You might say he was not an easy man.
A prosecutor in his early days,
Something combative lurked within his ways,
Across his life, a long nine-decade span.

I don’t recall the day my life began,
But he was there, and in my memory’s haze,
I see him still, a giant in my gaze,
A loving father, head of our small clan.

His voice is in my head; his turns of thought
Are permanently burned into my brain
For better or for ill. His stories taught
That wits and guts should both be roundly brought
To bear when there is justice to attain.
Alas, I cannot shake his hand again.

Working on Sunday

After you've stared at numbers all day,
Watching them add and subtract,
You may feel just a little dismay
That most things aren't so exact.

A Sunny Thought

Behold the wild flower.
It grows on fusion power.

Parenthetically

A math rule we all hold in awe
Is called the commutative.
Some claim I’ve broken that law,
But those charges are putative.

Hoping Your New Year Is A Happy One

I prefer to plan ahead.
2019? Too near. Instead,
I'm forming resolutions for 2020.
Not finished yet, but trust me, I've got plenty.