Our Place – November 11, 2019 Weekly
Humans worry about our place in the world, moreso than other species. Likely that comes from our ability to reshape the world, and our guilt from our subsequent mistakes. One wonders, do such issues affect other animals? Though elephants never fret, skinks get stuck in their heads. Maybe next time you hit the beach, you can engage a council of crabs. In the meantime, please know you have a place with us.
"Goodbye to This and That" by Constance Woodring
I hear that the Amazon jungle is on fire because of a dictator who doesn’t care
about the future of the planet. He is the cancer on “the lungs of the planet.”
I have COPD. I want to be able to breathe at least until it’s time for me to say goodbye.
"In Heaven There Is No Beer" by Robert Beveridge
Secondhand vegetables are a specialty
market, but a popular one.
The demand for used Brussels
sprouts is on the rise. The wane
in popularity of the gently-read
habanero is cyclical
"Animals" by Jerry K. Robbins
What if a horse’s plaintive neigh
Is his way of announcing
That life is more than
Running in circles
At the beck and call of man
"Group therapy for clever crabs" by Ankh Spice
The nurse foghorned on what about family, what about people and houses and such
things that are normal like windows and loved ones and gardens, until
my faraway reason-voice came as grey paint – please understand, we are only crabs
"How You Belong in the World" by James Diaz
but I wonder, in our kingdom,
who gets to decide that sort of thing
who among us is wanted
and who just gets tossed to the bottom
of the satchel
"Cocktails & Dreams, Baga, Goa" by Satya Dash
when lightness imbues like a visa approval sharp
so jubilant I start to laugh from the senseless tickle
of uninvited memory so hard my eyes wrung