The air clings to vintage cherry wood, scalloped & ruffled as it curves, standing on robust intricately carved lions feet, crafted well over 100 yrs ago, living many years in one of Chicago's many stately red-brick row houses, now watching over me in my small condominium in the heart of Minneapolis where Grandpa helped my parents establish a life that would include room for Grandma & Grandpa to age close to their grandchildren & Mom & Dad, Sadly, Grandpa fell with a heart attack hurrying to find his neighbor in a bar downtown Chicago so he could attend his son's highschool graduation, Grandma lived a very short time here with us, but was encouraged to fly (her first nerve-wracked time) back to Chicago for her 50th. high school reunion, where she too, fell and died from a heart attack, anyway, these hardwood family pieces keep me rooted with memories of all the precious loved ones they served and hope for the future.
4/12/26
the book was smoking hot
you could see the gray whirls escaping
I wondered at the danger of opening it
laughed when I saw the fierce dragon
someone had done such a job on this novel
the head was intricately carved
she had scalloped fingers and flame-like wings
I was entranced and enchanted
who climbs out of a book like this?
she was trying to whisper something to me
I put my ear a little closer but was wary
after all, who wants their ear on fire?
Crazy crow flew in loops and whorls
Flying pattern as scalloped as mama’s curls
Wee witch said he’s the familiar for me
Invited him to sup on blueberry afternoon tea
Crazy crow flew in the window, around the kitchen twice
The cat said “he looks marvelous, I think he’s nice.”
She truly thought he looked plump and tasty too.
When the crow saw this fat cat, away he flew….
Dust laden window grilles,
Lime scales on the shower door.
Detritus below the fragmented doors,
Commiserating the saudade and furor.
Blackened cushions besmirched with dirt,
dusty sheath peeping thru sleek curtain pleats.
Scalloped valance swaying and bewailing in silent grief.
Scattered around are the pages of the brief.
Culaccino marks on the table,
Shriveled up and dried plants silently standing in a row,
A zestful soiree, which took away all the glow long ago!
Fancy Pants Cat wore a scalloped brocade suit
When he walked, his tail gave out a magic toot
The rest of us were amazed by his blue top hat
He was a very endearing flatulenct friendly happy cat.
Sammy asked grandpa what he could do for fun
I take naps and dream, and it is marvelous!
Dreaming sounds boring, Sammy said.
I will tell you some stories about my childhood
That sounds great!
They ate a large lunch of roast beef,
Mashed potatoes, scalloped corn, carrots and peas
Pecan and cherry pie.
Soon they were both snoring away,
Having marvelous dreams
Maybe naps were not so boring.
A floor of dead rusted leaves rustle and crackle
Crunching their crisp skins dancing under my feet
Shuffling with sodden soil thick with grit - I grapple
With sticky dew grass and spongy peat
Alligatored tree bark grabs my hands then bites as I shamble
Holding on for balance on uneven chards of scalloped stone
Dazed by the cool dark mist in this early morning amble
I am rough shod but heart happy right down to my bones!
My favorite vegetable is a potato
I will eat it fried, filleted, with salt and pepper.
Bring me butter
That won’t be enough
Some people add cheese.
I am not interested in that, unless it is cheddar
shaved, on the top of sour cream and chives.
Yes, I love a baked potato loaded and potatoes scalloped
I adore French fries, also made from the beautiful potato.
I dip them into barbeque sauce or honey mustard.
Keep the ranch to yourself, I have never liked it.
A sweet potato is not the same. You can have it.
Unless it is loaded with cinnamon and brown sugar.
But wait, let’s get back to my favorite which is the potato.
I like potato soup, I love potato salad. I like potatoes in my chili.
I love corn and butter with salt and pepper over a potato.
I like beef and noodles over mashed potatoes.
I like potatoes smashed, bashed and dashed.
Give me a potato in any form.
I love them all.
Potatoes forever if you ask me!
Outside the window sprawled an ash
with splayed and scalloped leaves in pose.
Each veined and blotchy web was stuck
to misted panes as swirling winds repelled
the rush of rust across the open view.
The heavy trees were bowed with naked bones.
Translucent leaves revealed their tiny veins
like spider webs that riddled through each leaf.
No pulse of sap now streams the cindered flesh
nor crimson tones that once enlivened growth
but stretched and tightly taut like brittle skin.
An open window played a plaintive tune
as grainy gnats then groaned on empty air
and gathering the summer's dying gasp
the wind expelled a final rasping note.
But birds no longer sang on frozen limbs
nor flocked towards the warmth of foreign shores.
You lay in vigil as soft currents moved.
Forms most enormous seen from our earth,
Dwarf the tallest, the grandest of mountains’ girth.
Magnificent spectacles rounded up in the sky:
Sculptured foam, floating frothy, towering high.
Black ominous clouds of malevolent breadth,
Funnels of doom, destruction, and death,
Whirling and wheeling, zigzagging tyrants
Twisting down alleyways, roaring in rants.
Scalloped and mackerel in all shades and hues,
Textured cloud patterns, sunlit paintings to view.
Imagined likenesses of earthlings below;
They dwarf us, impress us, then just fade away.
Menacing, magnificent, visual delight:
Dilemmas of wonder any day, any night.
Enamel finger-smeared thick with butter
Yellow onions, yellow butter, floured and browned
Just add cream
From roux to dream
Now spice to glue that hold my world together
The team assembles for its tasty mission
Cheddar, gouda, mozz and more
Thick sheets of ham
Tubers sliced translucent
Layered, latticed, clothed in white bliss
Sealed deep into my black Dutch Oven
Four hundred twenty-five degrees, twice boiling
Every five minutes, I keep checking
Time warps
seconds are hours
Only half done, removing the covering
Top comes off, melting marbarella muck
Gilded golden gruyere
Splattering over spuds
Swirling cheese seas
Miasmic fragrant fromage tauntingly teased air
Beep! Beep! Beep! It's done!
Don't waste a moment
Too hot to taste
Bubbling lava lake
Slowly crusting cheesy skin emerging from the oven
Finally, the soup solidified, gooey cultured cream
Ready for the fork and spoon
Potatoes caked
Ham baked
Reality as gastro-goodness manifested dream
Onto my plate, my fork, my palette, my bliss
wind
arctic
boreal
tatting across
whitened landscapes Chantilly with frore lace
and snowy-stiff satin brocade cutting
defining the
raw winter’s
scalloped
edge
fresh rhinestone snowflakes
Grandma’s hanky
furry Christmas ****
Star of Bethlehem
Scalloped lace pinafore
Daddy’s ironed collar
clean glistening memories
the whites of Christmas
Sumthang wrong wiff dez words
They give know direction
To me and you
Hypertheticail thoughts
They don't tell me
What I gotta do
Ribeye, broccoli, and potatoes
Cup of gravy on the side!
The Carney, sorney
Tater, broccoli and
Meat special
Now we know
The garlicky, onion,chivey
Sun dries tomatoes
With olive oil roasted
Red pepper and bacon,
Cream cheesed
Scalloped potatoes.
Where inspired by a
Lonely man begging a
Woman for a date.
The night he scored they
Dined on these dishes.
She made him to harvest
His cattle
Potatoes
Pick the broccoli
And pick the
Apples for the
Turnover
She said she:d
Marry him if he
Planted seven
Peach trees
Seven blackberry bushes
And seven rows of
Lavender
She asked for
Twenty male quails
And fourty hens
She'd consimate
If he bought
Jersey cows
Two females
and one male.
And seven rows
Of mulberry
To make scented soap.
He complyed!
They married before
A orchestra of sixty
And seven vocalist
The preacher wore purple
And ate
Red snapper and apple pie.
Shipping mountains of expanse it gains the above,
a smooth sheen of aphotic immensity
gate-crashes the sky.
We watch as a vast inclination to be enormous
break free of the tenebrous deep.
It has now a ribbed and scalloped identity,
it is the depth made manifest.
I can no longer calibrate my mind, as the booming whale
surges past my physical insignificance.
That night
I could feel my fingernails growing in my sleep,
my thickening backbone stretching to crane upward
into an arching leviathan flight,
while my own shriveled and shed skin
sinks downwards to become mere morsels
for soft-mouthed bottom feeders.
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