Past and future are
delusion and illusion.
Only now exists.
Open the present
life gives you each day before
it becomes the past.
Why hunger for more
when today is on your plate,
an endless buffet.
#230
Category: A New Poem Every Morning
Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
I rose this morn with a silly song
wending through my noggin’.
It echoed ‘round, lobe to lobe,
my memory all a’joggin’.
and Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
was the absurd refrain.
Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
bouncing ‘round my brain.
Now I like dill and dumplings too
as much as anyone
But can’t imagine why I’d think
to put them in a song!
and Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
was the crazy chorus
Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
the words do nothing for us
but confuse the questions, like
why are the dumplings free?
and why can’t I recall the verse
or what it means to me?
Oh Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
I’m doomed to sing the rhyme
Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
if I sing it enough times
Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
you’ll catch the contagion
Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
in your imagination.
Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
tomorrow, the ditty spreads
and Dilly Dilly Dumpling Free
will be echoing in your heads!
#229
Self Preservation in the Office Environment
Birds fly away
bears defend
‘possoms play dead
and chameleons blend.
I have no wings,
I am not strong,
I fidget too much
to play dead long.
So I guess I’ll blend
but please don’t blab it,
I’m over here disguised
as a filing cabinet.
#228
Dying
She is so sick
of shades of gray
She thinks she’ll dye
her hair today.
She asks his help
to reach behind
and he says sure,
he doesn’t mind.
His hands are firm
but something trickles
around her neck
and starts to tickle.
He squeezes hard
on the jar of dye
till there’s nothing left
that can be applied.
half an hour later
he helps her rinse
he holds her head
over the sink
Dying is messy
and so quick to fade
He hates the smell
but loves the lady.
#227
The Caragana Hedge
A Caragana hedge is a fine thing if you need
a fast growing border; a foliage filter to
shut out a less than scenic view or to
break the wind’s stride.
Our Caragana hedge did none of these things.
Tall, thick and thorny, impassible, impossible
to keep trimmed. It was an illogical barrier
trailing self importantly along the driveway,
the arbitrary divide that cut off my view of the gardens.
Yesterday we took the chainsaw to the caragana
we wore gloves and lined the truck box with a tarp
to protect ourselves and the paint job from clawing branches,
then we hauled them down to the burning pile.
It took four trips. They fought us
and each other going into the truck
but slid out as a solid tangle, clinging to each other.
The Caragana hedge, stumps flush to the ground,
is less than a memory now.
We sit back and look across the yard,
something we’ve never done before, and we ask each other
“Why didn’t we do this years ago?”
“Why didn’t we do this years ago?”
#226
H to S
H is for Hope abandoned.
I is for Ignorance, the comfortable shroud.
J is for Justification.
K is for Knowing you can’t just lay down.
L is for Lies and betrayal.
M is for Monitors beeping at night.
N is for Nightmares of flaring.
O is for Onlooker with his hands tied.
P is for People and Poison and Pipelines that bleed.
S is for Sanity and Safety, both casualties of greed.
#225
Questions
You ask us to risk
But you risk nothing yourself.
You ask us to trust
But you are not trustworthy.
One day you’ll be gone
But we will all still be here
Will your legacy
be the destruction of ours?
#224
Dubious Caraway
Some things are other things
than what we may have thought,
like mushrooms that are edible versus
mushrooms that are not.
or caraway seeds scattered
on your kitchen table
that though surrounded by the crumbs
may not be from your bagel.
And if that isn’t quite enough,
even unseen things are fraught
with that which masquerades
as that which it is not.
Words of love can hide disdain
while laughter hides the tears,
truth is often shot with lies,
and not as it appears.
Say you love me, laugh with me,
and don’t go in disguise.
I’d rather eat dubious caraway
than have you tell me lies.
#223
The Unreasonable Request
Yes, I can say ‘no.’
I can dig in my heels but
is it worth the fight?
No, I won’t say yes.
Reasons are subjective but
I’m not your subject.
Maybe there’s a place
somewhere in the middle ground
where we can agree.
Yes, no, and maybe.
Will we meet in the middle
or shall I go home?
#222
Life the Puzzle
Oh to write a poem or song
and own a few words for a while,
to make them mirrors for your heart and then
to throw them all in to a little Crown Royal bag
like scrabble tiles,
shake them around, listen to them rattle,
then pour them out and start again.
Life the puzzle
Poems and lyrics the clues.
#221
Linda Studley 