baby sharks
(or) paddling my ass for Jesus
A shower today,
and another yesterday --
eyeing my peach tree.
5.5.2026
Liza Minnelli in the sky.
I see I have arrived a little late
for the end of my life.
I have been in no hurry, and it’s true
that I get distracted quite easily.
An owl hoots and I might listen
for a couple of years.
And that cloud - it looks like a flower,
No, it looks like Liza Minnelli.
The dinner last night took me
several months to prepare.
Just slow down everyone,
What’s the hurry? Let Death wait a bit.
Why miss out on all the wonder?
Smallish sharks.
Years ago as a young man in San Francisco
I would see old men (think Methuselah)
catching young sharks along the Embarcadero
sharks about a foot and a half long
thrashing (think angry roller derby skaters)
and snapping about
mean as nuns teaching elementary school
(think paddling my ass for Jesus
so my soul would be saved but not my ass
which would burn in hellfire)
the old men would help each other
bring in the snapping bastards
while hooting and laughing together
(think drunken cowboys in Abilene)
Now I am an old man too
and I am not far from San Francisco
perhaps I could join the old men
(think Knights of Columbus)
but I confess that I do not know
what to do with an 18 inch shark
Faith
Be humble. Walk steadily
Across the burning ground.
How empty is your midnight?
Is it down to just you
And those things that you fear?
Do you have a name for that?
Is there a strength that you can call upon?
Move simply.
In simple things
There is a faith at rest.
Be humble. Walk steady
Across the burning ground.
This post is for anyone, everyone.
Feel free to share it.
Our bodies are mostly water
they teach us that in school
when we are still quite young
and with water we thrive
and so this long dry Sacramento Valley
craves water to drink
and indeed is itself part of a huge watershed
moving water from rain and snow
to creek and river
and so on to the ocean
the valley thrives greenest in the wet years
and yellows a bit in the dry ones
have you ever felt dry and brittle
like perhaps you wouldn’t make it
to the next wet year
I often have
especially when missing my late son
mid-winter looking west
I see a front coming in
it will rain in this valley today
