sonora2sonoma

Once I knew a woman who collected quotes . .

Wise sayings, ironic observations, humorous refrains,

Witty reflections, wistful reveries,

Well-mannered rants,

An occasional gem that would flood the chakras

unannounced and effervescent

with blissful energetic presence,

then linger in a sweet afterglow.

 

Now gone

like so many

whose paths led them beyond the veil too soon

Or, so it seems

to those of us who still have breath

and can feel the warmth of the sun on our bodies

on a chilly December morning.

What became of her quote collection?

Did Mary hand it down to someone?

Does it still possess the special significance

it held for her when she shared her gems with me

on the telephone?

 

Words have power,

of this there is no doubt,

Does the power remain

after the voice has departed?

30 December, 2016

Tim Konrad

Petaluma, CA

The works of man

have their day in the sun;

then they, too

return from whence they came.

***

The sands care not

about the intentions

the hopes

or the dreams

of those

whose works they return to the earth.

for the great renewing.

***

12 November, 2016

Watching a spider spin silk

like his kind has done for countless millennia

Not trying to devise a bigger web

to increase his  bottom line . . .

just catching enough bugs

to get by

to sustain himself

to carry on his line.

 

Spiders

function to maintain

that little part of the environment

to which they have been entrusted.

To keep it clean

and act as a check on bug proliferation

while ensuring their continued survival

and relevance.

 

What can be said about spiders

in this regard,

can also be said of the other animals . . .

they function to maintain

that part of the environment

in which they live;

to maintain the balance between

the organisms that provide their food sources

and the larger environment as a whole.

 

They don’t seek to meet production quotas,

they don’t hoard resources for profit;

some species create surpluses,

but only to sustain them through the coming winter.

They don’t fancy themselves to be masters of their domains

allowing themselves to trash with impunity

all the other creatures of the earth

and the habitats that sustain them.

The only animal who does those things

is the one we see in the mirror each morning.

 

Petaluma, CA

12 October, 2016

Tim Konrad

 

 

 

 

“Are you locals?” she inquired.

“You look just like Rhonda’s parents,” she said.

“No, we’re just passers-by,” my wife replied.

 

Small town, miles from ourwhere.

Maybe she was diminutive, wore glasses,

or had long hair.

While he sported a long beard.

 

That’s all it takes.

Shows how much folks pay attention

Or, perhaps more accurately,

how little.

 

A reminder

of our place

in the scheme of things.

 

21 May, 2016

Tim Konrad

In Standish town in Lancashire,

whose roots go back to 1206,

my grandma’s grandpa took a wife

one fine and sunny day.

 

The year was 1836;

Autumn was but four days old.

None but Sarah had the charm

to take his breath away.

 

The young groom took up blacksmithing

to subsidize their growing needs,

his family grown to five by now

and all but squared away.

 

Then Thomas got acquainted with

an elder from the church one day

and baptized he soon came to be

as is the Mormon way.

 

But Thomas didn’t tell his wife

about his newly minted self

and Sarah’s ire was plain to see

when news came ’round her way.

 

She threw a fit, with curses vile.

Her friends, non Mormon, urged restraint,

lest she should come to eat her words

and join the church one day.

 

Sarah gave this little mind.

“If I’m ever such a fool,” she said,

“I hope to God I’m drowned instead.”

And that’s all she would say.

 

A short while hence, as fate would be,

with Bible truths explained to her,

The lass agreed that she should be

baptized without delay.

 

(possible refrain)

The creek was high on the chosen day

but the christening went on anyway;

Elder Pugmire had thought it safe

until the bank gave way.

 

In leapt Thom to save his wife;

he grasped her petticoat, held on tight.

The garment remained but she did not,

carried off by the waters that day.

 

Pugmire was rescued; Thom nearly drowned,

the waters were swifter than they had allowed.

Despite his best efforts, his wife slipped away;

not found ’til the following day.

 

An inquest was set to determine the reason

that Sarah’s immersion became her undoing.

Six weeks and three days Thom and Pugmire were held

awaiting their judgment day.

 

When the day of atonement finally came nigh

The tone of the hearing was set by the judge:

In cases where God’s law and mans’ overlap,

Religion, said he, should hold sway.

 

The judge said “baptism was part of Gods plan”

as are random events we may not understand.

Proceed with great caution, the jury was told

lest the Devil should come for his pay.

 

At that very moment, a thunderclap struck

that shook all in attendance right down to their cores

and removed any odds of a finding of guilt

that might have been lurking that day.

 

The men, thus acquitted, were allowed to go home

and admonished and scolded, exhorted and warned

to drown no one else in the course of their dunkings

forever and a day.

 

Not eight years later, in Liverpool

Thomas made Jane his second wife

and my grandmother’s grandma was set on the path

upon which I tread today!

 

I would be naught, had Sarah Yates lived

For Thom and Jane Allen would never have wed

And the children they bore would have never been born,

nor theirs, nor theirs ’til this day

And that would not be okay.

 

So say what you want about ors and if-onlys,

’bout possible outcomes, cheerful or grim

what could have been wasn’t, or else it would be so;

just ask those who lived in Pompeii.

 

Facts are elusive and fleeting at best

the angle of view can obscure or reveal

Did Sarah get religion or did it get her?

let the chips fall where they may . .

For my part, I just want to say

I’m happy to be here today!

 

 

3 May 2016

Tim Konrad

I just saw a sex act between two birds.

Right outside my office window.

Thank God the children weren’t present!

 

A lovers’ tryst it was not;

there was no post-coital smoking of cigarettes,

no afterglow reverie,

and no particular display of prowess on the boy bird’s part,

just a quick, wham bam thank you ma’m

minus the bam, brevity being the hallmark word.

Ok, there was a bit of a chase afterward;

for the guy, apparently, once wasn’t enough–

but for her, it was plenty–

expressed by the deft manner in which she gave him the slip.

 

Since there are no bird lawyers, as far as I can tell,

I hope paternity won’t be an issue.

 

10 April, 2016

Tim Konrad

Don’t be thinking that you can ride this one out!

Don’t go saying it doesn’t matter,

that you’re only one vote anyway

that the system is rigged

that all the candidates are just crooks

or just plain crazy!

 

Don’t allow yourself the comfort

of saying that, because you’re in California,

the vote will be decided before your polls close.

 

That’s what they want you to think.

The same “they” who are introducing

voter suppression laws in some states

and bogus “id to vote” regulations in others.

The folks who depend on your not exercising your right to vote

so that they can continue to press their same old, tired agenda

of repressive and regressive policies

that benefit the more fortunate at the expense of all the rest of us,

the same agenda

that has kept this country

from taking care of it’s sick and downtrodden masses

like it claims it does in its fairy tales

that it feeds to the young, the naive and the misinformed.

 

This election

may  well be called, for the importance it holds at this time and place

in the history of our republic

the mother of all elections.

 

The future of our democracy, such as it is,

depends on the disenfranchisement

of the vested interests in Congress–

the elected officials who, having succumbed to the temptations of power and influence,

labor to benefit their own interests

to the exclusion of the interests of their constituents,

whose welfare they have entrusted

to these shameless

(and for the likes of Mitch McConnell, shameless doesn’t begin to describe it)

hooligans, assholes and short-sighted imbeciles

who trade away their trust  with impunity

while lining their nests with their ill-gotten gains.

 

We find rodents contemptable for fouling their nests

yet these people favor policies that, for the sake of profit,

are fouling our planet in much the same manner.

 

Since these people have eschewed compromise

defeat is the only way to deal with them.

And the only way to do that

is to vote!

 

 

11 April 2016

Tim Konrad