Week 2 - 2022

Days 10-16

10 - Scratching the alpenglow itch

fire and all day rest
a luxury of repose
first single digits

Scratching the floor, scratching my head, the itch that scratches and doesn't take no for an answer. News reveals that everyone who is anyone (and no-one in particular) is being harassed by Auntie Rona. She's a real pain in the ass. Waiting for the new numbers to relate to the state of things. The jack hammer has been going all day and the dream hangover is schlepping bad tidings. Slurp slurp. A cottontail hops past just cold enough to dissuade from adventuring. Ordered, fatigued, set in stasis, the paranormal becomes mainstream at the same time the masses are predicting the end of democracy in America. Naps are second nature at this point, and we are refining our solitaire skills - with real cards on the table. Even the hopeful are mired in hopelessness. Thankfully the sun sets on another day and severe clear days will get you standing on your own two feet again tomorrow.

11 - The Fuzzy Show

prescient writing
the sower digs a new life
path lined with trouble

Knowing what to do, caring about what you do, and then doing it remains a process shrouded in mystery. You can go back and forth trying to figure it out, and then run away from the thinking screaming like a wild-woman. Figuring is its own conundrum. It goes sharply up, and then sharply down - over and over until it has exhausted its own evolutionary imperative. We can read the cautionary tales, digest them, let them percolate through our dreamscapes and scare the shit out of us. And then do nothing. Ultimately. Ultimately cynicism reigns. It ain't a floof or a borb! It's something that slips under the bed at night like a lethal fog. I refuse to give into fatalistic despair.

12 - The Hole to Nowhere

setting up again
consolidation and why?
26 years and...

On my hands and knees digging a deep hole with a tiny trowel through some of the gnarliest soil on Earth. At night i'll dig the crusties around the edges of my nose. The dust never ends its insidious sneak into every crevice. I'm trying to expose a line that once exposed will lead to an answer. Except it doesn't. Just more questions. And until the pick-axe goes in where my trowel fears to tread we will cross our fingers, dot our i's and hope for the best. The last huzzah in a year of manual labor (toil). The body has been sore in various places for months. Tomorrow is another day. The reward is another day.

13 - Pipe dreams

Omicron surges
another variation
in the theme of suck

My bladder rang at 4:33. I looked out the window and was excited to see a thin layer of snow had fallen overnight. I went back to bed. At 6:00 I tossed and turned and exited bed eager to play in the snow. There was none. A trick of light that 4:33 snow - a thick layer of frost covered sage brush glittering under pre-dawn. Thankfully there is a book to suck me in and distract me until the day really begins. What day of the week is it again? One turns on thin threads that bind us.

My perspective is slightly warped. My sense of time is slipping. I put on rubber boots and wade through mud searching for the perfect throw while a coyote sunbathes in the septic field. Every sniffle is categorized, analyzed, and given a score. Did you hear that? Flat on your back with the mild is medium. Miscategorized again. Caution is the key that doesn't fit in this lock. It's been bent out of shape by false flag waving and changing scripts. There is a time for transformation - a time where cultural richness will not be contained or contaminated. Life is complex and marvelous!

14 - The sensual kiss of crystal

the NFT train
an enormous learning curve
questionable fate

Decades of halting breakthroughs. The days of halting breakthroughs. Networks multiply and the hype-train is on full stream ahead. You think you know one way and then an alternative route comes into view. Collaborator or corroborator? One devalues, the other achieves explosive success. Can't wait for the influencers to do AWOL. The questions lie at the bottom of the glass, beyond the cherry stem. I can still smell the burning trade papers, a glittering black cloud over Brooklyn. It reminds me of the anticipation of the not yet known Spring ahead. A greening of space and its pleasure sunflower scented.

15 - Leaded

Snow squall wails through town
destruction of pull and push
left without power

I'm tired of eating out in cars, doing dishes, stocking the freezer, cotton swabs with no stiffness, flimsy toilet paper, and minor complaining altogether. The peanut gallery asks, why didn't they bury the lines? It's just that just ice removed stalls progress. The infrastructure is a garbage barge cut loose and rapidly sinking. I forgot the last time I sat at a table and drank a fancy cocktail - others not so much. There is collective amnesia, or dementia, or some other loss of relative cognizance. Happily there is melted cheesy bits to crunch into enthusiastically.

The shock waves ripple, the world temporarily halts to pay attention, then goes on its merry way oblivious as always. Once upon a time a teacher told me I was being far too cynical playing the harmonica while exiting the burning building in an empty stairwell. Have you ever gotten trapped in a stairwell? In the in-between spaces that haunt us? Do you remember the cable access channel playing Paris Combo while the jets circle overhead? There was power then, but our collective voice had been silenced.

16 - How do you plan for 0 degrees?

backhoe the cisterns
back into place after trip
through the swirl of squall

Pushing our bodies again to explore despite the heaviness. Adventure time has returned. Taking advantage of the snake free season while we can. Scrambling, sliding, moving through nature, digging through rocks and getting dirty. It's part of a process of reconnecting, reestablishing, and resetting. Sometimes we have doubts that we landed in the right place. Rejuvenating retreats into the desert provide insights and answers that yes indeedy we have, and why didn't we do this sooner?

Unfortunately this process requires more than just patience. It isn't just about motivation or submitting to impulse. It is something more than right away after slumber. We need to move the trough, but there is a block of ice frozen inside. It has become a kind of silent slow moving battle of freeze thaw with no prospect of developing talus. The water will move to its proper place when it is ready. Given time the momentum will unfreeze and then you will land in the proper place too.