20150926 (greenland)

A light drizzle blessed Olympia

Today a needed watering if just to

Remind them what had been the

Old normal that made them so 

Different from other parts of the

Land I took Cosette out for walks

Twice nine this morning again 

About noon encountered not a 

Torrent not a gully washer still

That soft lovely moisture casually

Remarked to an intense walker on

Aspinwall who gasped in delight

Her face happily gleaming wet

With rain it's been so long this

Summer the ferns getting brown 

Dry dying it's hard to find 

Stories about the state's weather

Which don't refer to the haze

Of smoke from forests ablaze

Further east landscapers told me

The drought's hurt their business

Don't matter how many contracts

You have if all the grass is brown

Can't really charge for being available

Not part of the deal this afternoon

Cosi and I walked out Aspinwall

Court scanned real estate where

Pines easily eighty feet straight up

Surrounded shaded unique 

Original houses with huge 

Glass areas on the south for

Gathering light warmth 

At the road's reverse a family 

Of black-tailed deer stood 

Statue still quiet unspooked 

Into motion by our presence 

For the three trips I inveterate

Garbage hound retrieved

From the pristine wilderness 

Five cast away aluminum cans 

Three energy drinks in my 

Erstwhile comic career I noted

Such drinks delivered the needed

Energy just not enough to enable 

Recycling not exactly funny I

Learned but not too bad compared 

To my urban sidewalk mining 

Where more often than not I

Netted a grocery bagful of twenty-

Four ounce monsters but hey this

Is greenland the northwest where 

People would recycle their spit

If they could I'm trying to say

None of this primitive vista

Will last long in the new normal 

Forests fill with fire's haze 

Rains diminish to drought

Highways submerge in trash

A damn shame which is

Already begun





c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150925 (morality)

You'd think we agree on some evils

By now at least rape of boys by priests

By Afghan warlords whom our dollars

Have for years been propping up

How gross does the offense have to be

Before we can say this is too far we

Don't give a fig it's been your custom

For umpteen centuries father get your

Hands off that kid what about all those

Saudi women accused of adultery

Where the guy gets off but the father

Throws the first stone at his daughter

A matter of family honor the ritual

Rape of young women brides in the

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ

Of the Latter Day Saints by Warren Jeffs

His middle-aged toadies who get

Scraps from the master's table

Scientists all very good men many

Jews secular learned reasonable men

Devoted years to develop a weapon

Otherwise straight from the bowels

Of hell that couldn't be morally used

They were thinking deterrent as they

To a man confessed to hold it against

Hitler lest he threaten them with it in turn

What blessed befuddled to think they

Could produce such a thing for the

Ordinary mortals who pass for leaders

And they not use it they not terrify

All mankind for decades claiming

Spotless good intentions their ears

Now so like Torquemada's convicted

Unable to hear screams of children

Old men sick women dead of

Their earlier bombing diplomats who

Must they claim righteously make

Deals with the devil to advance

Humanity's cause I'm just as certain

Pol Pot thought giving the order

To drive a truck over the skulls

Of his opponents doing what

He must to provide for peace

Our CIA poured water into nostrils

Mouths of their captives for the

Good of all the good of virgins

Back home perhaps altar boys

Widely read learned experienced

People our neighbors who all know

In their hearts what is moral what

They would not want others to do

To them but somehow in twisted

Reasoning they must now

Do to others





c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150924 (common good)

If you've been reading here you know

I'm no flag waver but I'm pressed

For an image free doggie-dirt bags

On the post at the wellhouse

Serving this thighbone of middle

Moderate homes where my

Granddaughters live is an example

Of that curious type of property

Which is not mine not yours

Ours those who bury their heads

In the sand the beach which

Is another example of the same

Question not mine not yours

How can this be there's no deed

On which we both have signed

Infuriates coastal landowners

Everywhere the tides rule from

The highest point to the lowest

The beach belongs to none and

To all paradoxical not really

Born you were not clutching

A deed to any property at all

Much less your father's vast

Expanse of coastal Rhode Island

His land-defined castle overlooks

This is only fair as those in

Soon-to-be-submerged Tuvalu

Are similarly unencumbered

With papers stating their ownership

Of disappearing property

Getting back to the wellhouse

The water company is finally acceding

To a decade of pleas installing

A propane tank and generator so when

The unreliable electricity fails

The neighborhood will not suffer

Loss of water also as if electricity

Water were entangled like quantum

Particles the change is good for

Everybody except for the water

Company unless you grant they

Will soon recover their expense

Through increased rates just like

The free doggie-dirt bags for whom

Someone bears the expense but all

Benefit in a cleaner classier environs

Step back a second this ours-type

Property applies to air minerals health

Safety education to the food the generous

Earth gives up forget the unempathetic

Red hen whose primitive economic

Analysis is wretchedly self-minded

The future belongs somewhat similarly

To none of us all of us depending

On how widely we define us before

We fail as a class of self-involved

Piggies destroying all which

Can save us





c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150923 (travel quandaries)

Travel’s become my personal hell

Flying’s the worst but every type’s bad

I once got on a train with only the clothes 

On my back a construction helmet

Cash from the bank not even a book

To get me to Boston for a couple 

Of days loading a truck leaving 

Her loft with most of her stuff which 

Then sat undisturbed unexamined

In my home for four years once

You’ve settled on the time of 

The visit you’ve got to guess what

The weather will be just how

Much crap can you load in your

Smallest luggage usually ending 

The week with some clothing totally

Unused this presumes machine washing

At the terminus wondering why I ever

Thought a sweatshirt would be needed

Could be I’m just a lousy planner which

Might seem obvious from my desk

That holds letters declaring two 

Payments each a day late electronically

Some fog that fell over me on September

First which allowed me to record money

Paid on the bills list in the checkbook

Then fail to effect in the system

Would you trust a person who could 

Do that to make sure your panties

Were packed aside from the general

Worry about whether the local rapid

Was working one day it wasn’t which

Unnerved me to no end then there’s

The recent bad numbers from my 

Diabetic testing an extra pound that

Refuses to leave hell I discover 

I don’t have a raincoat the pet sitter’s

Instructed the food’s out the leash is

Where he will find it the weather looks

Good oh God what do you want from

Me a rosary just to calm down this is

All amuck because I don’t have the 

Reservation number which would

Let me print a boarding pass in the

Twenty fours hours before getting

On the plane now I actually have to

Speak with an agent please keep me

From falling in love they’re always

So congenial those brunette haired

Late middle aged women so scrumptious at 

That last moment before departure

If they broke from their professional

Composure asked me please don’t go 

I’m not sure I wouldn’t cancel

Right there on the spot or do my 

Best to concoct a one-minute troth

Pledging I’ll be back in a week 

We can pick the relationship up over

One of those insanely high priced 

Airport coffees you can tell I’m upset 

If imagining matrimonial love
 

Is the only thing that will help me

Catch my breath the plane and a

Taxi

c. J.S.Manista, 2015

20150922 (audacious claims)

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

Blogging lets every idiot play expert

I know that from direct experience

You have no more reason to read my

Words than those of the apocryphal

Joseph Fabeitz who about a 120 

Years ago got off a boat from Italy

To Ellis Island and registered as the 

Prototypical late 19th century Italian

Immigrant I know less of him than

Any of my Polish forebears but a day

Did not go by at Cathedral Latin School

Note not Cathedral Latin High School

As it was ignorantly misnomered when

My fellow students of Italian extraction that’s

What they called it boy I’ll bet that hurt

Would refer to the famous Joe lovingly

Stumbling through the inevitable learning

Every immigrant underwent from the

Problematic English words you were not

To use if ladies were nearby isn’t that

A standard linguistic first step of any 

Language learner once they are truly

Washed over by a foreign tongue

The words for genitals congress 

Not Washington whore pimp deviant 

Homosexual male and female

Why doesn’t Rosetta Stone and the

Peace Corps immersion studies start

With those it’s gonna happen so you

Might as well get it from an authority

Rather than learn it from the street kids

Of the host country you came to serve

At least you wouldn’t come off like

Some naive hick from the USA 

That’s what I mean about blogging

I write just about any sort of crap

Make it seem plausible if not the 

Downright God-awful truth that’s

What happened to me in high school

Where about 33% of my lifelong learning

Occurred another 33% has been assigned

To a year and a quarter of graduate school

Four years of college I kinda slept

Through college and the final 33% 

Accounts for all the other time I'm 

Hanging onto that last 1% between now

And my ultimate disposition 

Notice I’ve not offered one footnote I have

Nor cited research I might have so it’s all

Anecdotal but it’s told with such fervor

You’ve got to accept that I believe

It’s the whole truth and nothing but

So far as I’m concerned whether it’s

Your whole truth and nothing but

Depends on my being convincing

Enough so you’re getting what

You paid for notice I have no

Bothersome ads flickering at the

Margins top or bottom no offers 

Of miracle hemorrhoid creams

Or lucky numbers to play in the

Lottery and while I’d love for you to

Comment for the record if you’re

Any kind of troll your comments will

Be gone in a trice as for the wisdom

You’ll find herein I refer you to a quote 

From a famous late ‘80s comedy cop show

Sledge Hammer! as he points his cocked

Weapon directly at the TV screen fires

Trust me I know what I’m doing

c. J.S.Manista, 2015