Celebrating With Pride

Shooed the bug away, realizing too late

It's a ladybug, real life is exhausting 

White pickup truck, moving slow revved powerfully, 

Trying to create strife is exhausting

Joy from youthful bubble chasers challenging

The rainbow globes half-life is exhausting 

Black pickup follows the white, slowly, other direction

Still looking for wildlife is exhausting 

Many chats, introducing folks, connecting the dots 

All good work, improving our whole life is exhausting 

Painting Venus, in shaded tent, renders the gazebo

Prideful colored as still life is exhausting

Ladybug returns, must be telling you something Sherlock 

You know reporting on goodlife is exhausting

Reflections on the pride celebration in Franklin, captured while on the Town Common, editing completed later that day, 06/25/23

How much

  I

How much should you pay for something? 

How do you know you are getting the best price?

You can walk into most stores, find an item on the shelf

And line up at the register to pay the regular price

Before entering the store, or during the transaction,

you can sign up to get the insider, or member price

Your email address can give you announcements on weekly 

Items that you are now worthy of a promotional, or sale price

Your purchase history can get you an announcement with items

you could purchase for a manufacturer's price

For some items, they may notify you of a promotion for a specific period

of time for an anniversary, or holiday price

 II

Some stores will promote items if they have been scratched or

dented for a discounted, or red tag sale price

An item at the neighborhood convenience store is likely sold for more

than the same item at the chain grocery store normal price

The chain grocery store sells an item for more than the big box warehouse

store where you need to buy in bulk to obtain the lower unit price

You may walk a red carpet to get to the garage sale, blockbuster sale,

or bargain basement price

The Founder's sale implies generosity but it may not be much

more than the annual, or clearance sale price

What if you make the trek to get there for the early bird special

and find out it is not much different than the weekly price?

So Sherlock, how much should you pay for something? 

How do you know your 2 cent research will get you the best price?

The Poet Game

 I

Dogwood blossoms lay against the green, almost a snowy layer,

The white blossom with green center telling the world here I am

Watch and wait I’ll be ripe after you play the poet game

Check the battery’s charge before placing them in the electric 

Mower to cut the grass, left angle this time, part of the healthy

Lawn cutting rotation memorialized in the poet game

Meal prep, a kitchen dance, counter to stove, fridge to counter

Another bowl, utensil to stir, bring to the stove, add in thyme

Just in time to season the meal and eat before the poet game

Some call it the rain tax but it is real money, forced by the EPA

For cleaning up the Charles River, took a while to work through

The process, and now it’s here all part of the poet game

Vendor schedule not determined, they're trying to fit us in between, I

Understand, while the work is not critical, it would be good to know

Other than a last minute text, here I am, a verse for the poet game

You may recognize his voice, it is distinct, a folksy blues beat with lyrics

Easy to follow, guitar picking, flows along in the rhythm, didn’t 

see him live but its like I had always known of the poet game

 II

Is there hope that someday folks will realize how interconnected 

we all are, or will the clouds of smoke from forest fires far away

Continue to muddle the recognition of this mess in the poet game

Connecting the dots can be a kids pastime, easy structured exercise, 

With pencil or crayon, to gradually reveal something not apparent 

Before them assuming the weather cooperates to play the poet game

Squirrels are problem solvers, they want food, bird feeders are

A prime source for their appetite, baffles will prevent them climbing

Up the feeder pole but not from jumping from a tree in the poet game

Connecting the dots can get challenging technically, do the plug ends

Enable a safe mating, are they protected from the elements, and those

Nefarious forces who want to mess with the poet game

Some folks fear talking in public, others sitting to write, yet most will

Have a cup of coffee and share the news with their neighbor or friend

Writing and talking can be a little more public in the poet game

Connecting buyers and sellers is the role of a market place, oddly

Some of the more secure markets are for illegal transactions

So what can we learn from that for the poet game

Pause, take a deep breath, it is who we are of the moment, and

Who we are with that matters, let’s recognize the gift at hand,

Forget the shiny elusive thing slipping away from the poet game

Credit for the inspiration goes to Greg Brown whose song "Poet Game" sent me down this train of thought -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J4jdu5Pi00