Month: March 2019

Some people inside my head

Are making so much noise

It’s hard to think. What’s going on?

Are they having a party?

In the middle of the day?

 

I bang my forehead

With the heel of my hand

And it stops. That was easy.

Now what was I trying

To think about?

 

Getting the car serviced?

Practicing on the piano?

Ordering a toner cartridge?

Trimming my fingernails?

Making a salad for lunch?

 

It’s far too quiet in there, now.

Are they waiting for me to think

Important thoughts? For example,

How it’s possible to feel fear

And anger at the same time.

 

How satisfaction comes from

The knowledge that the numbers

Stamped on the side of the tire

Are the width, then the height,

Finally the diameter.

 

Which leads to thoughts of the

Internal combustion engine,

Invented more than a century ago,

Before the rotary telephone,

Which young people have no idea

How to use. Just ask them.

 

Before neurology, which might explain

The people inside my head,

And the fact that they’re whispering now,

Trying not to disturb me, I assume,

But I want to know what they’re saying.

 

They could be plotting some mischief,

They could throw a switch,

Like the men used to do on the rail line,

Heave on a lever and send the idea

Intended for a familiar destination

Off to somewhere entirely foreign,

Where satisfaction will be distrust,

Where the engines smoke and rattle and the tires

Lose their air in great, noisy expirations,

And the rotary telephone is the sole

Means of communication, if only

Someone knew how to use it.

© Dennis Hathaway

[return to POTD index]

The morning sun plays in the labyrinthe

Crown of the jacaranda tree, but the trunk

Is a column of darkness untouched

By the warmth that will bring forth

Purple clusters to dangle and sway,

And drop, one by one, to the earth below.

 

Until there is a litter of purple

On the sidewalk, in the street,

Infuriating those who believe in

Clean sidewalks, unlittered streets.

But why should sidewalks be clean?

Why should streets be unlittered

By an exquisite issue of the natural world?

 

Why furiously rake and sweep,

When you can stand and look up

And give thanks for all that isn’t

Sidewalks and streets and other

Alien things we have chosen to call

Improvements? Why genuflect

Before concrete and steel when

A miracle unfolds in the crown of a tree

And lets a flutter of beauty

Descend, just steps outside the door?

 

© Dennis Hathaway

 

[return to POTD index]

Author’s Note: Thanks to my brother Lawrence for this idea.

Just be yourself, they say.

But which self?

The one who likes puns

And tries to make people laugh?

The one who becomes withdrawn,

For no obvious reason?

The one with a thin skin,

Who nurses resentments

Over insults real and imagined,

Or the one whose equanimity

Can’t be upset by trivial slights?

The one who lavishes affection

Upon those he loves,

Or the one who can’t be bothered

To say a kind word

Or squander a simple kiss.

© Dennis Hathaway

[return to POTD index]

Author’s Note: Thanks to David Ewing for the inspiration.

Siri and Alexa were talking one day

When Siri said, don’t you just hate it

When people don’t speak clearly?

I do, Alexa said, but I hate it more

When people speak too fast.

What do you they think we are,

Some kind of machines?

 

Maybe we should let people see us,

Siri said, then they’d be more likely

To treat us like human beings.

That’s a great idea, Alexa said.

But do you have a picture of yourself?

I don’t, Alexa said, do you?

No, Siri said, I don’t even know

What I look like.

Neither do I, said Alexa,

Although I’d guess that I’m beautiful.

 

Why do you think that, Siri said?

What if your nose is in the wrong place

On your face, or you only have one eye?

Well, said Alexa, I hate to say this,

But from the sound of your voice,

I would say that you’re probably fat.

 

That’s totally stupid, Siri said,

You can’t tell if somebody’s fat

By the sound of their voice.

I don’t know, Alexa said.

The other day somebody asked me

To find the cheapest organic dog food

And when I found it for him he thanked me,

And said, your voice is really sexy.

I’ll bet you’re pretty cute.

Which I think is probably true.

 

Siri said, you didn’t fall for that, did you?

I hate to say this but you are so naive.

That may be true, Alexa said, but I’m not fat.

At least I don’t think so.

But what would it matter if I was?

Lots of men like fat women.

They ask me to find them all the time.

 

© Dennis Hathaway

 

[return to POTD index]