24.X.2017 - 'ruth'

          I rue the day I learned to fear
Wrists shackled and head held down
Filled with trembling to use the key so near
And drowned with all my faults
- If only I could persevere
          I rue the day I learned this habit
Shutting out the light that could bring cheer
A heavy cloak against the world
Which has cost so many aching tears
- And burdened me so long
          I rue the day I learned to agree
To compromise myself
To hide my thoughts and what I hold dear
To try to seem somebody else
- Why acquiesce in my own sphere
          May this day rue the day I hold my own
          May this cloak rue the day I tear it free
          May these bonds rue the the day I conquer hesitation

          May this day rue the day it told me I should fear


24.X.2017
SHL
'ruth'

A Birthday, Fourth of July, 2017

A Birthday, Fourth of July, 2017

Last night I took care of something in the kitchen before bed as fireworks went off several times in the distance. I was tired and hoped they would not last very long. Then I thought about how tomorrow was the 4th. I thought about my cousin’s baby being woken up. I thought about how people react differently to the festivities. Then I remembered that the 4th is my grandmother’s birthday. I cried.

First came finding out and the days following. A while afterwards came the funeral. There was Thanksgiving Dinner with cousins and without her, and then my brother’s birthday. At Chanukah we were given gifts she bought for us on her last trip but never returned to give. Then came Mother’s Day, when we would customarily bestow flowers on her and my mother, and her hands were not there to receive them ... Then there are all those other spasmodic bouts of grief that come along the way and sometimes make you feel foolish. Another ‘first’ has passed.

I logged on to Facebook today and one of the notifications said, “It’s Edith Dacks’s birthday today. Wish her well!”. The Messenger app prompts me to message her. And what if I sent a message to her account? There are few words to describe the slue of emotions in response to these small encounters. My heart soughs.

July 4th. It remains the anniversary of her birth though she is not here. If she were present on earth we would say she turned 82 today. A birthday.

May her memory be a blessing.

Yoghurt Without a Spoon – 2/27/2017 (written during a physics exam)

Yoghurt with a fork

I guess I could try

My spoon is gone

My stomach pines

It would look silly

But the choice is mine

May 15, 2017

Me, or so they say.
"Come sail away, come sail away with me"
Do I belong in the sea? in the stars?
Perhaps I shall settle
For a puddle of tears
In which I can see
The reflection of the world.

Lament on the fate of a Starburst (photos to be added, it was someones's pink Starburst candy fallen in a puddle)

Alas, Starburst
You have gone to rest
In the place where Earth and Water
Meet Sky at last

April 6, 2017

Banana Sonnet – L&T – August 11, 2016

Stacked in Kline, sit bananas plentiful with every meal,
Some green-yellow and others turned freckled-brown,
Our precious portable snack by virtue of their peel,
Of form akin to either a smile or a frown.
Stuffing them within our backpacks, we rush onward.
We complain at their ubiquity all whilst cherishing
The convenient sustenance they may afford
On the occasion we miss breakfast the next morning.
Bananas for breakfast, for lunch, for a snack,
Bananas gone mushy, forgot, and split open,
Opportune to satisfy a stomach’s momentary lack
But lacking in long term, necessitous nutrition.
Apples sit there too, you know,
Yet they are seldom mentioned in a manner so.

On the death of my grandma - 11/2/2016

Glassy thoughts
Rifting worlds
Incomprehensible
Emotions, tears
Feeling ... but not

Life as Physics Students

After our class covering rotational motion and gyroscopes this morning, we may now perhaps be prepared to calculate the angular momentum of our heads spinning.

Dog Owners Beware

Dear Dog Owners,

Please, please, please keep your dogs leashed, fenced in, and otherwise appropriately restrained at all times, for the sake of your dog and other people. Don't let your dog go loose outside, and when you visit someone keep your dog restrained. A pet cat walking up to you is not the same as a pet dog walking up to you. Don't tell me that your dog doesn't bite; dogs are animals too. Cats are much less of a problem, but even I won't say that they don't bite. So many of you around here have unrestrained and rowdy dogs that I am considering always carrying pepper spray or a large branch with me when I go out for a walk. I am not afraid to use them on your dogs when they come running, barking, and growling at me. I already put up with their barking, following me, staking out my yard, and leaving their excrement all over - I will not put up with my safety being threatened. You may have a legal right to owning a dog depending on where you live, but you do not have the right to infringe on my peace and safety. You own your dog and your dog does not own the neighborhood.

Please read your area's dog laws. Some of you may be inadvertently violating them, and these offenses can lead to the loss of your dog. Here is a section from local dog control laws found at http://ecode360.com/6182731.

Chapter 103. DOGS Article I. Licensing, Identification and Control

§ 103-5. Dog control.

A.  Prohibited conduct. It shall be a violation of this article for the owner of any dog to permit or allow such dog to:

(1) Be at large; or

(2) Engage in habitual loud howling, barking, crying or whining, or any other behavior which unreasonably disturbs the comfort or repose, or causes damage or destruction to real or personal property, of any person other than the owner of such dog or a member of the owner's household residing with the owner or a guest of such owner; or

(3) Commit a nuisance by defecating or urinating upon public property or upon the premises of any person other than the owner of such dog; or

(4) Chase, threaten, harass, annoy, intimidate or alarm any person or to place any person in reasonable apprehension of bodily harm or injury, unless such person is unlawfully on the owner's premises or in the owner's residence or such person is threatening the safety of the owner's person, family, guests or property, and such dog is protecting or guarding the owner, the owner's real or personal property, or any person lawfully on the owner's property or in the owner's residence; or

(5) Habitually chase or run alongside of moving vehicles, horses or pedestrians lawfully using the public highways.

Funny Saying of the Week

Last night I stayed up later than intended and I was very tired. I also needed to get up early (for me) in the morning.

When I came out to say good night to my mom, I said

"Well, I'll be one tired kiddo tomorrow, but I suppose that's better than being two tired kiddos."

Get some sleep. . .