Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
(Winifred Mumbles) They say there were one million pates under that sunset once upon a time. I imagine only once. Because I can’t imagine that impossible clot of humans happening twice. They littered the valley with their aspirations. Plastic. Fading. Tired even in youth. I can see the echoes under the rainbow sky. Foundations poured… Continue reading Ozymandias and the Dreamers
Churros are restive out there in the darkness. Should probably be concerned. Takes a lot to worry an animal with four horns. Shearing makes them irritable, but not sleepless. Something different out there bothering them. New note to the night air. What is it? Got this old saying tumbling around in my old head. Something… Continue reading Nothing But Blue Skies (Winifred Mumbles)
There is such a thing as honor. We denizens of a world much debased and disdainful often forget the word. But ought we? For it still thrives, thrives despite disregard. Honor impeached can stir even the most jaded heart to irrational revenge. Yes, even in this post-modern, ultra-civilized world. And we, voyeurs, stare gape-mouthed in… Continue reading Honor
The problem? How do you mark this day? Most years, I don’t. I’m not Hispanic. My best friend growing up was Mayan and there were complicated feelings about Mexico related to that. I never thought there was much to celebrate. We learned in grade school that it’s a commemoration of a 19th century Mexican victory… Continue reading Cinco de Mayo
A bit of desert dragon poetry for the last Tuesday in April. Because it seems a dragonish sort of time.
The winds are howling out there tonight. Which reminds me of one of my favorite tales from my personal gardening mythos. It will be the twenty-year anniversary of a most remarkable shed raising this spring. Spring, that is, in other parts of the northern hemisphere. For New Mexico, where this story takes place, the season… Continue reading A Shed Raising
It’s sand in the turbine again. Hell cats with singed tails squalling in the wind. Don’t know what they have to complain about. They come from worse heat than this, or so the story goes. Maybe. On second thought, I don’t really believe there is worse heat than this. The sun might be cooler than… Continue reading Engineering for Reality
I have chionophobia, fear of snow. This is not a professional diagnosis. Nor has it always been true. I used to love skiing and ice-skating. I could build a mean snow fort well into my nominal adulthood. The sharp scent of snow elicited memories of birthdays and mountain nights. The silence of snowfall still takes… Continue reading Chionophobia
There were no shadows in the winds that day… Mom had diabetes. Turns out intermittent refrigeration wasn’t the only hazard awaiting the insulin-dependent. No, in the end it was a few years of consecutive losses for Eli Lily. Granted, this was largely because of the increased cost of refrigerated shipping, but still. The problem wasn’t… Continue reading Candlemas Augury
And he saw his shadow… The barn door knocks against its frame, sending staccato signals into the night. Nobody out there to interpret the message. All these ghost ranchitos. Only me in here, and I know the message: that barn door needs to be rehung. If I can find the hardware. I watch as the… Continue reading Sunny Day Forecast
By My Solitary Hearth 