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Domestic Strange
do-mes-tic
1. of or pertaining to the home, the household, household affairs, or the family: domestic pleasures.
2. devoted to home life or household affairs.
3. tame; domesticated.
4. of or pertaining to oneās own or a particular country as apart from other countries: domestic trade.
5. indigenous to or produced or made within oneās own country; not foreign; not foreign: domestic goods.
strange
1. unusual, extraordinary, or curious; odd; queer: a strange remark to make.
2. estranged, alienated, etc., as a result of being out of oneās natural environment: In Bombay I felt strange.
3. situated, belonging, or coming from outside of oneās own locality; foreign: to move to a strange place; strange religions.
4. outside of oneās previous experience; hitherto unknown; unfamiliar: strange faces; strange customs.
5. unaccustomed to or inexperienced in; unacquainted (usually followed by to): Iām strange to this part of the job.
āDictionary.com
Concert
Drumming rocks our neighborhood most afternoons:
A college kid in a basement apartment,
tactful as drummers go, generates a not
unpleasant rhythmic undercurrent
for yard work, wandering the house, reading,
typing, having a snack. Itās a sound track
that transports our hero to his school band
practicing Sousa marches, then makes him dance
around the dining room in remembrance
of Charlottesville frat parties. Now heās in
the kitchen, playing the counter like Ray Charles,
and look, the cameraās zooming ināheās
staring out the window, seeing how his life
sweeps him there to here and wonāt turn him loose.
Service
An old man who buys flowers for the house,
I find the right vase, cut their stems, fix them
to generate happiness in the heart
of anyone glancing their way. Sweetheart
roses this morning in the dining room
revise my problematic history.
No prize as a young husband, Iāll be buying
bouquets on into my nineties. A trick
Iāve learned is to water these posies daily,
fluff and spritz them, cheer them up on their way
to dropping their petals. Did I say Iām retired,
seventy-one, a grandpa, and donāt want
a long life? See how nimbly my fingers
spruce these babies up? I want my flowers now.
Cardinal Rules
Half lightās what cardinal and his wife like
best, so dawn and twilight those two are first
and last birds of the day,
Mr. Brazen
and Ms. Subtle, where thereās one the otherās
likely to be nearby, monogamous
I guess, and sometimes heāll pick up a seed
and place it in her beak, damned saccharine
if you ask me.
Cardinals donāt fly
in flocks like crows and sparrows. They do sing
though itās far from melodious.
Not dear
like a wren, not a bully like a nuthatch,
not elusive like a warbler, not sociable
like a chickadee.
A girl once told me
she was pretty sure cardinals are Catholic.
Shot at Costco
Small room, bright lights, a desk, two chairsāI take it
upon myself to close the door, strip off
my green shirt and my purple shirt, then sit
in the corner chair. So quiet in here.
Alone in my undershirt, Iāve committed no
crime, Iām just waiting.
A tall young woman
in a white coat enters with a small tray
and a red plastic half-gallon jug. She kneels
beside me. We make a burst of small talk
while she swabs the fat of my upper arm,
pierces the skin, plunges in the juice, pulls
out and tosses the syringe into the jug.
Youāre fast, I say. Sheās out the door hummingbird
quick. I dress, leave, go about my business.
The Ten Thousand Errors
On any given day the average adult
commits from fifty to several hundred
unnoted mistakes, little drops, burns,
paper cuts, losses, stumbles, bumps,
misplacements, typos, trips, overturns,
forgets, swerves, skids, misremembers,
toe-stubs, misinterpretations, wrongful
statements, confusions, slips, wardrobe mix-ups,
errors of judgment, zigs instead of
zags, math mistakes, insensitive remarks,
unbuttoned buttons, open flies, and inadvertent
revelations of basic idiocy. Hey, you
klutz, train wreck, complete mess!
How about lunch later today?
Blinds
Up for me, down f...