I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


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Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Lt. Gen. James Mattis


February 4, 2005  (I was 60)

         Lt. Gen. James Mattis
     (I saw the news today, Oh boy)

We hire a mentality of insensibility
so a group of us feels it should laugh
when he says, “I like killing some people.”
And further, “I admit it; I just like to fight.”
He does not pretend it is for a cause,
we use him for our purpose,
he signs on for his.
He comes cheap but thinks he’s well paid.
We are agents of change.
We don’t even wash our hands.
It’s a cautious laugh
but some applaud when he adds,
“You know guys like that,”
(referring to Muslims)
“aint got no manhood left anyway.
So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”
“That’s why we call him Mad Dog,”
we shake our heads and say.
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