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.


Comments Welcome!

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Tienda Tordillo is Marlena’s store

 

April 10, 1979  (I was 34)

 

Tienda Tordillo is Marlena’s store

south of Mulegé across from the Posada

God she is beautiful

The only girl I’ll ever love

said a United pilot who danced with her at Serenidad

vacationing in his own plane       

while his ground crews struck

He gave us a note to give to her

before he flew on down to Cabo

In the note he said she sparkled

and he left his number in Sausilito

He told us if he never saw her again it was okay

because he could still love her always

I thought he was great not so much for the thought

but that he did not care that his pilot friends

gave him shit about it  His love was in his smile

but her true love had gone back to the U.S.

deserting when he discovered her pregnant

All that pilot knew was that she danced well

and she did but I wondered what she thought

in the store where the gringos permanente

played with her son calling him Jerry

instead of his christened Geraldo

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