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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Thursday, May 5, 2022

little communists

 

from this week in May, 1976  (I was 31)

 

         little communists

Children of the commune

you hide your laughter behind your hands

and let us look at you naked

tanned all over and dusty

Your dreams are without ferris wheels

You will not be broken down and stuck at the top

A stick is your wand  Wave everything green

Watch your parents planting in the sun

Watch strangers instead of television

Understand what all children know

This is today wait no longer

Let’s have a look  Let’s have a look

and maybe more than a look

 

“You grow up like this

when you’re little

then go into the outside world;

it blows your mind.”

                           says Jeff age 12

Jeff perceives all other as majority

to his minority

just as we all have since we were 12

The collective mind is blown

Jeff is as old as his elders are young

He tames the world in a loving glance

and they settle for the secluded vegetables

they can grow themselves

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