Yesterday, the gardener, our daughter, and I were sitting on the patio of the front yard. Suddenly I saw a bobcat walking the top of the wall. It kept walking the wall until it dropped down onto the grass of our lawn !!!! and scratched on the tree as if it were a cat scratcher. Then he/she climbed the tree back up to the wall and kept going. Our jaws had dropped to our chests. Something seemed a bit off, so we pulled out my daughter’s video from last week. Keep in mind that the pix of the bobcat I’ve shared have been the backyard. Sure enough, that bobcat in the backyard is an adult with long legs and dominant black stripes. This bobcat was an adolescent, much like the one I saw by the bbq before. I don’t think there were any family jewels on the adult, so maybe it’s the mother and her baby or babies still hanging around our neighborhood. None of us had our phones outside with us so we couldn’t get a pic, but that baby was definitely not concerned with us at all.
***
I’m not sure where the week went! A lot of work, house repairs, and then add in the three physical therapy visits. I have two weeks left of my six weeks, but I am sort of hoping that we can add a once a week or something for awhile after that because my shoulder won’t be completely better by then. I am doing the exercises every single day that I don’t have PT, but it also needs the manipulation by the therapist.
***
Main Street Rag published another one of my poetry book reviews. This one was for Speaking Parts by Beth Ruscio. Here is the beginning of it to give you an idea. You need to purchase a copy of the magazine to read the whole thing :). Here’s the link: CLICK HERE. There are some amazing writers featured in this issue, so if you are looking to buy a lit mag issue this month, make it this one!
***
Speaking of character actors, think of all the regular characters you’ve known in your life. My mother used to say “what a character” whenever she encountered someone eccentric or a little different, particularly someone with a big personality. Here’s a Mr. Big Personality I remember from my youth. The only title this poem could have is “Walter.”
Walter stopped by my father’s store
on the first day of shore leave every year.
While he waited for my father to finish up,
Walter picked a wallet from a wooden tray
and handed me some cash to start the process
of spending banknotes stuffed in his pockets.
Walter was a sixteen-ton giant, his enormous chest
encased in a turtleneck, his skipper cap snug
on a head like a stone Colossus. I’d ask him
what happened to last year’s wallet, and he’d
guffaw with a joy that at twelve or sixteen
I could not imagine. All these decades
after Walter, I barely understand its origins.
Dad said Walter joined the merchant marines
after leaving the orphanage: what could he do?
His head twitched as if his inside and outside
were at odds. A woman I knew saw him out
one night; after buying drinks for everyone
and every drink for himself, he slammed the face
of a man into the sticky counter. She suggested
he looked confused, maybe he didn’t realize
his fingers were thicker than the broken nose.
I disregarded her story because my Walter
carried the luggage boxes up from storage
for which I earned a paycheck; he bought us
all lunch to eat in the back room, us peeking
out for customers and trying not to choke
when he had us giggling at his silly sailor jokes.
RIP Walter
***
I’ve been very slowly working on the memoir, my current WIP. And I try to work on my art journals every day, even if only for a few minutes. It’s more relaxing than naps, reading, or TV. That said I am watching the Vera series and wishing we got the Shetland series here. I saw one episode when I was in California, but there aren’t any stations airing it in Phoenix.
Here’s a little conversation between the gardener and me this week:
G: There’s a dead squirrel on the road!
Me: Oh no! Why do you tell me something like that?!
G: So you don’t trip on it.
Me: What? Did you make sure he’s not still alive?
G: [Laughing] Perry’s squirrel.
Then I see it: one of Perry’s stuffie squirrels is in the middle of the hallway, right before you get to the bathroom (one place I am always running to).
Make it a great week!