By Ravi Shankar
Porous the punchline
spoken through wads
of lettuce at lunchtime
by the septuagenarian
vegetarian who has never
flashed a peace sign,
nor could distinguish it
from a Vulcan salute.
He’s not the font
of the jokes he paces
in front of the mirror—
even the one liners
are anonymous, traffic
conversation like air
or money. Not to him.
No sooner he hears one
he likes, he owns it.
Spins the extended bits
out with panache,
skips an extra extra
extra beat from the end,
bringing out in the eyes
and bellies of his morning
shuffleboard or pill-
buddies, laughter in rising
cascades that mistaking
each pause as ultimate
begins to agitate the rows
of green jello in the thunder
of many dentures exploding
into pure guffawing.
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Quickie, I'm behind on all my online activities because we were without power for several hours. It was a pretty quiet day until the storms arrived; it was dark and thunderous for more than an hour, during which our power stayed on and I got some scanning done, then the sky got brighter and I folded laundry and cleaned up things in the rooms that get enough natural light without electricity. We had candlelit soup and peanut butter crackers for dinner and took a walk in the evening drizzle.
We got the power back in time for Agents of SHIELD, the time loop episode, which was very well done -- first Groundhog Day, then TNG's "Cause and Effect", then touching -- poor Coulson, I hope his arc gets wrapped up in a satisfying way when the show ends. I'm really quite happy with the Daisy-Sousa storyline. Here are some photos from after the rain, the face mask I finally repaired today, our candlelit dinner, and Katherine who is finally back in San Francisco with Adam and Pepper:
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