Category Archives: prose

Granny in the Information Age

TRUE STORY

Yesterday while chatting with my six year old granddaughter, answering questions about the nearby West Mims fire and how the various animals would be cared for if and when an evacuation of our home was required. Then she asked when I, and the critters  and Grandpa, were going to live in her backyard in a camper.  I replied that depended on the the fire activity and vagaries of wind and weather.

So this precocious little girl asked me what the fire was doing right then, May ten.  Having spent the day away from the computer and away from home and away from the fire area I couldn’t tell her.

That is when my age showed.

My six year old Granddaughter looked at my phone, what I call a telephone, but is really a mini-commputer, and said “Don’t you have Google?”  I replied I sort of did,  but that a box kept appearing telling me I had to do some rigamarole and download applications and buy things and so I didn’t use it. 

As I was telling her this, she reached across, mashed some icons on the touchscreen, to fast for me to see while I was watching her lovely face, then looked at me and said “There you go.”

Ha!  I started to say, “See  what I mean … ”  BUT there was an available search page for Google.  I had been struggling with this for months.  In less than two seconds she solved that problem.

I did the search, and found the information available, at that time, about the fire.  I did know where to look, but not how to use my device. 

This same child figured out how to advance through the photo library in my first digital camera when she was three.  I had no idea how to do it.  I was afraid I would delete what was not saved elsewhere.  She had no such ego fears.

This is a different world from the one in which I grew up.

Agawela May 11, 2017
ⓒBearspawprint2017

THE DEVIL OF FAR AWAY

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I LIVE WITHIN THE LONGING THAT ASKS THE QUESTION WITH NO ANSWER.
TAUNTING AND UNTOUCHABLE, IS THE MAGNETIC HEART OF A PERFECTLY LOVEABLE MONSTER.
HE WEEPS IN ANGUISH THAT COMPASSION REQUIRES TOO MUCH.
HIS SORROW IS ENDLESS FOR HE WILL NEVER KNOW THE PAIN OF ANOTHER.
BEREFT OF EMPATHY, LOST IN THE WORDS OF LOVE, HE ANCHORS IMPULSE IN DOGMA.
I DREAM FOR MY BELOVED THE INFINITE TANGLED COMPLICATIONS OF UNDERSTANDING.
YET HE IS PURE IN HIS IRRITATED INDIFFERENCE, HIS TEARS DRIFT IN THE VOID.
HE MOCKS ME FOR MY QUESTIONS THOUGH I KNOW THE ANSWERS CAN ONLY BE APPROACHED.
IN HIS INNOCENCE HE ASKS WHERE AM I LEADING IN MY SPIRALING
I SAY ALL PATHS LEAD TO THE HEART. ALL PATHS LEAD TO ONE.
HE IS SECURE KNOWING THAT OF ALL THE MANY ONES HE IS THE ONE CHOSEN.
HE IS THE DEVIL OF FAR AWAY, COMPLETELY LOVED.
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Agawela … 04.05.2017
ⓒBearspawprint2017

Far Away ⓒBearspawprint2017

Swallow What You Must

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I stood in the doorway
Foot raised to cross
The bedroom threshold
Your broad shoulders
Filled the space
As you stepped forward
Raising your beautiful arms
Not to put them around me
Nor to accept an embrace
But only to force me
By courtesy to step back
Yet I did not step aside
Instead raising the
Water Blessing
You took and drank
Ingesting unmindfully
Returning the glass
Irritation radiating
Communion reaching
Behind yourself
You shut the bedroom door
And step forward
Again the message clear
Turning I moved aside
Water Blessing transmuted
Funereal Tear Cup
Refilling the empty
Blessing portion
Now become the
Woman’s Salt Sea
I drank my half moon
Tide change
Howling a lullaby named
Anguish to no one
The lyrics all
Told in stories
And the songs all sung
To children grown
From the darkness
Persecuted coyotes echo
My useless cries
I have refilled
Water Blessing
In the new dawn
You will swallow
What you must
And I shall drink
With gratitude
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Agawela … 03.22.2017
ⓒBearspawprint2017

Half-Moon

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Poised between,
We live in
Tension,
Balanced
In a moment.
All breath
Is a choice.
Every choice,
A decision.
Every decision,
Forever,
Irrevocable.
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Agawela … 03.21.2017
ⓒBearspawprint2017
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Spring Frost

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As the ice mist
Trailed, following
The setting moon,
Cold again, no wind,
Spring frost sparkling,
The stars began to sing
Aria of The Night,
And all the trees
Danced in circles,
Heart-beat resonance,
Sedate, and elegant,
Swaying with
The star’s song.
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Agawela … 03.15.2017
ⓒBearspawprint2017
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However, the squirrels didn’t much like it.
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