bad idea

This morning,
after my shower,
before putting on my clothes,
I walked into the kitchen,
felt the cold tile on the
bottoms of my feet.
It felt very archaic,
very primal,
very, oh, what's the word...
naked.

I grabbed a cup of coffee,
freshly brewed,
headed back into the bathroom,
where I saw a cricket on the floor,
causing my body to jump.
It was very quick,
very spasmodic,
very, oh, what's the word...
dumb.

Attached to my body
happened to be my arm and hand,
which happpend to be holding
a very hot beverage.
The result was
very uncomfortable,
very painful,
very, oh, what's the word...
2nd degree burnish.

after the rain

We are coming off of twenty-four hours of straight rain. Sometimes arriving in heavy sheets so thick it was like staring at a slate wall. Other times in short bursts dancing down from the heavens.

The thunder was loud and shook the house, the sound sliding its foundation and resonating from its core. The lightning streaked along the clouds like trails of tiny rivers along the hillside.

We opened the windows and let the rain-washed air enter the house, giving it a feeling of Oregon summer in the middle of the Plains.

This morning everything seems fresh and clean, the earth around me full, the last bit of clouds waving goodbye as they drift along the sky ready to greet the next town along its path toward the ocean.

The chill in the leftover breezes makes the coffee taste that much better. It is mornings like this when I am most at ease with who I am.
No pretentions. No judgements. No agendas.
Just a man with a cup and a world in which I belong.

Happy Birthday to me...

Got a new grill for my birthday yesterday.
Thought I'd check it out
One side was for chicken, the other for bacon
the fowl and the pig equally represented
in mass quantities makes for a balanced meal.
The fire was stoked
the grill was hot
the meat was cookin.
Until....
"Daddy, mom said you need to come to the backyard."
"Why, what's going on?"
"She says the grill is on fire."
I dash outside, open the lid, and
flames head high shoot in my space.
It's the bacon. Or was the bacon.
Now it's simply a pool of fried nothingness
on the aluminum foil.
Using a plastic spatula (which simultaneously melted
in the process)I scoop up the foil, toss it to the ground
and stomp it out with my foot.
I am laughing my head off,
my wife is scowling,
and my boys are dancing around yelling,
"Fire! Fire! Fire!"
So, this is what turning 35 is all about, huh?

waves

So the days continue to crash into one another
like waves smashing against the pavement,
which in this analogy happens to be my brain.
And the nights are filled with the pounding
of the water against my skull, causing little sleep
cuz who can sleep while they're getting drenched?
Not I, says the man who accidently puts both contacts
in one eye, but doesn't realize it, so he spends half
the morning on the bathroom floor looking for it.
And the days are a conglomeration of things both
necessary and trivial, the constant checking of the
planner to make sure I am where I'm supposed to be
all the while wishing I were somewhere else.
So this new day brings about hope, as I sit with a
cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll baked by my lovely
wife, as my children sit ten feet away watching a
morning show about the absoluteness of telling the truth.
And I, for the moment, have nothing to do but just be.
And in the being, I am content.
Until the next wave comes.