Author’s note: This is from a series based on my journal. Unconventional and idiosyncratic punctuation and formatting are intentional.
This afternoon I went to McDonald’s for ice cream. Dairy Queen just felt too far away and I wanted a change anyway. Two men in royal blue shirts and khaki pants spread dark and fragrant mulch around some bushes in an area by the parking lot. Other than seeing the bunny in the yard last week the mulching is the first sign of spring I have seen. At home I watched the news and should have turned it off much sooner than I did. The noise was agitating me. So was trying to look at real estate listings with the news on in the background. I often try to do both at the same time with neither activity satisfying me. There is no such thing as multi-tasking.
Jan posted a review of a new memoir whose factual basis seems dubious. Even if it is accurate and true I wonder why the writer’s story of marital betrayal and upheaval is any more worthwhile than those of women who are less privileged or not white. Hers is an unfortunate if not uncommon experience. It was hard for me to see what sets it apart other than it will probably make a lot of money. This morning Meg posted a prompt to write a strange, memorable, or anticlimactic Valentine’s Day haiku. Even this may elude me. Why do Meg’s prompts so often skew toward stories that upset? Some subscribers have already responded.
He’s like a surgeon
Who repairs the broken hearts
With dirty sutures
You threw a match
On the gas-can in my chest
So I smothered my heart
my paper heart bled
from a thousand tiny cuts
and you laughed and laughed
Picture a loved man
Baking a heart shaped cake, only -
His heart is burning.
Gray sent more pictures and videos of her and Dad’s trip to Australia. They are from Tasmania. Several feature red lichen growing on the gnarled and twisted trunks of ancient dead trees smoothed and striated by rain, wind, and other climate phenomena. Gray said that they were going out at night with lanterns to find some nocturnal animal or insect. Enigma was among Spelling Bee’s answers today. BLOOM was the answer for Wordle.
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The home across the street from yours is now the residence of three bunnies. The dog across the street has given up and will no longer even chase. Peace with the bunnies has arrived.
Always fun and interesting to read these entries, Polly!