The Art of Politics

To listen to the rhetoric 

of politicians

is daunting

truth hidden in a 

cacophony of words. 

“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.”

~ Plato

From my Balcony

Listening to the hum of air conditioners on a hot summer 

night challenges me to go for a walk. But not in the city. 

On a distant prairie road, when the dust of tractors 

and grain trucks has settled, leaving behind the call of 

a night owl and the vanishing 

whistle of a steam engine pulling 

brightly lit passenger cars. As dusk softens 

day into night, billions of stars shower 

this quiet world, bowing to a brilliant moon. 

In truth, I may not have been allowed to go 

walking on my own at night, so I cherish 

this fragment of imagined memory.

“She knew with suddenness and ease that this moment 

would be with her always, within hand’s reach of memory.”

~ Stephen King, Carrie

Waspish

Photo from website:
ecoguardpestmanagment.com

It was probably as surprised as I was. After all the waving of a yellow flag, merely my napkin, did not make sense to the wasp. Not a flower, but annoying. 

When the tip caught its little rump, it zipped past me, and on the way by, thrust its tiny dagger into my left thumb. Except for the sudden prick of pain,

I thought nothing of it until slowly, steadily my thumb blossomed red, the back of 

my hand puffed up like bread rising. 

I could only hope that the wasp was satisfied 

with it’s little fly-by shot of venom. 

“If I be waspish, best beware my sting,”

~ William Shakespeare,

 The Taming of the Shrew