MI / Orchid

Jack lacked a reason,

or perhaps lacking reason entirely

he found himself on a rooftop 

littered with evidence of

his inexplicable failure to commit

at key points in his life.

Under the sky, burning hot with the gasses

produced by myriad prejudices and simple distastes,

he sweated a decision,

asked himself ten questions repeatedly,

with three question marks each,

as if he could text or telegraph himself into the future,

the after, the whatever.

This time he stepped up to bat, 

decisions made in the past left passed, 

determined to act,

but his heart wasn't in it after all.

Even the paramedics who covered his face

carried him off the roof 

with a shade of disgust

called orchid.

Inchworm

Spring looks like everything
a puddle, a mess, explosions and leftovers
that didn't get used the year before.
Tempting fate and fashion,
she drags out that same green dress,
yellow handbag, phlegmatic temperament.
Men like Spring better,
they suffer more in the grey
when white leaves of frosted paradise
cloak women in halos and fur.
The plow calls to you, doesn't she?
Great and honest desire to make something.
Ask her to prom, ask her to dance,
before she leaves you again.

World Autism Awareness Day- Go Blue!

today is World Autism Awareness Day, April 2, 2012.

Great monuments of the world will be lit up blue tonight, and you may see people wearing blue all day, or their Autism puzzle t-shirts. You can learn more at www.lightitupblue.org

The pictures alone are worth a check out. the Christ statue in Brazil looks incredible all in blue.

Autism is still very much a mystery with few answers, but there is no question that autism is on the rise, some say to epidemic proportions. We all need to care enough to be "aware" on this issue. These kinds of campaigns have changed the way we see and approach subjects like AIDS and breast cancer. Can you remember when
women who had had mastectomies were ashamed, told no one, or felt less than human and feminine?

Many parents of children with autism don't have the kind of support that friends and community should be giving them...and it only takes one thing- a small effort to educate oneself so that you can empathize. Almost nothing is more helpful than being understood. Even money cannot replace understanding.

Thanks for taking time to think about this, and pay attention if you see World Autism Awareness on the TV, news or web today.  Awareness never happens overnight, and sometimes it takes a long time. Colored ribbons and car decals may seem trivial, but it's never about the small battles- it's about winning the awareness war. Awareness creates significance, and significance creates support for research and brings true progress.

My mom graduated from University of Michigan, so it's always easy for me to say, especially today...GO BLUE!!!!!

Asclepius' Raised Eyebrow

Wisdom may not belong to one man, one person...
although it seems to spring whole from their head like Athena,
seems to be a gift, a long-spun collection of thread snippets
twisted together over years into a skein, on into a sleeve or a cowl
until they coalesce into a garment of benign protection.
It grows but does no harm.

What we may have thought was stunted and scorched,
beyond regeneration, plucked into submission and
so acutely colored as to be beyond camouflage,
that there is no way we might have missed the reemergence
for it would stand out like a goose among swans,
reasserts its life nevertheless,
never can we say what is gone, what is dead...
we have no power over the destruction of energy, or matter,
only a responsibility,
to weed, to hoe, to cherish.
After that it is out of our hands.


With the wisdom I have knitted in these years, I can say
welcome April Fools, you always have a home here,
gather on my porch and share my coat.