falling when not held.
Leaves still bright grace roads and lawns;
they danced to distant wind chimes.
Robert Reich sees 2025-10-18 as a “huge success” because millions of people “who never before participated in a demonstration showed their solidarity” with the victims of DJT’s fascism and with those who oppose it. Dunno how Reich counted newbies into the millions, but the day clearly did go well, with large peaceful crowds and with American flags as well as protest signs. So much for the Rethuglican attempt to brand the events as “hate America” rallies.
My own contribution was modest. The yard sign I put up for No Kings Day 1.0 suffered from being exposed to weather from then thru Independence Day, but I refurbished it and found a stand that would let me mount it higher than before:
Another idiosyncratic way to participate was with poetry. Speaking of poetry, there’s a memorable pair of lines in America the Beautiful that always was more aspirational than actual:
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears.
The aspiration was widely shared and was (until recently) inching toward reality. That hope and progress (not greed and cruelty) made America great. Whatever else it accomplished, No Kings Day 2.0 reminded true patriots that they are far from alone in their determination to make America great again.
Leaves still green.
Intrepid seed wings
lead the way.
Leaves drop one by one,
each with a story to tell.
But can we listen?
With more shades of green
than I can easily count,
trees hail Labor Day.
Started in 1776!
|Flag waved in fresh breeze.
|Holding truths self-evident,
|a nation broke free.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|Our dream fought to be real, with
|liberty and justice for all.
 |
 |
Ended soon after 2025?
|Limp flag. Stifling heat.
|None but straight white wealthy males
|created equal.
|~ ~ ~ ~
|Fascist crook will make it so,
|if we all submit to him.
In most years, Flag Day is little more than 06-14. This year is different, not only because of Tenney’s epic butt licking. The 250-th anniversary of the founding of the US Army is on 2025-06-14, so it would be appropriate to commemorate that milestone. The same leather-lunged patriots who recite from the Declaration of Independence on 07-04 could recite from Tom Paine’s Common Sense, which boosted recruitment and retention when the new army was near disintegration soon after its founding. Commemoration could include modest parades like those typical of Independence Day.
The immodest parade planned by DJT for Washington DC has $45 million as the lowest cost estimate I have seen. (Does that include a realistic estimate of the cost of repairing streets damaged by tank treads?) My own Flag Day celebration is unlike the extravagant displays typical of dictatorships. My flag is up, and a flag-themed wreath adorns my front door. There’s also a new yard sign.
Reach up to the sun?
Not that far, just far enough.
Photosynthesis
Red maples flower
and greet returning warmth with
rubies in the sky.
Big and little stones
could lean on each other for
mutual support.
Tectonic plates collided, raising mountains.
Erosion shattered masses of rock and scattered the shards.
Unseen for centuries,
a shard of the rose quartz waited
in a jumble of rocks, roots, and soil.
Unseen for years,
the shard of the rose quartz waited
while runoff undercut sides of a drainage ditch.
After removing debris from the ditch,
I cleaned and kept the shard.
Seen at last!
Soon after solstice,
angry year nears end with hope:
“Peace on Earth, Good Will …”
Early morning sunlight can make a frosted window (or clean snow) sparkle like myriad tiny diamonds. I have tried and failed to photograph that look. Editing one recent try produced an image that struck me as interesting and subtly hopeful, appropriate for a Xmas greeting after a grueling year.
Wounded bird in flight
casts shadow of fear and hope?
No, autumn leaf falls.
Cattle breed with swine,
just in someone’s playful mind.
Belted Galloway pigs!
Nature~ Pic and a Word Challenge #390
The farm near my house does raise Belted Galloway cattle; it does not raise any pigs. My guess is that someone wanted to decorate the farm’s entrance with an outdoor sculpture of a Belted Galloway cow, then found one of a Hampshire pig at a flea market or garage sale. Close enough: black-white-black (but with white forelegs). BTW, I found an image of a pig with black-white-black arranged just as on the cattle. Nature can sometimes be playful, too.
“I must grow.”
“I can’t move. Sorry.”
“No problem.”
Kneeling on one knee to capture the image for §1 was no problem for me, but my old legs stiffened in the time it took to get a few photos of the tree’s workaround for the stone. To get up again, I depended on my own workaround.
After a few scares with stiffness from kneeling and balance on slopes earlier this year, I had bought a monopod and then replaced the monopod’s wrist lanyard with a clip that was intended for attaching a key ring to a belt loop.
Having taken the monopod on the walk leading to §1, I extended two of its four sections and used it to get up w/o drama. When collapsed and clipped to a belt loop, the monopod leaves my hands free for wiping sweat or taking photos. Like a good assistant, it’s there when I need it and unobtrusive when I don’t. Remembering to take it when I go for a walk is the hard part.
Stone ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #387
Mellow Curmudgeon 