DANCING and UNTITLED

By Lucille Hamilton

Dancing

I'm dancing around in my head, 

and, yes,

I can see the dust motes dancing, too,

to their own rhythm

in the shaft of summer's light

that slants down from the open window.

Why not dance?

Ultimately,

the dust will always win;

just give in on those days

when the urge to dance overtakes you:

Dust can always wait.

Untitled

No, I'm not timid,

but I don't know how courageous I am

or will be

when the time comes.

I think this is true of everyone,

courage still bearing the whiff

of a Victorian commodity

being brought forward 

as an example of how to behave

in these post-atomic years

of terror and horrific hunt-and-seek drones.

It's something I don't want to rehearse;

there are enough professions already doing so.

How are we to raise our children,

given that the old stories are too shallow to be guides?

What are we to do with the anger and fear

that is consuming our civilizations, our world?

How can we walk

in integrity,

in peace,

except 

by 

doing so?

A SPLASH OF BLOOD

by John Field

The crime scene of this Raymond Chandler thriller

Is an avenue in Beverly Hills lined with palm trees,

Pink-stucco villas, mansions and cobblestone courtyards.

It's midnight on a warm summer evenlng in 1949.

Suspect number one is Gino,

A big-assed, pig-eyed, sleazy-hearted gambler

On the skids who needs a lot of dough, fast.

Gino and his lo and behold drop-dead gorgeous wife

Lorraine are sipping martinis in their living room

With Jake and Bernice, a mismatched odd couple

Who live next door. Jake never had a music lesson

When he was a kid, never kicked a soccer ball.

He spent his youth practicing his hands

Against furry little animals he fondled

And then killed. He's suspect number two.

Suspect number three is whoever's hiding behind the curtain.

Bernice's face is as plain as a plastic table cloth,

Her heart as closed as the innermost ring

Of a redwood tree,

Her smile as tight as a hundred year old

Morning Glory seed

And her eyes as empty as two knot holes in a fence.

Why did Jake marry her?

Because she's got the money.

Bernice never lets on that she knows

Jake is in love with Lorraine and why not

Who wouldn't be is the way she reasons it out

Pragmatically because Lorraine is blonder,

Younger, sexier and slimmer than she is.

(An excerpt from a story in poetic form)

TIME, by guest author Eddie Makaruk

Time goes on but is it going forward?

Sometimes I felt old when I was young .

Sometimes I feel young now that I am old

I saw many things change,

But some still are really just the same.

We just get there quicker.

We move forward in time but go backwards in our health.

Can’t we switch it around ?

Go back in time and go forward in life?

Or is that what they mean when they say

Time is not a mechanical thing!

It’s just a measure of life.

Eddie Makaruk visited Sonoma Friday Writers on December 21, 2012.  He wrote this piece as a free write on the topic of time.