Apple core

Both you (Gerdie) and I know that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, though we may not be sure exactly why. You'd say "An apple a day is good for you! Gives you energy and stamina, exercises your jowls." And I'd say "Sustainable? Good energy, good fiber, easy to dispose of the core."

The legend of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, is curious. This American pioneer traveled miles across the frontier in the early 1800s, planting and pruning countless apple trees. What does Johnny Appleseed or you (Gerdie) have to do with anything anymore? What do values and beliefs have to do with anything any more for that matter?

And who will become the legendary figures of our times, if not Steve Jobs?

When I was a kid and we ate apples, we lifted the core for everyone to see and shouted:

“Apple core!”

And the kids around you would say:
“Nevermore Baltimore.”

You would say:
“Who’s your friend?”

And someone would say:
“hard or soft?”
and another would say:
“Now" or "Never"?”

And then you would throw the core at whomever had said “Now” and say:
“now, no more.”

Everyone, especially anyone who had said "Now" or "Now or Never" would, of course, duck.

Powered and communicated by Jobs hardware and Google software, I can’t help but reflect NOW on the future of core energy and nuclear waste. Hardly child's play.

Tunnel of love

She is a housewife
sitting in the passenger seat
on her way home
with a bag in her lap
full of the fruits of her life
and everything else
she has to make a meal,
when suddenly she sees
a blind man reaching out,
chewing with an open mouth,
and the fruits explode on her lap.
Swallowing the insult,
she gulps for air,
incapable of returning
his gaze.

Tunnel vision 3: play

There is a wonderful Swedish saying:

“Man måste rätta munnen efter matsäcken”
Literally “You must adjust your mouth to your lunch/food bag”

When you look up the saying in the dictionary you are offered more proverbs, literally:

“You don’t miss the cow until the stall is empty.”
“You shouldn’t offer buns to the baker’s kids.”

Tip: "matsäcken" (lunch bag) is a pun on "magsäcken" (stomach).

Since none of the above play, for example, upon the basic mouth relative to the acidity of the gastrointestinal tract, much less upon the basic idea that everyone has their own bag, I wonder how the saying best translates into English? Perhaps:

"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow?"
"You are what you eat?"
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder?"
"When poverty comes in the door, love goes out the window?"
"Stolen fruit is the sweetest?"
"Don't bite off more than you can chew?"
"Don't spill the bag?"
"Half a loaf is better than none?"
"Make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?"
"Need teaches a plan?"
"A fool and his money are soon parted?"

Needlessto say? I love saying and playing with words.

Tunnel vision 2

...
The fruit of her laughter
hid my father's words from me:

Lemon tree very pretty
and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon
is impossible to eat.

Will Holt

Tunnel vision 1

When the car drove into the driveway
she was on the walkway.
When the car stopped
she had arrived at the front door.
When the engine turned off
she fumbled for her keys.
When the driver’s door opened
she suddenly squinted.

When the driver’s door slammed shut,
she looked up into the sky.
Startled by the vision,
she looked back into her bag.
When the vision disappeared
she turned her key and went inside,
leaving the passenger seat
full of unripe fruit still
hanging from the past.

Woman nowadays 2

You see she is blind to the blade
about to fly from the edge.
No sooner do you make your own entry
than it must fall on the wedge
banked by executioners
ready to behead.

Woman nowadays

I make women like this nowadays

Aurora is her name
strands apart
Morning break

Brandishing a brush
Axe held high
Chop would to wood
Krona into pennies

I make women like this nowadays
Native strengths

Scalping barbarity
wherever it turns,
eager to build crosswords,
deeply ingrained in
every hammer that
nails another lie.

Forthright.

I make women like this nowadays

Axe is light
Metal resounds

(Neat stacks
Of split wood
Taming trees.)

I make women like this nowadays
Notching
Combing
Owing
Groping
Night and day
Inscribed along the way
Tending to a backlog
Of unfinished blows.

Acrostic in homage to "The Vane Sisters".