Mustard

A Saturday hike

like any other...but wait!

The mustard's in bloom.

A Good Morning

Coffee at the French

with talk of tides, surf conditions

and that Rothko painting

that seems to breathe.

The dog's morning swim.

Now, let the day begin.

Pink

Every raincloud has

its silver lining, so they

say. But I see pink.

Homecoming

The kitty came back!
She lives! She lives!
My afore-mentioned spotted cat—
the runaway (and apparently coyote-proof)
eight-pound slayer
of rabbits and rodents—
has come home.

Festival

I flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan yesterday to attend the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College (my alma mater) today with my mom. We had a great day together, attending readings and talks by writers—Mary Karr and Thomas Lynch were highlights—and drinking lots of coffee. “Mother Superior,” as we have affectionately called Mom since her ordination as a Presbyterian minister, is an amazing multi-tasker and managed to draft a sermon, call my siblings, and answer a bunch of email between sessions.

A bright, windy sky.
Tulips in bloom. Books, old friends
and coffee with Mom.

Airport Concentrate

I find it really funny that, after presenting a membership card to get into an airport lounge that purports to be a nice place to while away a long layover, it turns out to be grimier and more crowded than the airport itself! I mean, what the heck, United?!

This so-called airport lounge is
just like the airport itself
only darker, stickier and
more densely populated.
If packaged, it would be sold as
a can of Airport Concentrate
or
Dive Bar-Lite

Death and Taxes

I lay awake

thinking about my spotted cat, lost.

Coyotes. Taxes. Volcanos.

Foxgloves

Foxgloves: lovely and
potentially lethal, much
like life itself

Heisler Park in Spring

Out of a yellow
school bus burst several dozen
second-graders. They
scatter and shout with delight,
glimpsing Divers Cove.
Single file, class, no running—
the teacher’s voice is
lost on the spring wind. A lawn
bowler adjusts his
hat, cups the ball in his hands;
then, genuflecting, rolls it.

Ceremony

My son Schuyler is on his high school’s tennis team, and they had a home match today. I went over to the courts to watch, and got there early enough to see the pre-match introduction “ceremony,” for lack of a better term.

The two teams line up, and the host school’s coach says something like “Welcome!” and then the coaches introduce each singles player and doubles team on their rosters. Each player shakes his opponent’s hand, and the other coach’s hand, in advance of the match. I just love the sportsmanship and courtesy of the whole thing.

In honor of LBHS’s match against Cerritos:

Boys in red and black
and white shake hands, do battle
and shake hands again.