L'aura del Campo

Among strawberry fields

Today's scribble

Among strawberry fields

Stone boats floating on a sea of muck
seen from afar, the farmhouse truck
and empty fields once cleared for berries.

Now concrete slabs on clay capped sand,
more concrete poured into prefab molds,
then moved to make yet another new home.

This place we played in and picked wild berries
by the old greenhouse standing among bent reeds,
our jungle of cattails, rabbits, mud paths,
till the highway pushed through, cut us in half,
the bowling alley left on the other side
next to the roadhouse they had to tear down.
Progress had come to our part of town
like old German headstones: geburt, gestedt.

Now everything gone, save the old cottonwood
still standing over the ruins of our childhood.

© Kåre Enga [166.354] 2010-02-16

Sketching it out:

Actually based on some facts... our neighborhood of concrete poured houses was built on mucky strawberry fields with only one big tree left behind: a cottonwood.

The old cemetery dated back to the 1850's and the headstones were in German. But... I remember the inscriptions: geborn, gestedt; but Google translate won't clarify that. It may have been in a different dialect or could be that my memory is faulty... or most likely? Both.

Other writers say...

Cornelius Eady will be in Denver at AWP in April.



Thou:

Been keeping in touch through FaceBook. I haven't had the good connections to be reading around BlogVille. For some reason I have a good connection now... and not sure why...

Me and Mine:

Been stressing... computer, uncertainty re future finances (thankfully, I have more than enough money in the bank for now).

May go to my sister's...

Took a wonderful picture of raw buffalo liver and raw onions on a festive plate sitting on a map of Montana. Some day I'll get it here... got it:



So: It was "Topsy Turvy" at Cabaret last night:

Jen pulls her silver balls out of her crotch to sing, "Your Ding-A-Ling".



It was tempura and teriyaki at Sushi Hana on Monday; got to Spanish Circle twice this week; short and long documentaries at the Big Sky Film Fest. Vertov's "Man with a movie camera" (1929) complete with live musical accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra was a.w.e.s.o.m.e.

"Cleanflix" raised the question of copyrights and local standards; as in, do Utahns and others (read Mormons and others) have the right to "clean up" R-rated films and sell the edited versions? The courts said NO! So... why doesn't Hollywood provide PG versions of R movies one would ask... I dunno. However, I'd be PISSED-OFF if someone tampered with my poetic writings. Don't like the R-rated content of some poems? Don't read it!

To B.Y.U. ...

Miss A. Lou: A mild 36º at 6 pm Montana Standard Time.

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