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 |   Enga mellom fjella: where from across the meadow, poems sing from mountains and molehills. |
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Enga mellom Fjella  Sentinel Marked as if you own me I bow before the Bitterroots and just like you my rocky soil, my withered grass lays prey to the empty sky. © Kåre Enga 2007 "Sentinel"   Reader's Choice of Poems: "Sentinel" "Where grows the compost heap" "Tales told over scones and hot tea" "For Jeanette ... when she grows old" "Wheat penny" Reader's Choice of blog entries from my old blog "L'aura del Campo" :"Death of Jeannie New Moon" "Winter: 18 Mas'il (December 29)" "When is it proper to tell someone you love them?" "Tupac and more poetry" "James Doohan, Scotty. Ombra mai fu. Eutin Guitar Orchestra" FACES     PLACES            Kåre  Enga~ until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go. ~ Elizabeth Bishop The Fish |
| 4157 23 — Threading the needle Officer Kat [announcement]: I will guide this ship for the next two days. It should be a matter of simply staying on course; but, apparently, not everyone wants us to get to our destination. When Wing 90210 takes over she'll explain. Her command of this ship is critical. Wing 90210: Well said. Kat: You know how much I hate this. 90210: Why you. Why me. Kat: I dreamed this moment. When I saw the eyes in the sky, I knew I needed to take command. I have the focus, the authority and the ability to thread a needle. 90210: And me? Kat: You're like a sheep-dog herding sheep. We'll be in great danger and the crew must totally trust you. They don't trust me. 90210: Because of the last time? Kat: No. They're human ... or close enough. I'm not. I studied Humanology. In their mythology I'm either a goddess to be feared or a pet. I'm neither. 90210: You could have been Queen. Kat: I WAS Queen! And not just any queen, but it wasn't enough. I had dreams. And those dreams meant leaving for the stars. 90210: You're different from your kind. Kat: We all are. On our various planets among our own kind we bicker, divide ourselves into groups and fight. This ship has no factions. No fighting. Total allegiance to our mission is crucial in spite of our various understandings of it. We have individual jobs and positions but we act as a group. One group. Us. 90210: So ... I need to keep us unified. Kat: Yep. And there's no one more qualified to do that. 90210: Do you think I'll need to wake up others? Kat: Perhaps not. That's your decision. I intend to lock myself in chambers and go back to dreaming. I have no skills to offer for fighting the Green Star. 90210: It has a name... Kat: One that my people avoid mentioning. Our myths consider it a deadly menace. Everyone will need a clear mind, without that mythological baggage, to deal with it. In my dream we don't engage it. We just leave it behind. 4157 26 — We will NOT engage 90210: Yes, they're humanoid. No, we will not contact them. Yes, there are very good reasons to avoid them. Slavery among them. Irrationality reigns. Wing Jaafar: Said so sweetly and gently, not one note out-of-place. Not one argument to defend. No sense that you are even ruffled. 90210: I'm not. Jaafar: Impressive. 90210: You should've met my aunt. They say I take after her. As unmovable as a rock and about as much empathy. I get my empathy from my maternal grandfather. Skipped a generation. Jaafar: Empathy. 90210: Can move people to move planets. Some believe in competition that, in it's worse form, leads to warfare. I believe that peace serves the universe better. Jaafar: You're good at it. 90210: If I weren't we'd all be enslaved or sold at the meat market. Jaafar: That bad. 90210: Worse. The humans of the Green Star wracked havoc as soon as they discovered interstellar travel. It's why the humans of Sol were kept out of space for thousands of years. They did better on their third try many stardates ago. Jaafar: But before then... 90210: Interdicted. Banned. Blocked. Kept in the dark. But humans are intelligent. Those on the Green Star still want to escape. They entice unwary travelers until they can. Jaafar: We didn't fall for it. 90210: You might have. This crew is vulnerable. But Kat's dreams are true. And Kat's and Cook's people have suffered immensely. Jaafar: And you? 90210: Not as sure-of-the-future as Kat. Not as wary as Cook. Not as steadfast as my aunt. But I know this crew and I know how to read their thoughts better than the Green Star does. And Kat says we leave them behind in her dreams. And that I am the one to guide us through. And that is enough. 4157 28 — The chat Cook woke me up again. 90210 wanted to have a chat. Since she's in charge I can forgo my nap. But I needed something stronger than soup to wake me up. Cook just shrugged and said, "you'll just go back to bed again and complain about not being able to sleep". He has a point. 90210: I'm not worried, but I needed to chat. What do understand about the Green Star? Me: Kat knows better. Her people have a bitter history and Humans are her specialty. 90210: I know, but no one wakes Kat from her Kat-nap. You could die in her dreams. Me: [laughter] A fate worse than Death itself... You're human so what don't you understand? 90210: I expect them to be swayed by compassion. Me: Or logic, or rational behaviour. The humans I've known are capable of forming healthy connections and means of communication. These humans seem to have had it bred out of them. 90210: It could be that. It was hard to tune them out and so important that no one else could tune in. I can command a ship but not a planet of lunatics or a crew infected by their insanity. Me: Kat chose well. 90210: Thank-you. [sipping tea / sipping soup / lots of sipping] 90210: I needed to hear that. Not just from anyone, but from a fellow Xeno. Me: You're a hero you know. The quiet kind that no one notices because there's no need to rise to the occasion if the occasion doesn't arise. Kat will tell you that you did well. 90210. She already knew when she handed control over to me. Not one ruffle in her fur. I'm always amazed by her. She said I'd do fine because she knew I would. All I had to do was make it happen. So I did. Me: Ah, motivation. The fear of having to wake her up. [we both laugh] 90210: There was that. (991 words) |
| He fights back tears as he cuts her hair, each strand a memory of wild days and wilder nights. There was Malibu and Mallorca, Rome in Italy and Rome, New York. It was that night he remembered most. They were on their way from Albany to Rochester when roads got icy and the radio warned that it was worse ahead. They found a place in Rome. No fountains, no ancient ruins, just an old copper town in the Leatherstocking region. With plenty of snow. Winter is a great time to snuggle and the young lady he picked up hitchhiking was fair game for that and more. The Summer of Love? It was more like the Winter of Undress. So they did. They explored each other as if it were a field trip in geology. This landscape was soft and yielding, this one rock hard. His family owned a flower shop; hers grew grapes. It was a night of wine and roses. The next two days, snowed in, they drank and explored some more. It was amazing how the taste of wine mingled well with other fragrances. She smelled of lily-of-the-valley, the room redolent from sandalwood incense. They bathed in patchouli bath salts. They drank in each other inch-by-inch with their lips, traveling each road and by-way. They didn't seem to find their journey's end. They traveled for two years ... and almost married. But this last week ... Her grandson had been the only family allowed to visit. He'd brought news of her passing and here he was standing there, with a smile so much like hers. He arranges her hair; he's finished. It's time for the showing. He places a pink rose behind her ear, another in her hands, as her grandson tucks in a bottle of wine by her side. © Kåre Enga [177.139] (13.juli.2020) |
| Daylilies White haired looking out this window at past dreams gentle winds and rain wash away spent cobwebs and dust from orange petals as I sit alone behind these drapes a looking out a looking in what was and never was gathering as puddles recollect my deeds to mirror them back to me those ephemeral reflections no longer my reality wind lessens and raindrops cease and I close the drapes to the lilies that bloom each day © Kåre Enga [177.132] (12.juli.2020) (20 lines) For:
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| Ajo: I'm a journalist. I live in rural bottom-lands. Here people know each other, protect each other, make up stories because they're bored. Onions aren't very exciting. Beans are boring. But corn ... gossipy. Of course, I'm biased. But I try to get at the truth to understand the people I've chosen to live among. There's so much they choose not to share. It's not always easy. You think interviewing politicians is tough? Try vampires. There a bit techy ... but at least they rarely play games. They just flash their fangs and ... game over. I record their stories. It's hard to get any hard facts though. After a few seasons or a few centuries the layers and layers of details blend. Yes, an event may stand out but how reliable is the point-of-view of a minority witness? Very. But it won't necessarily fit the narrative of the majority historians. Ask Czeszniak. So much must be inferred from old texts. So much is lost when voices are never recorded or once recorded discarded. And lets face it, if you were a vamp do you really think you'd want to be labeled as Dracula, Chocula or Vlad. Those who were around at the time will tell you that Vlad was no vampire. Bloody? Yes. Bloodthirsty? Yes. As scary as Bawang on a bad day? Doubtful. At the core of every myth there's a truth. Same with vamps. Except that when one has lived so long as some the truth has become myth. Thoom smiles when she says the fragrance of the flower is the memory you hold long after the flower is dust. So what is truth? It's a cup of tea, a bowl of leek soup, and if you get lucky some mint-chocolate brownies. -30- Czeszniak just showed up with six dozen. Meadowlark put the kettle on. Let the party begin! ~ Ajo Is there such a thing as “unbiased reporting?” (Consider not just journalism, but storytelling - is it possible to tell a story without bias?) My succinct answer: no. Bias should be expected and accounted for. For:
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