He said that part of his physical
therapy is riding a stationary bike.
He has come a long way in
recovery since reality smacked
him right between the eyes
nine months ago about a
physical condition not
unlike the one that took his
mother’s life when she was
about his age. As he told of
his therapy, I recalled how much
he loved riding his bike, his
joy at winning his first ten-speed
in a contest, winning the sprint
triathlon (he was always good
and fast at short races.) and
then cruising up and down and
around the mountains of Colorado.
“So, your back doesn’t hurt when
you ride?” “No.” “Oh, this is a
gift.” “I know.” I said “You’ll
be back on the bike lanes in no
time,” then “I love you,” then
goodbye and hung up as I started
to cry.

I’ve been paying attention
to poetry and meditations
in my daily routine,
things online that I have seen.
but the federal government’s
constitutional craziness
keeps assaulting me
on the internet and TV.
I set my watch for ten minutes
of blessed peace and quiet
but bizarre images creep in
showing the orange-topped image of him.
Now, I’m really upset.
I have allowed the present
occupant of the White House
to invade my spirituality
and completely distract me.
And so, I offer a sincere prayer
of petition to the Lord,
“Please keep me from sin
and my desire to curse him.”
And the answer came lickety-split —
“To meditating just recommit
and, to save your sanity, don’t quit.”
And then in persistent meditative practice
I received enlightenment,
“Read the poems and meditations
and don’t lose heart.
The carrot-topped psycho will soon depart.”
At about the meditative minute eight
the blessed revelation came.
I gave thanks that the debauched bunch
will leave en mas
and that all this, too, shall pass.
However, given what I have been told,
I’ll just keep on keeping on
with my poems and meditations,
Lord willing, until I am very, very old.

When the seeker asked,
“What holds up the world?”
the seer said, “Seven elephants.”
“What holds up the elephants?”
“A large turtle.”
“What holds up the turtle?”
“A larger turtle.”
“What holds….”
“Stop! It’s just turtles
all the way down.”
“Is there no plinth —
a base so large and steady
that there is no need
for anything beneath?”
“Even plinths have to rest on something.
Turtles. It’s turtles all the way down.”
And that set the seeker’s head spinning
round and round and round
and then he, dizzy as a drunk, said,
“I think I’m onto something,”
to which the seer said,
“Of course, you are — turtles.”
And with that, the seeker stopped
seeking and climbed back down
the mountain, shaking his head
in bewilderment,
all the way down,
like a turtle.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down.

In 1933, out of work with none in sight,
he went on the bum, hopping freights
around the country. Later on he shar-
ed some of his adventures and hinted
at some stories too awful about which
to speak. Later in 1933, he got a job as
a guide at the World’s Fair in Chicago.
He especially liked talking about Sally
Rand and her Fan Dance. He had an affinity
for railroad yards and railroad cars and
often would take me, his son, to the yard
restaurant for a hot, roast beef sandwich
with mashed potatoes and gravy during
which he would share stories about Sally
Rand and her Fan Dance. Once, right there
in the restaurant, he got up and imitated
the fan dance. He was the fan dance fan.
I think he could have talked forever about
Sally Rand and her Fan Dance except, that
is, around my mom.

My wife Chris McKinley-Dahl’s mixed-media, soft sculpture Comedy and Tragedy won Honorable Mention in the juried Holland Friends of Art Spring Art Show at the Holland Area Arts Council.  The show runs through May.

Comedy and Tragedy

Springtime easters buds
enigmatically and
sings viriditas.

*Viriditas: greening

“O most honored Greening Force,
You who roots in the Sun;
You who lights up, in shining serenity,
within a wheel
that earthly excellence fails to comprehend.
You are enfolded
in the weaving of divine mysteries.
You redden like the dawn
and you burn: flame of the Sun.”
— Hildegard von Bingen, Causae et Curae

When he thinks back to his high school days,
The image in his mind is that he is completely up to date
With things as they are as of late.
But when he sees photos of things of those days
It leaves him completely in a daze.
Things in those days seem like a haze.
Everything is completely out of date:
Clothes are out of date,
Buildings are out of date,
Hair styles are out of date,
Cars are out of date,
Furniture is out of date,
High school dates are out of date,
Photos of him show him out of date,
And not at all as they are as of late.
He wonders if he needs to be up to date
With all the things that are up to date
As of late.
Looking in the mirror,
He sees he needs to go shopping,
So up to date
He will appear.

He stopped along the jog and
stepped into a porta potty
in the park. When he looked
into the hole he saw a metal
snuff-box sitting on toilet
tissue soaking in water
deep blue. What to do when
he was through tapping a
kidney? He saw a sanitizer
dispenser and tried it. It dis-
pensed. It was then he knew
his mission  — reach down,
pick up the tin, drop it on the
side of the commode, rub
hands with sanitizer, pick up
tin with toilet tissue, drop
tin in the garbage can next
to the porta-potty, return to
porta potty for more sanitizer,
resume jog. Mission accomp-
lished; the theme music from
the TV show Mission Impossible
rang in his ears as he picked
up the pace.

My late wife’s family
never spoke of death
as if by not speaking
of it, it wouldn’t happen.

My father-in-law, at sixty-
nine, died first, dropping
dead of a heart attack.

My wife went next, dying
in a day at forty-nine, of
a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Then came my mother-in-law
who died of old age at ninety-
eight.

And here I am speaking
of the dead.

who is going to arrest the top law enforcement officer
of the united states for breaking the law by lying to
congress? who is going to stop the attorney general
from arresting and jailing members of the justice
department for having investigated (“spying”) connect-
ions between the president and russia related to the
presidential election of 2016? who is going to enforce
the impeachment of the president of the united states
assuming he could even be impeached in the first place
given the passivity of the republicans in the senate?
who is going to get the republicans in the senate to
take action against the president of the united states
so he could be removed from office for the sake of the
republic? who is going to stop the international crime
syndicate (of whom the presidents of the united states
and russia are members) from bullying and strong-arming
its way through the world? who is going to do anything
except speak about all of it in higher and higher deci-
bels of alarm knowing the united states is under attack
by the regime headed by the president of the united
states? who is going to get out the vote to end this
presidency and if this president is voted out of office,
who is going to make sure he leaves office? who?