I and You: Elegy 31

I and You

Eucalyptus is tree

Bark is not

Eucalyptus is tree

Sap is not

I am alive

You are not

I talk to

You who don’t

Talk to me

Which of us

Is more lonely

Billy Mills review

 Billy Mills is an Irish poet, one who devotes a lot of time and energy to reading the work of others. He read my books, Lilith Walks and Meditations carefully, here: https://ellipticalmovements.wordpress.com/2024/03/27/recent-reading-march-2024/

And now he's done an attentive reading of I and Eucalyptus, here: https://ellipticalmovements.wordpress.com/2024/10/23/recent-reading-october-2024-a-review/

Lilith and the untaken photograph

Lilith and I saw a man walking toward us on the asphalt path next to Kahekili, a lanky man in dark clothing. When we got closer, I told him that I've been doing final edits on a piece of writing that will be published and that one section was about him and his wife pushing a baby stroller on this very walk. "What kind of writing is it?" he asked, and I expressed some befuddlement. He said he goes to visit Leona every day at the other big Kaneohe cemetery; her parents had bought four plots, two for her and two for her sister. Their dad was a vet. It's got a wonderful view of the bay, and is within walking distance of the house where she grew up. Several years ago, I'd ask Les and Leona if I could take their picture. Even though their nephew is a professional photographer, they said no. I regret the picture not taken.

Lilith and my tee ball player

We crossed the street to avoid two little dogs that Lilith didn't want to see. Three young men were walking on the other side, coming back from the pool with their towels. One of them greeted me; he'd been on my tee ball team when he and my son were five years old. Since then, he'd been in the Navy. Now? "Doing lots of LGBTQ stuff and singing in the Honolulu Gay Chorus," he said. His mom had a knee replaced a month ago, and is only now driving again. And your dad? I asked. Even then, he and the young man's mother were divorced; he did baseball duty with his son. "You know what your dad said to me once?" I asked. "He told me not to let you act like a girl. I said that was not my job, nor did I think acting like a girl was a bad thing." He said his dad had taken him to try out for another team and had thrown the ball--hard--at him. Hit him three times in the head. Never played baseball again. (And then I remembered the young man's name, because it comes after "the Eskimo" in a Bob Dylan song.) He smiled, said his dad had died of cancer a few years ago, but had always had to remind himself that his son was gay. You could watch the gears moving in his head, he said. Smiled.

Lilith meets a Trump supporter

 

The gray bearded man in the Ka’a’awa park came to sit across the picnic bench from me. He held a cigarette and lighter, but wasn’t smoking. He has one of the best cardiologists on the island, one Dr Ng. Had a couple strokes. Said he likes my shirt (Nope / Not Again) it reads with toupee and long tie on the o. He doesn’t understand why people don’t like Trump. Trump cares about people. People listen to him and Kamala has no foreign policy. Inflation and gas prices. I point out that both are down. He says he’s comfortable in his positions. Came here over 30 years ago from Brooklyn. Kept saying how much he liked Lilith. Her coloring, her ears. His girlfriend has a sweet pitbull. She goes to Alaska on business, and he goes with her. Really likes Alaska. “Have a good day,” he says as he walks away.

Lilith and the man on the curb

Lilith walked onto the grass between sidewalk and street to sniff the man's glass of milky coffee. Beside the glass was an unlit cigarette, a carton, and what I remember as a bracelet. He held a phone in his hand. "What's her name?" the man asked. "Lily," I said. "Oh, a flower." He asked my name and I said the origin of my name was also lily. When I asked him for his, he responded "Donald Trump." "I saw that," he remarked on seeing my reaction. "It's all entertainment," another woman had said to him. 

 

He'd clearly heard Trump's latest, and wasn't happy about it. Used to work for Hopaco, now Office Max, in Anaheim and Tacoma. Wore a Seattle Seahawks shirt. He asked my nationality, and where I grew up. Irish/German, and east coast. (He's Scottish and Filipino.) When I told him I've lived here for 34 years, he said, "I like numbers!" He pulled the cigarette up to his mouth, but didn't light it. Was happy to have me take a photograph of him. Small man on a curb, holding up a shaka, hoping for the best on Nov. 5. His twins were born on the 4th. Numbers again.

Wisdom parami: Elegy 30

Wisdom parami

I’m supposed to

Talk about wisdom

Tomorrow thinking relation

Is where it

Begins or ends

Me and tree

You and me

Even now in

Relation across life’s

Death line you

In tomorrow I

In today still

Spooked by drone

Video of man

In bombed out

Building seated on

Dust couch dust

Man wrapped in

Dust fabric staring

At drone we

Cannot see because

We are it

We kill because

We see / is

That it / vision

As violence when

I only wish

To see you 

Whole again and wise

Notes: "The man" is Yahya Sinwar; "you" is Sina