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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

WATER FOR THE PIGS

It was so much easier to dip
the bucket into the muddy stream
than to carry it all the way from
the faucet. So I did. Every time.
Until the afternoon my brother
saw me do it. "Just because they
roll in the mud doesn't mean
they want to drink dirty water,"
he said. Easier, I learned,
isn't necessarily better.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

PUZZLE

What I still don't get is where
that "love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you" came
from. Devout Jew that he was,
fond of quoting scripture, he
couldn't cite chapter and verse
for it (and not just because
there were no chapters or verses)
and Ghandi wasn't going to show
up for another nineteen centuries.
It's surprising that anybody even
remembered it and that someone
later wrote it down. It must have
struck his listeners as preposterous,
unthinkable. Which is maybe why
that of the millions who identify
themselves as his followers,
only a figurative handful
attempt to take it seriously.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

SCHOOL DAYS

Mostly what I remember isn't what
Mrs. Loechner tried to teach us.
What sticks instead are departures
from the routine, like the day someone
threw a rock at the outhouse, missed,
and hit Danny Rambler's head.
Blood oozed through his fingers
while he tried not to cry. Or when,
one day at recess, Henry Cassel, furious
over a perceived injustice, gathered
several of us boys in a huddle
and vowed a solemn vow to return
on whatever future day the schoolhouse
would be demolished and "help tear
this damn place down." (I'd thought only
grownups were allowed to say damn.)
Then there was the time Dale Shelly,
his face green, was standing up front,
reciting the two times table. He got
as far as "two times four is . . ." then
heaved his breakfast on the kid
sitting at his desk in the front row.
"O Dale," the teacher said.
I don't remember what Dale said.