songanddancegirl

TEARS

TEARS      OF  A  CLOWN

Tuffy Gessling   the clown  who donned

a mask of Obama   was offered a home in     Texas

after a national backlash called for his head

(all American clowns must now undergo sensitivity training or risk imprisonment)

A humiliated Tuffy cried last night on TV:  I never

tried to be a racist or nothing   I love all people no

matter their background   I live to make people laugh

Tuffy should likely apply to run the IOC*  a misguided

group who will bring  the Olympics to Sochi in 2014

In Russia where human rights are few and far between

my Great Grandmother would tell you: If a cossack kissed

a Jewish woman in the midst of a pogrom  it was a hate crime    

followed by acts of  unspeakable brutality

In modern Russia hate crimes of all kinds  including those

visited upon LGBT  are committed with regularity   This did

not seem to deter the IOC

I imagine Tuffy will wear a Putin mask  & carry a 400 lb.

sturgeon   when he cancels the Sochi  Olympics   of 2014

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*International Olympics Committee  – selects the host country, investigates boycotts, 

doping, bribery, and acts of terrorism  at the Olympic games

** Putin has been known to fake photo-ops holding aloft fish he has not caught

Fall  2013

Therapist

THERAPIST      YOU  LOSER

I told her adoptive parents that my specialty was working with just this kind

of child    She had been taken from her young mother at 5   had lived in 2 more

foster homes by 7   One of the lucky ones   Forever homes are scarce for older

children  From 7 to 11  when she arrived on my doorstep   she had been running

away in search of her mother    She had also run from her mother  One night she

even broke into her friend’s house & hid behind the couch  It was the night her

mother squashed all of the baby hamsters   Our 1st session lasted 10 minutes

She was beautiful  & sullen  with hatred living in eyes & mouth  I have since heard

that whenever she is released from detention she returns to her pimp in the Niagara

Region               Her mother a distant memory

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Fall  2013

Feathered

FEATHERED   FRENEMIES

The birds are aggressive today

cussing & fighting all the way      up and down

W. Queen West   Displaced by

chic boutiques  and the avant garde

I read about an app  that lights up (red)

the parts of cities  where hipsters live

New York  San Francisco  & W. Queen W.

All are  the new  red  light districts

So if you are in search of  breakfast  coffee

or a stroll   sans the  glarestaregrowl  

Avoid these zones   If the bitchiness doesn’t

kill you   the chickadees surely will

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* 96% of West Queen West hipsters fetishize the authentic,

reinventing it with a winking inauthenticity.

The remaining 4% are just bitchy.

Late Summer  2013

PRAY

THAT  DRAGON  CANCER

is a new empathy game   & the challenge is

to get through it without crying   It’s about

a father whose 4 yr. old son is dying  of cancer

In the past   video game emotion  was limited to

competition  aggression  & the adrenaline pump

Apparently these new games push into deeper

emotional territory   beyond fights & races

They even have: Depression Quest  Tourette’s Quest

And also one about child abuse & alcoholism     In  That Dragon Cancer

the only way to score points  and make the dying

child stop crying   is to hit  PRAY

Antoinette Tuff does not play video games

She understands the power of prayer & empathy

intuitively  Yesterday she said to the young gunman

in Decatur Georgia: I love you  Everything’s gonna be  okay baby    

He put down his assault rifle   & prayed

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*Today President Obama phoned Antoinette Tuff   but

the shooter’s brother wondered why Obama did not call

his family    

**hit PRAY

Late Summer  2013

THE BLIND

THE BLIND    LEADING

My brother &  I  drive down the street

A blind man catapults us back to 1963

Our father stopped the car & walked a

blind man across the street    Cars  zig-

zagging so close it still haunts   I wasn’t

even there    But the memory is embedded

along with giants & deep ravines

When I was down beside the Sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

To dig the sandy shore

Our father’s grave mysteriously re-sodded

I imagine he will appear at Woodbine soon

And we will dwell on this over cocktail hour     when old anguishes will disappear

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Late Summer 2013     *Robert Louis Stevenson

SUPERSIZE

SUPERSIZE  ME

I wanted to do something small:

Word Art   Collage   a multi-culti barrage

of Identity   THIS IS ME   STAND TALL

Be an ambassador for MALI  where       female circumcision

is practised   Teach us compassion

for your tribe  your flag  your creed

I’m afraid we are looking for  BIGGER  

more complex initiatives   Poet    Do you

know how to make   GIANT SPIDERS?

She was a nice enough lady   But really?

My main experience with giant spiders

are the ones in   my bed     My question

is simply this:  ( & perhaps somewhat tangential)

Will  GIANT SPIDERS  address the ills underlying

the shameful treatment of LGBT  in Russia?

This I fear is highly unlikely   So I say it here    loud & clear

I will even run my little word art program   FOR FREE

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*female genital mutilation – 28 countries  140 million girls

from a few days after birth to 15 yrs.

**LGBT – Lesbian  Gay  Bisexual  Transgendered

Late Summer  2013

ABSENCE DOES

ABSENCE  DOES  NOT       MAKE

A freezing early  early Spring day

freak    storm   His feet froze  & had     to be warmed

Walking was difficult   the light at the

end of the tunnel went out   The snow

melted within an hour   And now he is

light years away   with the shadow of

a heart   etched into his left hind leg

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Late Summer  2013

GROW

GROW    A  PAIR

There is a giant Angel at the foot of Parliment St.

She has white wings   & looks navigational   I wonder

if she hovered over the asphyxiated brothers  bereft

& impotent  like the rest of us   Will she point us in the

direction of our next saviour?   Gruff & messianic like

Roy Cohn  in  Angels?   A much fallen Jew  who  threw

the switch on *Ethel in 1953   Late last night the      Parliment St.   Angel

handed out   2nd chances   Today she will swallow your

mother’s sighs  & return the children of Hamelin Newtown    one at a time

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*After the normal course of three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment only to have doctors determine that Mrs. Ethel Rosenberg had not yet died (her heart was still beating). Two more electric shocks were applied, and eyewitnesses reported that smoke rose from her head.  (June 19, 1953)

Late Summer  2013

ONE MORE

ONE  MORE    ONCE

I carry earplugs now    & remove them

when I hear my heart beating    arrhythmically

It does that on close Summer days when

squirrels threaten  and you can walk into a   happy ending by following the applause

My mother & I  think that maps are a good

idea   Each of us should be given one at birth

with a slice of angelfood cake   The crumbs will

forever lead you home   And you will know where you are going    at all times

With all of the ease that certainty bestows

you may even:  a) choose your battles

b) collaborate with the time you have left

c) learn to fly in your spare time

d) listen until the end of  April In Paris (Count B. & Ella F.)       and  wait

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Late Summer 2013     For  M. Bird

THE FORTUNATE

THE  FORTUNATE ?     FALL

I read today that 2 small boys were

killed by a Python    as they slept

This was in a small New Brunswick town

in an apt. above  Reptile Ocean   They were brothers     5 & 7

While in Pakistan the host of a TV show will

give a new born baby away   each day    He said: 

These babies would otherwise be eaten by a cat or dog

I don’t really know what I want from this world    Can the bar possibly be lowered?

On the other hand   both the TV host & the pet

shop owner were  affable  men   Should I even be

placing blame  upon them?

Today I am sitting on a bench  watching young

campers play   The girl in a floaty dress is the  aggro-leader

She shouts in the face of a blonde little sprite

who reddens   then bellows: You’re not the boss of the world      

No    clearly  he  is    A small urchin in purple who barks: 

I’m gonna chase you &  kill you

I grow pale  and look around for a counsellor

as Urchin-boy eyes me malevolently    While a

tiny lad in a blue Tilley hat runs around the periphery

gawky   & alone    If second chances are ever handed out       He is getting one

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Late Summer  2013