Amaryllis -- a little out of season

The Happy Kitty

The Happy Kitty

In the winter I’m warm

summer I don’t swelter.

The humans provide all my food and shelter.

I get my shots, I get my groomin’

just for living here with a human.

And I give them a lot of what they expect

and depend on them my tail to protect.

I could stay out all night in my own leafy nest

but the bed and its blankets and pillows are best.

You treat me like a baby though I am full grown

I can be with you or I can hang out alone

I may be your kitty

but don’t look at me with pity.

I like it here

You scratch my ear

and stroke my fur

and then I purr.

Here's something I've been thinking about.

At Home in a Falling World

Outside the world is rushing

With terrifying speed

Terrifying word, and

Terrifying deed –

In here we hide pretending

While energy expending ---

Well I hate to tell you children,

I hate to say it at all

But this world we’re in

With its dance and spin

Is going to spiral down and fall.

Will we crash and burn?

We have yet to learn

Just exactly how it’ll go:

Maybe break apart,

Maybe break your heart

Maybe settle down real slow.

I’m not a Cassandra

It’s not a revival;

I’m just kind of worried

About our survival.

It’s not that I want you

To go around scared

It’s just that I think

That you should be prepared.

When the X hits the fan

We’ll just have to discover

The way to survive

Is by helping each other.

And I want you to know

Life can turn on a dime

And something you thought

would be there for all time

Can end up a moment of history –

Our being is always a mystery.

Corn is King

Here's a little piece that seems seasonally appropriate.

Corn is King

Well call me corn or you can call me maize

I’ve become a part of human ways.

Both on my own and with my buddy soy

Most of the place we can enjoy.

Yes we couldn’t get much more of the planet

If my buddy soy and I just ran it.

Yes the humans think they’re in charge of it all

But they jump when I say and they come when I call.

Well I’m the one for whom they cleared the fields

and they kill off my enemies to boost my yields.

They feed me food to make me grow

until I’m pretty enough to show.

They put me in all kinds of food they eat

They just love corn syrup – it is so sweet.

An emulsifier – a thickening goop

The humans put me in their soup.

No matter if they have to use fossil fuel

Whatever is good for corn is the rule.

Oh, thank you for cutting down the woods.

Thanks for using me in so many goods.

You humans think you’re on top it’s true

But corn has really colonized you!

Passover Rap

PASSOVER RAP

copyright rfisher2008

Narrator

Well settle yourselves,

Get the pillows just right:

for here is the story

of Passover night.

Miriam

I’m Miriam, Moses’ sister

I put that baby in the river

And watched from the reeds while Pharaoh’s daughter

Pulled that cradle out of the water.

And really things could have gone much worse:

I fixed it so mother became Moses’ nurse.

Pharoah’s Daughter

I raised that boy up like a prince,

But he found God and I haven’t seen him since.

Aaron

And I’m Aaron, Moses’ bro

I gotta do his talking cause he’s kinda slow –

Slave

And I ain’t nuthin’ but a Hebrew slave

Spend my whole life workin’ on Pharaoh’s grave.

Pharaoh 1

Well I’m Pharaoh, favored of Ra

My rule goes down to Nubia,

And I’m reachin’ for Ethiopia

While I’m tradin’ with Mesopotamia.

I got people building statues of me

That are gonna last till eternity

(or at least – till a poet named Shelley)[see Ozymandias]

Anyway, that Moses cat

Turned out to be a real brat:

He kills a guy and runs away

and then comes back to free the slaves!

Tzipporah

I’m Tzipporah and I come from Midian

When I saw the stranger I knew he was a cityman

Egyptian clothes and blood on his hands

And pretty soon Moses became my man.

That’s right, I’m Tzipporah, Moses’ wife

And living with him has been some kind of life.

When the man wants water he beats on a stone

And I seen him talking to bushes, alone.

We wander the desert but what can you do –

(Sung to the tune of the last line of Beautiful Dreamer)

It ain’t easy being married to a Jew.

Moses

My name is Moses, and I thought it odd

The very first time I talked to God

From a bush on fire the great Voice spoke

When the bush didn’t burn I knew it was no joke –

And He said, “Go get your people free,”

And I looked back and I said, “Why me?”

And God said when they see what I can do

Even Pharaoh will listen to you.”

So I went back to Egypt land

And among the slaves I found my clan

And I told Pharaoh to let my people go;

Everyone knows that he said, “No!”

He told the slaves to make bricks from mud,

So I turned the Nile water to blood –

But Pharaoh had a hardened heart –

So nine more plagues had to start.

Darkness came without a morn

And the death of the first born;

All over Egypt people cried

When even the firstborn cattle died,

So finally pharaoh relented

And to our departure consented.

Pharaoh 2

Well I’m Pharaoh, ruler of all

And releasing the Jews was a tricky call –

They built our cities, they built our graves –

Can you raise a monument without slaves?

But frogs and death and hail and boils –

I let them go with Egypt’s spoils.

His Yahweh put on quite a show

After ten plagues they had to go.

I changed my mind and we gave chase

To tell the truth, it wasn’t much of a race:

They were on foot, we in chariots proud,

And we would have caught up it if weren’t for that cloud.

That funny cloud made it hard to see,

But we caught up with them finally.

They got to the sea and they somehow crossed

Even then I didn’t know how much would be lost.

When I saw the Hebrews on the other side

I ordered my army to buck the tide.

When I saw them sink beneath the waves

I thought, “Maybe I don’t need those slaves.”

I went back alone to Egypt’s glory

And that’s my last part in this story.

Desert Slave

We were out in the desert and just for a laugh,

We had Aaron make us a golden calf.

After a lifetime of captivity

We thought we were due some festivity;

But when Moses saw us going wild

He said the law had been defiled.

I guess he couldn’t take a joke:

He threw those tablets and they broke.

Then Moses went back up the mount

And brought back commandments, ten by some count.

Desert Slave 2

We walked in the desert with aching feet,

Nothing to drink and nothing to eat

And we told Moses to take us back,

And Moses gave the rock a whack.

Out from the rock did water spew,

And we gathered manna with the dew.

Miriam II

I walked with our people

Right through the sea

A miracle

That made us free

When we reached the far shore

I saw my chance

And pulled out my timbrels

And started to dance

And all those years in the desert lands

It was I who found water amid the sands

*************************************************

Narrator

That’s all I have for now, my friends,

Tho’ I wouldn’t say the story ends:

The people did receive the Law,

Still much revered as the Torah.

So eat your matzoh

And drink your wine,

And thank Yah we’re free

To have a good time!

So Icy and so Late

So Icy and so Late

copyright Rebecca Fisher 2011

Got my coat, hat, and gloves and all of the rest

In this kind of cold you go out fully dressed.

I’d much rather stay home but my dog’s so distressed

That I’m taking a walk though it makes me depressed.

I’ll be out on the road and I’ll feel all alone

The cold and the wind leave me chilled to the bone

The sidewalks are rutted with old ice and snow

I’d rather stay home but the pup’s gotta go,

Years ago my daughter made me say

I’d walk for exercise every day

And always have a dog for a pet

I haven’t broken my promise yet.

I’m not gonna shun my responsibility –

This dog is totally dependent on me.

Though I’m not her mother I’m trying my best

I’ll admit that I love her -- and that she’s a pest!

But something bleak is in the night

There is a dark in all that white

I feel I’m brushed with secret grief

Will telling of it bring relief?

Is it just that my life isn’t quite what I’d hoped it?

Or is modern life just too damn much to cope with?

Would you believe I went out at three thirty a. m.?

That’s right my dog needed a walk once again.

I just wish I hadn’t watched that documentary

About an arctic expedition in the nineteenth century.

Needless to say it was quite a disaster…

Come on, Pooch, let’s get home faster!

Snow Thoughts -- a new poem

Arguing with my Neighbor while Walking the Dog on A Snowy Day

I really don’t want to go out in the snow

But my dog keeps on barking, so walking we go –

I’ve put on her coat and her booties because

She needs the protection from ice in her paws,

And I’m wearing two pairs of gloves on my hands

The weather is almost more than I can stand.

The wind is now blowing, it’s cold and it’s wet

The past couple of days have been the worst yet.

My neighbor says this isn’t from global warming

We’re just subject to some unusual storming.

He says he remembers – he claims it’s no yarn

The winter the snow reached the roof of his barn.

If I think that the weather is some kind of mystery

He can supply an appropriate history.

I don’t try to argue, I don’t contradict him

(it’s never his fault and he’s always a victim).

If I say that last year was the hottest one yet,

He’ll say that the problem is people forget

How very unbearable August can be

It’s harder to tell cause we’ve all got A.C.

Just ask the old-timers, they’re sure to tell

The way summer used to be hotter than hell,

And winter was even much colder than now,

He says from his perch on his under-used plow

Which he rides all around, he’s so happy to see

A winter that acts like they all used to be,

As snowy and cold as when he was a child,

Forgetting that lately they’ve mostly been mild.

And meanwhile I have to go on with my walk,

My dog is impatient with stopping to talk.

And anyway it would be futile to try

To explain all the damage we’ve done to the sky.

He’ll just think that I am absurdly naïve

And ignorant and that is why I believe

The conclusions asserted by leaders of science,

It’s all just a case of mistaken reliance

On people who thrive on pursuing alarm –

The earth is so big that we can’t do it harm!

Never mind that our actions have taken their toll

While our civilization burns oil, gas and coal

These storms are a sign of a change in the air

And I’m wondering if I had better prepare

To face a world radically different than now

But truth to be told I have no idea how

It all will shake out, how the world will be changed

And long standing patterns will be rearranged –

Already it’s different, and this much I know

I need better clothes to go out in the snow!