Dear Musie,
Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday! (Imagine a burst of edible, multicolored, bio-degradable ba1100ns rising & scattering into a cloud-dappled sky, each aloft with a random verse or line of poetry inside…some are bound to rhyme together, depending on where they pop and, from there, how they carry & flutter, whichever way, in the wind…) Happy Birthday, Musie! (We’re going to do this balloon thing with the shotguns one day when we all get together! We’ll make it rain poetry! …and bird-shot…)
I know you have your head down now and your many, many hands are full of life’s many blessings, dimensions, dreams, delusions, dementia, walls, doors, shitstorms, responsibilities, promises, friends & families (—btw, sending, nay, Beaming my Best to your Mom! God Bless Her! And her nurses too!—), health care, insurance, endless advertising, notifications, forty-foot billboards, traffic, corporate policy, bad grammar, pet care, parking, machine maintenance, maintenance maintenance, home & car maintenance, passwords, passcodes, PINs, keys, software updates, firmware updates, etc… Log In, log out, more machine maintenance, commas… Then there’s work, the 9 to 5. And finally, your Art. I don’t know how you find the Time. I love that last one you did! Thank you, from All! I always love the last one! What is that, a “Poscascape?” I love how we treat ourselves to the lavish gifts of ink & paper on our birthdays! Posca & Noodler’s! You should see the ampersands my new fountain pen makes. Well, I suppose you will in the analog version.
Keep at it, Musie, just breathe & handle things. Juggle. Life. And do your Art. The rope’s secure now as I’m learning how it works at the other end. Now I know how anchors & rocks feel. Musie, if I’m apt to go with the Natural Flow and The Flow has become Chaos, then doesn’t that make me Chaos? Or am I still one with The Flow? The Water Buffalo in a River of Chaos only needs to stand still to make a wake; so if I stand & soak in the Chaos as a Water Buffalo, then am I merely making more waves and more Chaos by not going along with the Chaos flow? Just wondering; we have new orders. (And I’m wondering if this is where the chestwaders come in.)
Orders & Promises. That’s all, Musie, I just wanted to remind you that if you find yourself drowning in it again, Chaos that is, or whirlpools of carousels, like I did, then No Worries, Stay Calm, hold onto the rope a minute or two because I have it tied off here nice and snug. You have enough spinning under your big umbrella already, Musie. Some of us are lucky to have a wingman. You’ve got a whole squadron now. Just remember to look over your shoulder. Let’s look after our own first, then we’ll have our kaffeeklatsch at the end of the summer.
For now, the Doctors’ orders are to “Get Off The Carousels.” Stretch. Unspin & unwind a while. And I’m surrounded. By carousels that is. I’m working my way out, jumping from one to the next, each a different speed & spin, but then I realized that this is where all the roller skates would finally come in handy! They helped to steady our course. I knew I was going to be dizzy when I’d finally get to sit down without a saddle. But like you said, Musie, horses are easier to corral than cats. Then there’s dogs; from a shepherding perspective they’re usually working with us; and sometimes they get kicked, stampeded, & dizzied too. We’re dizzy. Did I say that already? We just got back from five days in the wind and from fifteen straight days on the road before that. O, Muse, carousels, carousels, carousels everywhere & the occasional lazy Susan! The wheels’re going to take a while to stop spinning before I can service the bearings. Maintenance, maintenance… speaking of which; remember our good old stump? Well, I’ve moved our rope to this mighty tree, mainly for the shade and the climbing, and I’ve already tied it off with the prettiest knot I know how to make. Solid. So go to it, Musie, & do your thing. And don’t mind me (for the summer anyhow). I am tending. All I ask is that you return to your post before Fall Semester, or at least check in and warn me if you’re leaving this hemisphere or do anything too sudden. I’ll double-check the knot first. We have work ahead of us! Nia’s got an itch (and it’s not from the poison ivy we waded through yesterday while corralling the neighbor’s dogs and mending their useless fence, AGAIN…but never mind that, just another carousel spinning…), Nia’s been in the chartroom again (…& Sylvia said, “Sit.” —Oh boy…). Work to do. But until then…well, there’s Summer, sun, thunderstorms, leaves turning over to that velvety silvertine green, you know how they do when a good storm’s rolling in, and reading! I’ve got a wonderful summer stack of books before me. So many leaves to turn under the shade tree! …or was it the other way ‘round? I forget…
…And editing to do. Mom says Happy Birthday! We talked the other day and she’s got me looking at things while wearing an Editor’s hat & glasses this summer. Just listen, Musie, and you’ll find answers to questions you haven’t yet thought to ask. We’re going to have a lot to talk about later this season when the big retail machine starts choking the Post* with those Back-To-School flyers again (Why does Back & Backwards seem to be so trendy when we know that’s not where it’s at?). I’m already saving up for a new pair of sneakers!
Remember, in analog realtime we’re not a number. We’re just another lap around a star and it’s shining on us All. Happy Birthday.
Giggling again,
-PSL, et. al.
P.S.– *Did I tell you that we just had a box of our Christmas cookies returned to us marked: “Undeliverable-Return to Sender”? Six months! Six months out there on the road and still deee-licious! I mean, a little hard, sure, but dip them in coffee, and YuMMy! I think the biscotti got better!
PPS: Musie, for your next Poscafit, put this in your Walkman and shake it:
Roundabout – YES
Woodpecker from Mars – Faith No More
Interstate Lovesong – STP
Plump – Hole
Bop Pills – The Cramps
Turn Me Loose – Loverboy
Rollin’ & Tumblin’ – Canned Heat
Dream a Little Dream – Cass Elliot
Don’t Get Me Wrong – Pretenders
…oh, & Ret said, Cowboy – Kid Rock
Image: “Poscascape” by Musie & her big Blick order