Thursday, December 29, 2016

EGO ET TU (I’m With You)

ABSTRACT POETRY: Verse that makes little sense grammatically or syntactically but which relies on auditory patterns to create its meaning or poetic effect; Dame Edith Sitwell popularized this term and considered this verse form the equivalent of abstract painting.





© EGO ET TU (I’m With You)
For a while
For a while
Unlike waking from a dream
Going into one
Taking pleasure
Shameless
No apology
Lingering abed
Embraced
Night slipping
Into day
Day
Into night
Spending time
Until the end
Emptying memories
Into weightlessness
For a while
For a while

Mimi Wolske

All Rights Reserved

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Tangled Tree Lights

Mimi and Mona wish you a holiday better than your dreams; a holiday filled with peace, good will, and hope; a holiday filled with a firelight that gleams; a holiday filled with the joy and love of your family; a holiday overflowing with holiday spirit, good food, and laughter. And when this holiday is done, we hope you live happily until the next one!


© TANGLED TREE LIGHTS

It took hours before I found the box
Of the many strings of lights for the tree;
After climbing the ladder in my sox
and reaching the attic venturously,

I crossed the chilly floor in stocking feet.
Passed the trunks, the crib, old furniture,
Passed the sled, memories now bittersweet,
And paintings in oils, pastels, and watercolor,

To the large, corrugated box. It sat on top
Of the highest of the built-in storage shelves.
It’s the box I got from our closed bookshop,
The box covered with inked Santa elves.

I opened and climbed the small, 3-step ladder,
Blew away the cobwebs and got my surprise
When the dust blew all over my hair. In a blur,
I saw my reflection and began to fantasize

I was covered with white hair and a full beard,
Dressed in a red suit and shiny, black boots.
My reflection from the window was bleared;
So was my mind. There were no absolutes.

It wasn’t that jolly elf I thought I saw.
I laughed and took down the box stored on high.
Dear reader, don’t think me too bourgeois
But I wished I bought lights, thus gave a sigh.

Dragging the heavy box of Christmas tree lights
across the attic floor, down the wooden slats,
And into the family room, turned on the lights,
And what to my eyes should appear? Doormats!

“Arrg! Where are the lights?” I asked myself.
Went to the kitchen, opened some wine,
Drank one, no two glasses, returned to the shelf,
And saw, on a box on the floor, the TREE LITES sign.

My laugh sounded merry, so I laughed again,
Dragged another box downstairs, poured
Another glass or four, and gave a broad grin
Because the lights were all tangled that I procured.

Now on my third bottle and wound in the lights,
I rolled to the wrapped presents and stood like a tree.
I swear by the fluttering wings, an angel alights;
When she kissed my forehead, I lit up with glee.


Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved



(photograph by B. Rosen)

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Career Man And The Artist


The first tangos had no written lyrics. Sometimes some were improvised in the spur of the moment. Dame la lata is the first tango song with written lyrics. At the end of the poem is Dame la lata, music only.

© The Career Man And The Artist
Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved

At the end of the nineteenth century
He wanted to take her to Buenos Aires
She said no, Montevideo
They settled for the border
Between Argentina and Uruguay
Where they could learn to tango
To the sweet sounds of the violin,
The driving flamenco guitar, and
The strange, mournful wail
Of the bandoneon

Each night was a different, shady,
Dockside dive where they watched
The mating dance between
Barmaids and their customers,
Where the entertainment was the
Violence and illicit sex and the
Lower classes on both sides of the border
Before the clubs were raided by police

He learned every move from the barmaids
She learned to step and side-step the customers
Together they danced
Separately they returned to California
He grew a mustache, married, and
Died after forty years working in a bank
She studied painting, showed
Her work in galleries, and lives forever



Saturday, December 17, 2016

Tumbleweed Contessa's Poem "Crazy Love"

Love is both a momentary feeling and a long-term state of mind.
It is also that powerful moment when we meet another person and feel energized and are immediately aware of our heart pounding.


Crazy Love

In the frisson of passionate love making,
you startled me
suddenly jumping up
and yelling,
“Who’s shilly-shallying?”
and throwing my Tootsie Roll supply
into the fire.

“Not me,” I said,
“I’m Yipee-Ky-Yea Cow Patty.
Now, come here Ger-On-Imo
and help me make a
topic sentence.”

Don’t fill up on macaroni and carrot stew
after I’ve made all this crazy love.

by Mimi Wolske
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


(Crazy Love by Gil Bruvel)

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Tumbleweed Contessa's Blog Stuff -- a short excerpt from mystery WIP

What's that you say? What am I working on currently? You want an excerpt? How about long "short excerpt" of a scene from my mystery WIP (aka -- typos and all)? Okay, but first, I always like to know what the characters look like; don't you? Before we get to the excerpt, here's an idea of how I see the two cousins. On the left, Hannah Westcott and next to her, Antonia Westcott. 


What you need to know to help you understand the scene just a little better. Antonia was ten years old when her family was in Jaffa; her father was sent there on the King's business. Napoleon and his army entered Jaffa and killed everyone. Antonia and a Jewish boy managed to escape Napoleon but were captured by an Arab and kept as slaves... until another Englishman found her and helped her escape and brought her home to England. 
And, now, here's a part pulled from the middle of a scene from:

Chapter 2
A Morning Call Before Eta Pie and The Ladies Witness A Near Death


“You’re smiling?”

“Of course. I am happy to do whatever I am able to do for you.” How could her family continue to take money from her? Unless. Did they, then, presume they stood equally with her upon some ground belonging mutually to all of them?

“Since you understand, I must continue to be blunt, Cousin.” 

This Hannah said with a smile that was not a true smile. It was nearly vulgar. Or, so Antonia thought. “Speak plainly then.” 

Hannah sat wringing her hands in her lap. “I think you like Lord Holsworthy.”

“Yes; I find him to be quite genuine and friendly.”

“You know what I mean. You are setting your cap for him.”

“I do like him, but my feelings for him are not those of love. And, I can only assume his ambitions do not go beyond feelings he carries for you.”

“And your ambitions?”

Antonia met Hannah’s gaze squarely. “My ambitions concern no man at this time.”

Hannah laughed.

“I think I rather like hearing you laughter; I do indeed. I must tell you that it does me good to hear you laugh with such abandon, but I swear to you, I have no desires for this man you claim for yourself.”

Of course, everything she said about having no ambition where Viscount Holsworthy was concerned rang false. Hannah’s notion that her cousin’s sensibilities were otherwise would prove more honest than Antonia’s words.

Hannah’s happy manner abandoned her and she said rather gloomily, “Is that so?”

They sat together in silence for a few minutes, Hannah fingering some smaller article lying on the same table, something that belonged to Antonia. It was a small letter knife Antonia had placed there after she and Holsworthy talked yesterday. He had handed it to her in the library and said to her, “Please, keep it. I should like to know something of mine shall be useful in your hands.” Antonia blushed, but she kept it. The handle was cast and gilt, a small item of no great value he promised, the price “a few shillings”. And, as Hannah, pensive, sat passing it from hand to hand, Antonia held her breath.

Suddenly, Hannah stopped to looked at it. “Who gave this to you?”

“Good Heavens! Why? And why ask in such an accusing tone as if you thought I stole it?”

Hannah’s lips thinned. “Because, if it’s a gift from a certain someone, someone whom I know has a letter knife exactly like this, then I shall take it up with him.”

Antonia couldn’t lie. Not completely. “Lord Holsworthy let me borrow it yesterday. I believe he forgot about it, so I brought it up here to open my morning mail... until I see him next.”

Hannah let it drop to the marble tabletop from her fingers with a noise. Angry, she shoved it away from her so it fell onto the carpet on the other side of the table, near where Antonia sat.

“Hannah!” Antonia leaned over the arm of the chair’s arm and picked it up. “Such a violent reaction is uncalled for and most unreasonable. Please stop.”

“Apologies, Cousin,” she said. “I didn’t mean it. Oh, blast that unfortunate knife.”

“Take it. You can return it to him when he calls on you next.”

“By no means am I going to do that. He let you borrow it. He will expect it from you and question me if I return it.” Hannah had fixed her eyes upon Antonia and her hands returned to her lap.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Quit being so unreasonable and take the blasted thing. It means nothing to me and it has sorely upset you.”

“That’s not quite fair.”

“I didn’t say it to be unfair.”

Hannah pouted a moment before she said, “I’m not sure of that, Antonia. I can almost believe you do mean it to be inconsiderate of my feelings. That you were being spiteful. You tell me you will give my father money for my dowry and then you make me miserable by saying this knife is from the man I love.”

Antonia let her head fall back enough to look up at the ceiling. She rolled her eyes and gripped the arms of her chair. “I am not making you miserable, Hannah. Certainly not willfully.”

“Can you tell me honestly he left it with you by accident and not as a gift?”

“Hannah, I told you all that happened with regards to that bloody letter knife. Now, please, let us talk of more pleasant things.”

“Your foul language indicates you are hiding something.”

“Yes, I am.”

“I knew it!”


“My anger, dear Cousin. I’m hiding my growing anger,” she responded, still facing the ceiling.

“Well, if it was a gift, it is your responsibility to tell me, not to let me find that thing and wonder.”

Antonia would have said it was so if she were brave enough to dare, but she never bothered to answer. She sat silent, and turning her face away from Hannah’s, longed for her cousin’s visit to end, and felt she lost some of her hard-earned self-respect.

“See here, Antonia,” Hannah said, “I’m finding it quite difficult to understand you. When I think of what passed between us only minutes ago, and when I consider what you shared of the horrors you endured in your life with that horrid man, and if I sum these with your treatment of me just now, I quite find myself at a loss to understand your character.”

“I fear I cannot help you,” Antonia bit out, her face still turned away.

“I thought you might consider your family, well, me mostly, with love. But, this quarreling with me? I cannot find sufficient clearness of the sweet, genteel lady you wish to be. No, none. Not even a morsel of sweet poetry. I thought I might be beginning to understand you. Then, you lie about this gift to you from the man you say you know I love and it’s as though you have no thought to your sin. Should I blame myself for you driving yourself to such fatal misgivings?”

Now, Antonia turned towards her cousin sharply, as though she thought to interrupt Hannah. Fatal misgivings! But she said nothing, although Hannah paused for her to speak.

And then, Hannah continued. “I had thought I might be understanding my dear cousin better. I begin to see being a lady is too much for you to ever learn. By heavens! Yes. There is no misinterpreting what you have grown up to be. If ever there was a relative driven to be deceitful and mean, you can never claim it is not you. My mother and father accepted you into their home, and you dared take it away. And now you strive to take away from me, your own cousin, the man I love.”

Antonia pinched her lips together and glared at Hannah. She looked at her with something of Hannah’s own fierceness on her face, as though she was preparing for battle. But, she still said nothing, and Hannah went on.

“And, never believe I do not now understand it when you offered to pay my dowry. You expect to take that amount from the nine hundred you promised my father. I may have been vain enough to believe you were offering me a gift of love, but surely that was unnatural. By heavens, it was my own foolishness to believe such a thing and to believe you ever had such a warm heart. Put yourself in my place, if you’re able, and tell me you would not have thought the same. Yesterday evening, I sincerely believed your conduct, on the whole, was improving, even intelligent and quite becoming as a lady.” She said all that and then shook her head.

The last of Hannah’s diatribe grated on Antonia’s ears and her anger was shown by the hurried tapping motion of her foot on the floor because she once again chose to look at the boring ceiling rather than her hateful cousin. 


Hannah noted her cousin's tapping like that of some mad woman,  but she went on as though she had not made note of it.

“Stop looking up at the ceiling and tell me you cannot see how your present behavior makes everything I have shared this morning is more a mystery than the true nature of your character? No; stop!” she said when Antonia at last lowered her face. “Never try to reassure me. What should I think? And, how would you expect me to behave with you? And after I had hoped you might love me like your sister.”

As she said her last word, she gazed at Antonia with her eyes wide and her mouth round like a perfect o and that last word came out with a denigrating hiss. And, though Antonia made no effort to speak, Hannah dared to pause again. Did her cousin dare hope she might not realize the full implication of her questions? Antonia realized far more; the full scale of her cousin’s hatred, of Hannah’s complete unladylike qualities, and of this woman’s need for Antonia’s money.

“I just simply do not understand the person you are. What am I to think?” Hannah asked.

Then, her cousin paused one last time and Antonia found that the time had come for her to say something. “I wonder you are unable to understand,” Antonia said, “just how much I have suffered and have survived.”

“Is that to be your answer to me?”

“I have no idea what you expect me to say.”

“I might expect an explanation for such behavior from you.”

Antonia stood; so did Hannah. Still, Antonia said nothing more. She picked up the letter knife Lord Holsworthy gave to her with an offering of more, and she held it out so Hannah might take it, held it with a little doubt that her cousin would take it, and wondered what the angry woman might do with it if she did take it.

“Do you have anything you wish to tell me?”

“Not now, Hannah. You’re angry and I have no desire to speak to you, or anyone, in such a temperament.”

“Do you think I don’t have cause to be of such a frame of mind? Are you so feebleminded you cannot see how badly you have treated me?”

“Hannah, right now my head aches and I am wretched. I want you to leave.”

“There then is your gift!” she said, and she took the letter knife from Antonia and threw it violently into the fender, beneath the fire-grate, and with quick steps, walked to the door. When Hannah’s hand was on the door handle, she turned and said, “When I leave, think hard on your conduct to me.” Then, she left and Antonia remained still until she heard her cousin’s footfalls on the steps.

When she was sure her hateful cousin was gone, Antonia’s first movement was to search for the letter knife. Ellen entered and Antonia looked at her maid over her shoulder. On her hands and knees in front of the grate was not dignified, but it seemed the most natural thing.

“Oh, miss. What are you doing?”

“Looking for a letter knife.”


Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Tumbleweed Contessa's Poem — Single-Serving Packages

One after another relapse after another second ticking to the next making it difficult to ring in another year before the world shakes and time cannot stop gossiping about the killing blood on the bedroom walls.



© Single-Serving Packages

Christmas, pock marked from naked
Branches shoved by the fractious winds,
Exposed the signs of a struggling
Economy and weather-beaten lumps
Of forgotten love in a poverty-ridden
Heart, then waned with expectant hope.

It turned out I was good at holding onto
Bad dreams, bad at keeping good lovers
Who wanted to walk in wet leaves singing.
Do you know who I am when no one
Is looking? When just-for-the-night guys
Forget to remember me between breaths?

Painting is equal parts prayer and hell’s fire, as light
As a meteor reflected off morning’s icy lake and
As dark as your dog’s bones in the backyard grave, or
Like when you are lying in an embrace, stretched,
Kissing him with all your heart and then you are
Curled like a fetus in a basket wanting to be loved.

The holiday ham tongued the glaze
Of hunger’s disillusionment and
Taste buds cursed the tangled tree lights
While I spun in a dance of your
Disproportionate equilibrium and
Tepid nostalgia of another lover, not me.



Mimi Wolske

All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Poetry: Once Upon A University Drive

Memories. 
The hottest ticket in town.
Still art, dancing and bleeding poetic life.




© Once Upon A University Drive

Leaning on a crutch of photos,
Vivid and pale ghosts from my past
Dance around me tinted with gaiety,
Nonchalance, and somberness,
Bringing shadowed and vivid memories
Once again ambrosial or unsavory.

Prone on spots in time, I linger;
Fifty values of gray hues covering
A wistful heart’s pale blue floor blanket
As lighter chromas of gray framed
Outside my window come singing stormy
Songs written by a factious wind.


Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Don’t Throw Arrows When You Can Caress Blues

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? Edgar Allan Poe


© Don’t Throw Arrows When You Can Caress Blues

Suspended and motionless,
Wrapped in the firmament and
Touching evening’s gossamer soul,
And feeling equally ethereal.

Sitting on the edge of the world?
Finish your medical smoke;
Here, take away this empty glass,
I’ll drink from the bottle.

Tangled in moonlight’s shadows
When wind songs whispered long ago,
We buried you in the garden you loved so much;
Now you are pushing up our daisies.

Mimi Wolske

All Rights Reserved

(Painting: "Alma descansando en la sombra" / "Soul Resting on Shadow", oil on canvas, 70 x 60 cm. approx, 2005, Helene Knoop)

Friday, November 18, 2016

Residue




© Residue

Beats of familiarity closed the door and
Set the stage for catastrophe;
A harsh quietness from his lips filled the room,
And she watched the road slip away from the map.

His sails remained hoisted and rippling,
As though he was a new ship in an old sea, but
She waited for the muzzle to be loosened from
The jaws of the man who no longer desired her.

Controversy labored like a martyr
Chipping away at skin as thin as white-wash paint;
Her glass was left half full, tears of wine next to it, and
Her love held on as tightly as a wrinkle in linen.

A cold, engraved slab of marble,
As cold as the man who spilled like a puddle
Of heartlessness, could never tell the story
As honestly as a patched hot-air balloon.

Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved


(The Paradox of Confession, 2012, oil on linen, by Matthew Hindley)

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Excuse Me... Isn't That Illegal?


What Is The Punishment For Using A Federal Government WebSite To Promote Personal Business?

President-Elect Donald Trump’s official government website is up and running at greatagain.gov

People from America and Around The World will be reading the pages on this site.

It has information about the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect Michael Pence, transition information, positions open for U.S. citizens to apply. There are also pages of info on the future first and second ladies.

And, that last part is where it gets interesting.

On Melania Trump’s page is a promotion for her personal business.

So, Donald J. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, are using a federal government website and Donald Trump’s forthcoming position as President of the United States to promote The President-Elect's wife’s personal business?

Sure seems to look like that.

“public service is a public trust.” This means that each Federal employee has a responsibility to the United States Government and its citizens to place loyalty to the Constitution, laws, and ethical principles above private gain. The public deserves and should expect no less.

(The paragraph directly above is from the Department of Justice WebSite and the words in RED are mine for emphasis)

So, IF Federal crimes are any infraction of federal law and legal code, and IF those crimes can range from mail fraud to identity theft, drug trafficking to gun licensing violations, and immigration fraud to illegally downloading songs and movies on the internet, isn't using a federal government web site for personal gain an infraction?


IT'S BEEN MY BELIEF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMPUTER SYSTEM IS FOR OFFICIAL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT USE ONLY

EXCUSE ME! 

ISN'T PROMOTING PERSONAL BUSINESS ON A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT  WEBSITE A CRIME?


Friday, November 11, 2016

That Damn Bar!





I LOVE this country! I LOVE being an American! BUT…

  • When Donald Trump ran for president of the U.S., but  WAIT, even years before that, he said that President Barak Obama was not American and demanded to see his birth certificate! His supporters backed him and cheered him on.
  • Trump took on the role of a bully during the RNC and made fun of and called his opponents names. He made some, frankly, awful remarks about fellow candidate Carly Fiorina saying, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!? He then went on to say, "I mean, she’s a woman, and I'm not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?"
  • Trump’s remarks were the beginning and even though women and young girls and some men found his remarks offensive and wrong, he never stopped making fun of women. He offended the other candidates by insulting them and calling them names. However, the republican party Lowered The Bar and chose him as the person they wanted above all the other candidates in the primary and the media leaned a little but they Lowered The Bar.
  • When he lost a lawsuit, he blamed the judge, saying it wasn’t fair because the judge was biased because he’s a Mexican and didn’t like him. But, the judge was American and as a judge, personal opinions were never part of a legal decision. But, the republican party Lowered The Bar and chose him as the person they wanted above all the other candidates in the primary and the media shrugged and they Lowered The Bar for a racist.
  • When Trump called all Mexicans rapists and criminals, he denied it. No matter his running mate, Michael Pence said, Yes, Trump called Mexicans rapists and criminals, but… But, he defended him and the Republicans’ expectation were so low, they Lowered The Bar for Trump and the media reported the facts, the majority of Americans were shocked as the racist remark. But Trump promised “We’re going to build a wall!” the Republican crowd CHEERED. When Trump added, “And Mexico is going to pay for it!” the crowd went wild and they Lowered The Bar for a racist.
  • When Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what’s going on.” That was the most sweepingly xenophobic statement by a presidential candidate ever it was polarizing rhetoric about immigrants. And while the majority of Americans were shocked and complained, most of the Republicans CHEERED and Embraced him and they Lowered The Bar for a racist even further. He repeated his call to Ban all “radical Islamists” from entering the US and repeated a discredited rumor that “thousands and thousands of people were cheering” on 9/11 in Jersey City neighborhoods with Arab communities as the Twin Towers fell. Later, he re-Tweeted a graphic that  falsely indicated that 81% of white murder victims were killed by black attackers. (FBI statistics in 2014 indicated 82% of white murder victims were killed by a white attacker.) And, discrimination against black people has been a pattern in his career. He refused to condemn the white supremacists who are campaigning for him! BUT the misinformation was designed to bolster fears of Muslims and Black Americans and, despite being contradicted by numerous fact-checkers, Trump stood by these falsehoods. Trump’s statement quickly triggered a backlash of condemnation. Illinois college students wearing blackface and posing in front a confederate flag while one man showed his vandalized car with a racial slur painted across the windshield. In classrooms, white students, some as young as kindergarten age, have been reportedly chanting "cotton picker" and "heil Hitler" at black students while Muslim women have shown concern for wearing a hijab in public. IN SPITE OF Republicans and Democratic rivals alike slamming his remarks as “bigoted”, “fascist”, and “reprehensible”, his pundits and supporters CHEERED and They Lowered The Bar for the racist LOWER.
  • How much lower can this Bar be lowered? He Trump took time out of his busy schedule of conspiracy promotion and disavowal to write a letter to America’s anti-abortion leaders, making some new firm promises about what he'll do on abortion should he be elected president in 53 days. The missisve, dated “September 2016,” was released by the anti-abortion nonprofit Susan B. Anthony List, an organization that not only opposes abortion in all circumstances but also several forms of contraception, including emergency contraception and copper IUDs (which it has described as causing “early abortions"). The letter begins with Trump’s announcement that he has enlisted longtime anti-abortion leader Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA List president, as the leader of his campaign’s “Pro-Life Coalition.” And, his supporters and the Republican Party CHEERED and They Lowered The Bar taking away the right for women to make choices that affect their bodies!
  • He attacked Muslim Gold Star parents! Trump’s retaliation against the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army officer who died while serving in the Iraq War was a clear low point in a campaign full of hateful rhetoric. AND his supporters and Republicans CHEERED and They Lowered that damn Bar again!
  • He trashed Native Americans, too! Trump wanted to open a casino in Bridgeport, Connecticut that would compete with one owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Nation, a local Native American tribe, he told the House subcommittee on Native American Affairs that “they don’t look like Indians to me... They don’t look like Indians to Indians.” He then elaborated on those remarks, which were unearthed last year in the Hartford Courant, by saying the mafia had infiltrated Indian casinos. And, yes, the Bar Was Lowered for Donald J. Trump.
  • He encouraged the mob justice that resulted in the wrongful imprisonment of the Central Park Five and his supporters CHEERED and the Bar Was Lowered!
  • He condoned the beating of a Black Lives Matter protester at a campaign rally in Alabama, and his supporters physically attacked an African-American protester after the man began chanting “Black lives matter.” Video of the incident showed the assailants kicking the man after he has already fallen to the ground. The following day, Trump “implied that the attackers were justified: “Maybe [the protester] should have been roughed up,” Trump mused. “It was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.” And, his supporters and the Republicans CHEERED and AGAIN They Lowered that damned BAR!!!
  • He called supporters who beat up a homeless Latino man “passionate”! His racial incitement inspired hate crimes. The two brothers cited Trump’s anti-immigrant message when explaining why they did it. “Donald Trump was right — all these illegals need to be deported,” one of the men reportedly told police officers. And his supporters CHEERED and They Lowered The Bar for what was acceptable for a candidate to represent the United States of America as its most powerful leader!
  • Trump tweeted an anti-Semitic Hillary Clinton meme that featured a photo of her over a backdrop of $100 bills with a six-pointed Jewish Star of David next to her face. “Crooked Hillary - - Makes History!” he wrote in the tweet, which also read “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever” over the star. And his supporters took up the call to HATE Secretary Clinton and Jews and they and the Republicans Lowered The Bar!
  • He bragged and laughed about sexually abusing women claiming because he was famous and the women saw him as a star, he could do anything he wanted to them! MY GOD! His Supporters CHEERED and some of the women bore clothing and signs that pleaded for him to “Grab My Pxxxy!” and The and the Republicans Set the Damn Bar SO LOW I’m not surprised the 70-year-old man could easily STEP OVER IT to become the President Elect!
  • The FBI stated the Russians were responsible for the email leaks, that the Russians infiltrated the DNC and were sending them to WikiLeaks. Rudy Guilliani promised on FOX that there was more coming... "A BIG SURPRISE!" Then, when it happened 2 weeks before the election and he realized the FBI knew he and the Trump campaign were talking to Russia, he back peddled saying he knew nothing! 
  • When, for 2 nights after the election, tens of thousands of protesters against the vote take to the streets across the country, Trump reacts childishly Tweeting:
    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 21m21 minutes ago
    Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!


Now the MEDIA is asking Americans to PRESS THE RESET BUTTON for the President Elect each day. 

Excuse me? Isn't talking to the enemy (Russia) and asking Putin to Hack the US to find Clinton Emails and then Putin Admitting he and Trump were communicating before the election TREASON?

NO! There is no RESET BUTTON for the Office of President of The United States of America! America does not conspire with the enemy against on of its citizens!

Americans must remain vigilant and never forget what Donald J. Trump has said, promised, and done, and we can NEVER consider lowering the bar for the greatest office in the world.

NEVER LET THE BLUSTER of the media and Trump supporters BULLY you into believing the Office of the President can become bigoted and racist, misogynistic, or fascist!



The President Elect has the responsibility of Reaching that Bar and We Will Never Allow Anyone To Pull That Bar Lower Than It Is. That BAR is high, very high because being chosen/elected as President and every president before him recognized the responsibility the people entrusted to that person brought with it the greatest of tasks ever assigned to a public servant, that he will represent and stand fight for the freedom and equality of ALL AMERICANS.

Monday, October 31, 2016

If You Are The Canvas



© If You Are The Canvas,
Let my lips and my tongue be the brushes
Stroking landscapes with colors of my love;
Let my perfume wreathe you as it gushes
Forth like music rising one more octave;
Let my breath spread weighted hues forever.

Mimi Wolske

All Rights Reserved

(painting by Malcolm Liepke)

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Poetry: My Book Is About You — Sort of; from Letters I Never Sent to You



© My Book Is About You — Sort of
from Letters I Never Sent to You


My darling one and only,

It is only fair you know this, Babe, but I returned from a short holiday to discover just one of your precious, priceless, illegal piranhas remained.
She was missing her tail; I had to let her die.

You found me! You called! And your voice melted my heart.

Your voice peaked my desire so high, I profess I felt compelled to fall— no, to jump… to leap!— off the celibacy wagon.

Your voice made my insides tremble.

Your voice was always an invitation for my imagination to go wild. Lord knows all the pictures of happy, loving memories that flashed through my mind as we talked.

Dare I say it? All those years we were together, each time you breathed out, I breathed you in. I indulged in your tender caresses and passionate kisses… And I ached for more.

It has been too long since that night you wandered into my life and seduced my mind. Not so long I have forgotten how your warm breath of passion weakened my knees until I would have collapsed at your feet like a plate of spaghetti; except you held me tightly in your arms.

I will never forget the event when you managed to touch my soul. You “just happened to stop by” with fishing poles you made for two young girls. Then, you took them fishing. Them. You spent time with them. The three of you spent an afternoon together and my heart became eternally yours.

Perhaps the death of the sole survivor in a lonely aquarium will mean nothing to you now, and I admit it will be easier for me to lose that last piece of you since our recent talk than it was at the time she swam away into bigger waters.

I can barely stand the wait until your next call. Keep me in safe water as your loving catch.

Until the end of time, I am always
Your Love


Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Fluent In Loss

Poetry in Politics is not new; neither is Politics in Poetry.

Abraham Lincoln said in a speech:
 "I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views."
“I stand as a witness to the common lot, 
"survivor of that time, that place,” wrote Anna Akhmatova in 1961.

If the twain ever meet
Will it be a 'twain wreck'?



© Fluent In Loss

Vomited secrets from the mouth
Of a river, dizzy from its whirling
Waltz, echo in Prevarication Canyon;
Will you ever forget how it goes
When you are singing the next verse?
When the house you exit will not?
When the “cats cradle” is nothing
More than tangled finger-strings?

Stacked plates made of paper
Mache in a calm, blue sky where
The finger pointing at Adam, who is
Thirsty for forgiveness in this
Thin-layered, cheap concrete world,
That locks him behind a door
Thick with the sins of the father,
Warns him not to look back.

Give me your tired, your poor laundry,
Your glasses half full of photos, and
Claim your life tastes like moths
Clinging to life after they crash and burn;
Clearly you lost Honey’s moon; you’re
Clueless so just pull the muzzle over the
Clownish Crows Cawing because the
Back of your hand brushed my doorknob.




Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved

(painting #1 no title by Fred Calleri and #2 Milk Run by Fred Calleri)

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Just A Place To Sleep

From the NORTH to escape the icy cold to claim the desert southwest as their winter home, the sunny place where no one bothers to shovel sunshine in the winter.





©Just A Place To Sleep

I’m hiding down here
in the vacation trenches
trying to latch onto
a piece of higher ground
(ground without the prickly,
wound-causing cacti)
and those larger avocados;
eating salted genealogy
while bits and pieces
of time slip by;
grabbing the rope of hope
immersed in chaos—it's like
a Dostoyevsky passage,
or paint on a canvas
about life in a
retiring trailer park
by surrealist Ernst,
or a magic wand
carved from wood of holly
(hooray for Hollywood);
I continue to contemplate
the possibility of
one more taco
with jalapeño sauce
and maybe one more
glass of sangria.

Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved


Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Blood Rushes To My Head

Aristotle said that love is a single soul inhabiting two bodies. A Love Poem is actually a message of love. It doesn't have to be long; when a lover makes blood rush to your head, heartfelt, honest words can be incredibly special to the person receiving them.
"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."  Victor Hugo




© Blood Rushes To My Head

Your love is my plutonium and it’s
Registered to kill as sure as
Mercury through gloves.

Your air-bending suffocates me
But it is AH!, the element of
Surprise that defeats my senses.


Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved

(art: Michael Carson)


Monday, October 17, 2016

Silence Sounds Like, a poem by your Tumbleweed Contessa

Rumi said something to the effect that poetry gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it. 
It, poetry, plucks at your heartstrings and makes music.
Poetry goes beyond the logic of prose; there is mystery in each one, a mystery not be explained but, rather, to be admired. 
ENJOY



© Silence Sounds Like

Silence sounds too much like you’ll be going;
Peace preys like a wolf longing for the hunt,
Serenading mocking love fragments from the past.

Autumn songs, once hidden like stars during light,
Return to the desert after summer blends into fall,
Bring winter’s chaos as if thunder in spring’s soul.

Swimming in a Van Gogh joy and red cosmic dreams,
I never wished for your hand-me-down dreams,
Your washed-out, washed-up, rented future for one.

Hail the part-time dreamer, the full-time idiot,
The lover who came with no warnings,
Conceding to counterfeit honesty……..

Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved

(art: Michael_Carson_Ginger_20x30_oil_on_canvas)


Sunday, October 16, 2016

Poetry - TWINS

From one fertilized egg that contains a single set of genetic instructions, also known as a genome, did you know it is still possible for identical twins to have serious differences in their genetic makeup? Did you know some are mirror images of each other? They have the same physical features but opposite asymmetric features. If one twin is right-handed, the other twin is left handed, a twin with a birthmark on his left check will have a mirror twin with a birthmark on his right check. They can even have hair that whorls in opposite directions and opposite teeth. In more extreme cases, twins even have mirrored internal organs, such as one with a heart on the right and the co-twin with a heart on the left - even the skeletal features may be reversed.



There they were on the screen—

Shoestrings tightly interwoven,
Tree limbs reaching out like arms,
Plant roots stretching like legs

A silent comedy of entangled umbilical cords.


© TWINS

Mimi Wolske
All Rights Reserved

(I am not a twin, there are no twins in my family history, there still are no twins in our family.)