MAGPIE...Prompt #169

                                    LIGHTHOUSE DANDELIONS/ Jamie Wyeth



THANK YOU, Tess..for Magpie Tales.....


TRINKET

Dung beetle feasts on
gold dust, becomes a scarab,
jewel for King Tut.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #168

                                                                 PHOTO/ Togan Gokhakar


THANK YOU,Tess at Magpie Tales...


GRANDPARENTS

My Grandpa Jake fancied he looked like Bela Lugosi.  My Grandma Rebecca, who favored hats under all circumstances, learned a long time ago not to tell him to smile for a photograph.  Because he would likely have slipped some Times Square souvenir fangs into his mouth.  He enjoyed being inappropriate.

Rebecca, the gorgeous redhead in the family, wore a flower in her hair while giving birth to my mother.  It is said.

This particular day we went by ferry to the newly opened Wall of Names at Ellis Island.  Then a quick photo before they searched for their names.  Which I had submitted to be placed on the wall as a tribute to their discovering America.

A guard came by and told Grandpa to please put his cigarette out.  Grandma never had any success with this.  Truth be told, sometimes she puffed away on a Camel's.  And in the Russian way, while enjoying a glass of tea, some raspberry jam stirred into it.

Grandpa always rolled his own.  He had a small leather pouch for the tobacco.  And papers.  I thought he was a cowboy.  At 72nd Street and Broadway.  Years later his style of rolling remained with me.

I brought some note paper and lead pencils with me so that they could make a copy of their names from the wall.  On the trip back from Ellis Island they compared rubbings.  Grandma's hat was swept off her head by an extreme gust of wind.  Grandpa dropped his cigarette.  By then he was buying packs.  He grabbed at the brim, slightly crushing it.  He put it on Rebecca's head, backwards.  On purpose, of course.

He was a tailor, an entrepreneur, and a poet.  She baked bread and told scary fortunes.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #167

                               YOUNG WOMAN PICKING the  FRUIT of KNOWLEDGE/ 1892/
                                                                               Mary Cassatt


Thank you, Tess, at Magpie Tales....


THE BITE

Don't want to set the table for heroes,
paint china for your cup of tea.

Dare I clip my tresses to the bone,
live my life as the son?

I will taste the chaos in the flower,
climb a tree, pick the limbs
clean of desire.

Not permit myself
to be stifled by blame.

Cry with joy
to accept the last apple,
never give up
the celebrated bite.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #166

 

                                                                     HELEN WARD


THANK YOU, Tess....at...Magpie Tales...


UPSTAIRS/ WAAAYYYYYY Downstairs.....

THE KING'S FAVORITE PEANY BUTTER & CHOCOLATE YUMMO COOKIE...
(or why he can't chew and give a speech!)


Ingredients:

3/4 cups chunky peanut butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose baking mix (you know, Bisquick)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
12 ounces best dark chocolate morsels in the world *

Prep:

Stir together peanut butter, eggs and vanilla in large bowl.
Stir in brown sugar until mixed.  Add baking mix and 3/4 cup dark chocolate morsels, stirring until just moistened.  Spread mix in a lightly greased 15x10 jelly-roll pan.
Bake at 325 deg. for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven, sprinkle evenly with remaining 1 1/4 cups chocolate morsels.  Let stand until chocolate melts.  Spread melted chocolate evenly.  Cut into triangles, squares, etc.

* THE 10 BEST CHOCOLATIERS IN THE WORLD, from "The Ten Best of Everything", by N and A. Lande

1. Tauscher (Zurich, Switzerland)
2.  Vosges Haut (Chicago, Ill.)
3.  Scharffen Berger Chocolate maker (Berkeley, Cal.)
4.  Jacques Torres Chocolate (New York, NY.)
5.  Norman Love Confections (Ft. Myers, Fla.)
6.  Valrhona (France)
7.  Godiva (Brussels, Belgium)
8.  Richard Donnelly Fine Chocolates (Santa Cruz, Cal.)
9.  Rickart (Paris, Fr.)
10. Puccini Bomboni (Amsterdam, Netherlands)...my fav...just saying the name makes me feel good!!

 

 

 

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MAGPIE...Prompt #165

 

                         MONHEGAN'S SCHOOLTEACHER/ 2004/ Jamie Wyeth


THANK YOU, Tess, at Magpie Tales...


LESSONS

I held close a towel,
tousled my hair,
let traces of love
drift like sap
down the drain.

You whispered
a bit of a Sonnet
that came to mind,
"Thou art now
the world's fresh ornament"...

Your fingers strummed my spine,
setting a place on my back.

I'll just pretend
I slept the night through,
not let a trickle of sweat
shine my brow,
as I teach the morning's lesson.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #164

                                                  SPRING/ 1935/ Kuzma Petrov-Vodin


THANK YOU, Tess...for Magpie Tales....


JACK & ME

Face your misgivings, Jack,
forget harebrained notions
like fetching water to the valley.
And if you're still pining
for what's her name,
why?
She didn't even send you
a get well card.

Here we are, bucket free,
time to get close to the edge again.
I'm not a metaphor you know,
though I look like a cherry tart.

So straighten your crown,
I've better plans than she did.
There's more than one way
to take a tumble, you know.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #163

                                           WOMAN WITH a TOWEL/ 1898/ Edgar Degas


THANK YOU, Tess...for Magpie Tales...


LA DANSE

You set your sights on me
at La Classe de Danse.
An age ago,
in my partner's grasp,
his hand to my waist,
we finished with a flourish.

The fan in my hand flirted,
resting from an Arabesque.

Your hidden eye
counted the stitches
as I sewed silk ribbons,
like poured cream,
onto my slippers.

Today the daylight
bathes my shoulder.
Allow me a moment
to warm within my reverie.
My hair still red,
falls across my face,
my flesh casts shadows
in its podgy folds.
My foot in secret,
sets en pointe.

There I stand,
feet together at heels,
first position,
before the Promenade.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #162

                                       BETWEEN HEAVEN and HELL/  1989/ Jack Yerka



THANK YOU, Tess at Magpie Tales....


SLEEPING WITH GODS/ Mother Earth

Where to begin?
You wanted a world,
you floaters in my mind,

and sleeping alongside
sweet Morpheus,
I dreamt my first hat trick.

There she stood, Eve,
fresh from a slice of Adam,

Snow White in his eyes,
until she waved
hello to the serpent.

Curiosity already killed the cat,
then all matter
was no matter,
and dust followed every dance.

Should I take my sleep
with Hypnos once more,
seize his son by the hand,
scrub this all clean?

Or flip this sullied wonder
like the mother I am.


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MAGPIE...Prompt #161

                                          Not to be Reproduced, 1937/ Rene Magritte


THANK YOU, Tess at MAGPIE TALES...


TO PLAY

The part you played,
the glide towards dawn,
a wild card, face down,
every hair in place.

All the unknowns of you
take the shape of smoke.
What's in your memory
that you want to mask?

My pool of tears,
they dry to flakes.
Yet the pathway is still
a mesmeric zigzag.

Winning, losing,
every dream
takes a bite out of me.

Your image is all you risk.
I'll call you,
don't call me.


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            Hoppy Birday to me!!!  3/22...Aries, what else?

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MAGPIE...Prompt #160

                                           Faun, Horse, and Bird, 1936/ Pablo Picasso


THANK YOU, Tess, for Magpie Tales....


BLUE MYTHOLOGY/ an abstraction

Satyr stirs from slumber,
lifts the veil of absinthe dreams,
a silky nymph,
torn from his rib
takes flight, during
l'apres-midi d'un faune.

Goddess of the feral
chants with the Pipes of Pan.
Griffin's wife
plucks a feather
from his tail,
plaits it to her tresses,
teases the Phoenix
to join in the leap.

Medusa whispers
to Pegasus,
see how I craft
a pale horse
from that wave?
Echo sings on,
flies with the white dove
to resurrection,
storms the gates of heaven.

Just another reverie,
l'apres-midi d'un faune.



*Afternoon of a Faun/ Poem, Stephane Mallarme/ Ballet, Vaslav Nijinsky

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