Aphrodite In A Burqa

 

They entered a bakery

she in a short sun dress

with fragile straps

he with bare shoulders

beard neatly trimmed

a muscled blacksmith

shown through the door

by her unwitting son

 

Aphrodite shopping

     bare legs

           Cretan sandals

married to Hephaestus?

out to buy pastries

golden skin

jewel gleaming 

on her neck

recognized too late

by Aeneas

         *** 

 

 

Long ago  

 

I gave her ear-rings    silver pendants

she has not worn them

 

does she keep them

will she wear them?                       I remember the shape of

perhaps she'll wear them to a party                her swollen nipple

perhaps to look a little arty

or she may think them tarty                                           I remember the color

or will she wear them                                                     of her eyes of her hair

and nothing else                                                             I remember everything

she may keep them handy                                              she gave me even this

 in her drawer

with several scarves                                        despair

only put back     never selected

 

if she wears them

will I notice?

 

if she wears them.

 

                                                        *

                                                 

 

                              copyright © Dick Russell, 2016, 2024

Truth on a Bobsled

Gnawing at the news online

having been misled

by a most trusted source 

who promised in email

not a binding agreement

nevertheless

by a date 

late this week or early next

we would have it done

was he too misinformed by his most trusted source?

believing in 

what he hoped to believe

as we did

now I pay scant attention to the news for I see

truth careening downhill on a bobsled falling apart

from false enthusiasm with no corroboration

to splatter as just an alternative fact but a true one

forensics will say combing through the debris

where truth fell afoul of infamy

the bobsled proving imaginary

the truth lying dead

Dick Russell © Richard M. Russell

                         2024

 Nairn

Age puts distance between present and past

stretching lengths longer than any string 

connecting time present in electricity

to time past in books made of paper pulped from trees

to photographs and film to ruins that outlast

time present time future wherever we can ping

For only at sea far from land in a sailboat

or on land far from a road can I imagine 

sempiternal time’s wild attractions

alone with whatever weather sky apportions

alive that moment wearing not wasting time’s coat

unbuttoning time’s blouse I imagine

Entangled with my muse timeless and eternal

Age puts distance between present and past

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2024