L'aura del Campo

Celia, Libby and Gisela. Poems: One, Lipstick, Latté drip.

L'aura del campo

WINTER?: 12 Sharaf (11 January) 62º and very mild.

'é a lua, é a lua, na quintana dos mortos'
♣ Federico García Lorca ♣

Libby the librarian and Gisela Schniezenkoph

We survived Celia.

http://www.celiaonline.com

She gave a delightful performance last night at Aimée's Cafe. She uses guitar and drum to sing celtic songs and others with scathing social comment. "Red, alabaster and blue" begs the question of aren't we all American. The "Monkey Song" is just plain wrong! And she wears a monkey hat while singing it. "Lonely Lion" is a highly moving song evoking the emotions surrounding isolation and being the only one. "Am I shining" states "if I'm not shining, I'm leaving and if you're not helping me shine, get the fudge out of my life ..." which speaks to the happiness each one of us should be experiencing.

She intersperses her music with characters who just show up: Libby the librarian, the Trestle-foot faerie and Gisela Schniezenkkopf (of course) among others. Libby encourages the audience to read books but must have her perfect cup of coffee every morning and sings a little ditty about it. After a few pots she is beyond manic and can sing it in 10 seconds. She's a hoot. Each character has a special hairdo and bit of an outfit. Faerie dresses in pink ... all pink. She doesn't like her aunt who talks about Jesus but hasn't grasped the commandment to love. Good song, but could offend a group of Southern Baptists. Gisela plays her nose. Yep. She did the "Yellow nose of Texas" and "Lone Ranger" as well as her signature, "Flight of the bumblebee".

Celia's very much in touch with the audience. When one guy kept saying, "Take me back and try me one more time" she picked up her guitar and just improvised! It cut the tension and actually made some sense. She's good. Very good.

Home for Celia is Wisconsin. She'll be doing a gig in Kansas City, Kansas on the 12th and Topeka on the 14th, then heading west to Nederland, Boulder, Santa Fe, Phoenix, Tucson, Irving, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Portland and Redmond. She is worth checking into.

Still sick. Stuffed up. Achy. No energy. Too hot (feverish?). Still depressed too.

Friends? At least Chris' hands are looking a bit better. I worry about gangrene when the circulation is poor. A group I know got banned from a drop in center for having knives. And there is the usual hysteria, but no one died the last couple days ... as far as I know. They have no emergency outreach here outside of normal business hours, so they depend upon the police and ambulances, both very expensive operations.

Managed to take my hypertension pill and had too much for lunch: meatloaf, mac and cheese, smashed potatoes, green beans and spice cake. What am I drinking now? Coffee, of course.

The weather ... sunny and mild. Not winter ... yet. It turns icy tonight and we WILL get bitter cold and snow this coming weekend.

One

We were One until a supernova
blew apart our pillars and collapsed
us into the dust-of-suns a thousand
scars ago. I see them on your face:
thin lines that move to laughter,
revealing twinkles, twin blue stars.

We were One beyond life’s action,
the steady being of one spirit.
The molecules within us hid
a thousand suns; there within one atom’s
heart behold the source that bound us,
then defined us: forever One.

[163.544Z] 10 enero 2007

Latté drip

         for Barbara

What flavor is my blood
when hazelnut flows down the tube
to mix with pure Colombian.
The taste flows thick or thin
depending on the brew,
and the barista’s sense of humor.
For I don‘t sip on chai or tea.
I like my caffeine drip delivered
through my portable i.v.

[163.546] 10 enero 2007

Lipstick

         for C and N

She lines her lips with gloss,
coral lambdas leaning towards
her lover of these forty years.
Long years full of loneliness
the isolation stoked by fears
of being smacked by those who tried
to blame her through her tears
with cold harsh names, to shame
the women who hug each other
through the night, not just by day.
Her lover’s lips are moist and eager.
Her coral lips respond.

[163.547] 10 enero 2007

On this one I wanted to show not tell, leaving the word lesbian out of the text and the title. It comes from a comment by my friend C. who called herself a "lipstick lesbian". After 42 years of being with N. she still doesn't feel safe to go public. Sad if you think about it.

Images: laughter; rubber bagels; blown leaves, papers, feathers and yellow fiberglass insulation; art nailed to a telephone pole; a newspaper dispenser; a tall elegant man with a cigarette dangling from his hand (an oddity in this town); blue sky, grey clouds, sun setting; a day too mild for January in Kansas; maroon cafe umbrellas; a bicycle locked to a parking meter.

The flowers are not blooming here. Thanks be. I've been watching the quince ... no signs yet. Did see a red pansy the other day, but that flower has no common sense and will bloom throughout the winter in Oklahoma. Did see some daffodil spears above the ground. The ice, snow and single digit temps are coming this weekend and next week. We will get winter!

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