Cats in Costume

There is something about a cat

that begs a costume.

I've never been able to resist dressing up the cats I've had in my life.

They never gave much protest, really. Some secretly liked it, I think.

As if they were able to express sides of their personalities,

inaccessible to their furry selves alone.

(Although, some of these cats look as though

they may have needed

some coaxing...)

Happy Halloween

Everyone!

(including cats)

Burning the Old Year(s)

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.

Notes friends tied to the doorknob,

transparent scarlet paper,

sizzle like moth wings,

marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,

lists of vegetables, partial poems.

Orange swirling flame of days,

so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn't,

an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.

I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,

only the things I didn't do

crackle after the blazing dies.

-Naomi Shihab Nye

You're all geniuses, and you're all beautiful.

You don't need anyone to tell you who you are.

You are what you are.

Get out there and get peace,

think peace, and live peace and breathe peace,

and you'll get it as soon as you like.

- John Lennon

IMAGINE PEACE

Shedding

along with the trees...

letting go of the old to create

space for the new

sweeping into the dustpan: perfectionism, opinions of others, self-judgement, old wounds of grief and woe, french blue maryjanes because they never really fit anyway, 48 other pairs that my feet seldom travel in, 50 linen napkins because i prefer paper and small gatherings, the belief that my noisy neighbor is an asshole, that any one of us is less than innocent, vulnerable wonders of nature, that whatever is occurring shouldn't be, that miracles and magic are not common daily occurrences.....