Warhol Haiku

Cherries or nipples?
In Warhol's ice cream painting
it hardly matters. - Jeff Barnes

Senescence

I remember writing

on my thirtieth birthday

a haiku about wind

and cold rain

on the eve of November.

Nearly 28 years later,

I laugh at my young self

thinking he was old

and hope I will amuse

my octogenarian self

if he lives to read this poem

about my vanishing hair and

my old man legs

and my I-don't-care-what-

they-look-like-I-just-

want-to-be-comfortable

shoes,

about how I will own my age

as I will own the cane

that I will inevitably need

someday,

how I will kill

the role of 

cantankerous old man

before it kills me

and how I hope to die

on a gusty autumn day

that my spirit might

dance once more

in a swirl of orange and red

before wafting away

to nothing.   - Jeff Barnes

Paint Doodle 1

Road Trip, Anyone?

There's a town in Vermont called Derby
but you can't wear it on your head,
a town in Maryland called Redhouse,
though not all the houses there are red.

Wisconsin has a town called Walker,
though it doesn't have a pair of legs.
If you visit Chicken, Alaska
don't expect it to lay any eggs.

You can go to Frankenstein, Missouri
but you won't find a monster there.
You are welcome to visit Bald Head, Maine
even if you have a full head of hair.

Beardstown, Illinois has over 5,000 people,
many of whom are clean shaven,
and if you hate towns with coffee shops,
Hot Coffee, Mississippi is your haven.

There's a town in Indiana called Santa Claus,
though it's a long way from the North Pole.
You are always welcome in Hell, Michigan,
whether or not you are pure of soul.

Pennsylvania has a town called State College.
You might go there to get a diploma.
Or maybe you prefer not to go anywhere,
in which case I recommend Nowhere, Oklahoma. - Jeff Barnes

Norma Desmond in Hell (photo collage by Jeff Barnes)

Dream

I had a dream that my maternal grandmother, who has been dead since 1973, came back.  Apparently they only thought she was dead and had  buried her alive, and after she had screamed for help for 44 years, someone finally heard her, and they exhumed her.  There was no explanation for how she didn't suffocate or starve in that time or how she survived being embalmed.

But she looked rather healthy and seemed in good spirits.

I have a feeling that this is one of those dreams that will stay with me for a long time.