Antiquities; silver and gold star mothers; elephant products; tidiness

The elephant

 a noble beast

is revered by some
and still slaughtered by others.

Pre-raccoon, we scrawled

a prehistoric mastodon

on a shelf bracket fungi

and put it out to dry.

It still reposes here
years later

at the Odd Fellows,

overexposed, next to 

a fish fossil from Silurian

limestone sediment

it suggests antiquity.


Our building, The Putney,
is made of limestone
that is circa 137 million years old.

The elephant became 

a Republican symbol

somewhere along a fuzzy line

but that's just fine, 

and we'll gladly use

paper from

Sri-Lankan elephant

dung (see below)

and be happy.


(I don't think donkey dung
would have the cachet that
elephant dung has, anyway...)

.........

A circus elephant,

made into a flag stand

rears pose-like on the loft rail

here at the OF,

greeting each new day

with old glory, a flag

donated by officer Hogan of the State bank

when I opened a senior account.

I asked if I could have the little flag

and Hogan, looking left and right
 said yes.

(Remember that:

State Bank = yes.)

A heavy teak elephant

grazes as a desk ornament,

OFian;

folks who visited Ruth and John Hale
in the old days

will remember this elephant.
He was theirs

and he is not for sale.

An old gourd horn,

playable even in its broken state

needs its non-bakery elephant ears

glued back on

The ears came from the back

of the skull so all of the gourd

- grown at 517 Arcadian -

was used.
Our scarce fringe hair 
decorates his forehead.
A worn Harlow Kneser cornet
mouthpiece, used with proper embouchure,
allows for great playing.

This elephant form presently

lies honored in the spare room

on a quilt, tattering but usable,

made by my grandmother

Myrtle Dix, Ray's wife,
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/grandpa-his-post-office-to-sever.html

of Cedar falls Iowa.

She had a banner in the front window

at 2009 Clay Street in the 1940s

 holding four silver stars

signaling she had four sons

serving in WW II,

all in different theatres;

all came back alive

but damaged in varying degrees..


War no more....

Yes, they were silver, but I'm painting them gold, for they are all dead now, RIP

................

Pachydermal humous

Dee gave me some paper.
I love paper
--onion skin, and now this! -
from
The PLOWSHARES Center
in Waukesha


made from recycled Sri-Lankan
elephant dung.
See net link below.


I used it all up in letters and post cards
and went back for more yesterday.

For more information:


http://www.mrelliepooh.com/

True to what the advertising says
there is no smell to this paper
whatsoever
and it takes ink on both sides
very well.


Some of the sheets are thick enough
to cut up and send as post cards.
Reasonable prices.
Plowshares also has recycled ellie-dung
pins and refrigerator magnets.


Great gifts idea. Budget-pleasing!


........


Dawn of a recent morning, downtown
Tree branches, light-struck, are vibrating to bud out

It is imperative to exercise due diligence
to keep this charming Waukesha sector clean.
Street cleaners run regularly in these
early morning hours.


We know;
we see them.
Others not living down here
may assume everything is
automatically tidy all the time.

Not so.
Everybody, all stakeholders -
be they property owners
or tenants -
must play a part
in our lovely neighborhood
to keep it that way.


Lend a hand, please!