Maintained Correspondences
(Sherman Park observation from Sally 4th, on riot events of Aug. 2016)
Dear Dave,
On Friday, I was carting my younger son's three sons around Milwaukee, and we drove through the area where all the troubles took place. I wanted to show my grandsons the fine architecture that exists on some of the streets around there - especially excellent art-deco buildings, still excellent above the first floor, but with crummy looking stores on the first floors of many. I also wanted to show the boys that people were going around about their business in a part of the city that had been chaotic just days before. There is a whole lot of repetitive showing on TV about the most violent and upsetting hours of what happened. Currently there are a lot of very good, very smart, very experienced people assembling and talking together here. I think there is real hope for our beautiful city to grow into a better time. We have a long way to go, but it can get better. I think people are unwise when they decide to carry guns around in cities. A young man has a gun and is told to stop and doesn't, a policeman shoots him. It's an event that will be a big part of the lives of those who love the unfortunate young man AND the equally unfortunate policeman. We might never know all the details of this. All the anger, frustration, sick and tired feelings poured out. We so need our schools, which try so hard, to get better, and we so need for people to be able to find decent jobs. If these two things could happen, I truly believe that we would witness significant improvement. We have GOT to find a better way.
Sally von Briesen
class of WHS 1954
^,^
by Thomas Lux
Listen Online
The high-tension spires spike the sky
beneath which boys bend
to pick from prickly vines
the deep-sopped fruit, the rind’s green
a green sunk
in green. They part the plants’ leaves,
reach into the nest,
and pull out mother, father, fat Uncle Phil.
The smaller yellow-green children stay,
for now. The fruit goes
in baskets by the side of the row,
every thirty feet or so. By these bushels
the boys get paid, in cash,
at day’s end, this summer
of the last days of the empire
that will become known as
the past, adios, then,
the ragged-edged beautiful blink.
"Cucumber Fields Crossed by High Tension Wires" by Thomas Lux from The Street of Clocks. © Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001
An old farm-hand knew whereof he reminisced:
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2008/01/radish-buncher-speaks.html
^,^
Obla di, obli da...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvbs07wwBjo
^,^
^,^
No adventures of Zepata today.
Obla di, obli da...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvbs07wwBjo
Lyrics
Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace
Molly is the singer in a band
Desmond says to Molly girl I like your face
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand
Molly is the singer in a band
Desmond says to Molly girl I like your face
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
Desmond takes a trolley to the jeweler's store
Buys a twenty carat golden ring
Takes it back to Molly waiting at the door
And as he gives it to her she begins to sing
Buys a twenty carat golden ring
Takes it back to Molly waiting at the door
And as he gives it to her she begins to sing
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
In a couple of years they have built
A home sweet home
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Desmond and Molly Jones
A home sweet home
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Desmond and Molly Jones
Happy ever after in the market place
Desmond lets the children lend a hand
Molly stays at home and does her pretty face
And in the evening she still sings it with the band
Desmond lets the children lend a hand
Molly stays at home and does her pretty face
And in the evening she still sings it with the band
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
In a couple of years they have built
A home sweet home
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Desmond and Molly Jones
A home sweet home
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Desmond and Molly Jones
Happy ever after in the market place
Molly lets the children lend a hand
Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face
And in the evening he's a singer with the band
Molly lets the children lend a hand
Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face
And in the evening he's a singer with the band
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
La la how the life goes on
Ob la di ob la da life goes on bra
La la how the life goes on
And if you want some fun sing ob la di bla da
LORDY HOW THE LIFE GOES ON
[Hatch photo from Rev./Dr. John Helt at his home in the shadow of Holy Hill 8/26/16]
^,^
Sewing
The night before my older sister’s wedding,
my mother and I sat up
late
hand-stitching a little cloud of netting
to the brim of each
bridesmaid’s hat
To be alone with her was so rare
I couldn’t think of what I had to
say.
We worked in silence beneath the chandelier
until it was almost
daybreak.
Soon I’d have a room of my own
and she would only be cooking for
six.
We drifted among the wreaths we had sewn,
nursing quietly on our
fingertips.
That she still had me was a comfort,
I think. And I still had
her.
"Sewing" by Sue Ellen Thompson from The Golden Hour. ©
Autumn House Press, 2006
^,^
'Squirrel-a-whirl'
bracket ingrown by tamarack bark;
Stump now an artifact at O.F.; dead at Arcadian, sawn in 2010
now does unheard of duty
 
a stand for a new infusion teapot
as in when life hands you lemons
make tea
 |
No adventures of Zepata today.
