Grandad crushed when the tractor toppled
On Brier Hill. How Uncle John lost his arm
To the picker. Samuel smothered
In the silo, lungs full of harvest.
Thus reads a stanza of the poem Farming – One of the most dangerous occupations. It is representative of the twenty-six poems in Dead Horses
Now that they are dead or gone, the dream
Is always of a field where horses
Flash past, hooves catching and echoing light,
The grass lush, milkweed or Queen Anne’s lace
Along the fencerows. Then suddenly it’s winter,
Snow is falling, shapes are haloed, the sky is bleak.
And another stanza, from the same poem:
…..You want them now, those horses
Crashing the earth with sound as if light
Had been surpassed by speed, as if the laces
That bind you to your bones gave way to winter’s
Blast…..
Saturday morning, I was headed downtown for a walk with my dogs. On the corner of West End and 116th street, we passed a couple in the midst of a tiff. She was crying and he was saying “I want to say something that will make you feel better!” She replied “Then say different stuff!!!” I chuckled and slowed the dogs down to catch more of their fight- eager for a little distraction from my walk. The fight wasn’t explosive though, it was just a steam blowing off-er. I slipped my earbuds back in and trudged onward.
ANJELICA HUSTON
', the scene where Joyce Redman and Albert Finney eat Lobster....
' where Daryl Hannah attacks the shellfish in the fancy restaurant mermaid-style and the scene in '
' where Tom Hanks razor nibbles the baby ears of corn the way a kid would. In character, ingenious, and hilarious in both instances.
LYNDA RESNICK
' when Jane serves her sister's lunch under a silver salver that once open, reveals a rat, it is kind of heart stopping. To this day when I see dinner being served under those shiny domes I hold my breath until the contents underneath are revealed by the liveried footman. Not an everyday occurrence for sure unless you are as devoted as I am to Downton Abbey.
'.
There is much in this world that leads us to believe that as humans, we are superior to other life forms. We have opposable thumbs, and the kind of intellect and consciousness that allow us to build more than a hive or a dam and shape our future with intellect rather than instinct. We have religions that teach us that we are “stewards” of the earth, as if we had somehow been handed a title by an unseen force who we may actually have invented.
California has always seemed idyllic, cutting edge, a source of endless natural resources and opportunities. But our Golden State has been so mismanaged that it’s, now, threatening to crash under its own weight. As the deadline to plug the 24 billion (yes, that’s right 24 billion) dollar deficit in California passes and our renegade Governor Schwarzenegger proposes deeper and deeper cuts, education including school closures and shorter semesters, health cuts to MediCal and the Childrens’ Health Insurance Program, an increased gas tax (that should encourage tourism), four day work weeks (too bad if you needed the money), increased taxes, and a proposal to SHUT one of our greatest treasures, 224 of California’s most beautiful and historic State Parks, including that one where the giant redwoods grow.