Adam's Beanstalk

A daily adventure-bag of insights and old bones from an unknown poet in Manitoba's south. Caveat: Not everything is to be taken literally. Things are often shaded with poetic crayons; be the owl. Also, not all these bones are collected from different fields. Find themes that run througout each post and the journal as a whole; the most insignificant event may be part of an ear.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

One More Thing Found in the Grass

I saw a small grasshopper in the bush by the river
in his mouth he carried a scroll as sweet as butter
fresh from churning, fresh from the cow’s udder.

And here is what it said:

“Hello, citizens. You all smell very nice!
So glad you could make it to celebrate this special occasion.”

Once it was read the grasshopper turned into a peach.

Bravo! Bravo! That was quite a show.

This is the encore:

!)A story about an Epiphany - so Jason and I decide on a nice nice evening to take a drive down to a barn where we spent many times time ago playing music and taking pictures with the Rustic Poets. Because this barn lay at the start of Epiphany Road (ask us what the Epiphany is some time) we affectionately named the barn “Epiphany 1”. We loved it because there were lots of old items (machinery, vehicles, sheds) in disarray, which captured “The Rustic Spirit” (I started to write a book on this). It had the surreal feeling of a ghost town among living trees.
So we arrive. Drive my little car down the long grass road, past the trees, into a clearing. And. What. Is. That? A grain truck? Dumping? Dumping is a verb. Trucks do not dump by themselves. There are people beside the truck. Oh no. Jason asks if we should turn around, run maybe. It is too late for this, that would be suspicious. We must go on. Park the car. I say “we must talk with them”. We cross the open clearing. They act as if we are not there. Go on dumping their trees. We wait beside the truck as they look back. This is AWKWARD! And where is that ghost town feeling?! Snow birds return to roost. Then we are acknowledged. I sheepishly ask if we can maybe take a look around, snap some pictures. Not so fast. Owner has to tell stories about teen vandals and how they smashed every car. Each one a different story, and their histories. Charming. What? How your son got a job and worked every day to buy this car. Then flood and now smashed? A brick from the barn window? Chase supposed to fix an antique organ and then you give him a different broken car? The organ doesn’t even open! But ha! We tricked you - we didn’t even have a camera along - though I took out my CD case to make it look like one. So we walked around a bit, not surprised at all that people would not think twice about smashing a window here. Because we thought this place was abandoned, too. Until...

PS. Christian Colleges DID survive the 1980’s.




@)We took a family outing to Selkirk last Sunday to visit the (deep voice) MANITOBA MARINE MUSEUM. Apparently I had been here when I was five, but remember nothing. There are big ships here, all sitting on dry land. Does this make them more or less likely to tip? Funny things: 1)Dad gets into a questionable bed for a little nap, 2)Chase hurt his knee rolling a tractor or some such story, so he climbs all of the stairs as if he was waltzing. Lololo. 3)Jimi gets scared of a diving suit! 4)Part of a ship that looks like Morris Legion hall. 5)Random ship steering wheels placed in rooms where they obviously do not belong. 6)Watch your children signs (another picture).



#)We got a PUPPY! Here he is tearing the living organs out of my shoe lace. And here he is going for a walk with me in lovely downtown Riverside. By going for a walk I mean chewing on the leash and following it wherever it goes. By the way - it still needs a name, so please leave suggestions.




Nota Bene)Here is a long awaited pic of the tree house excursion. Note the anti-bug gear.