May 7: Terrible Day, Yadda Yadda Yadda, "Ode to My Bald Head"

So, I've had a really terrible day.  And a really horrible week.  I was speaking to a friend this afternoon, and I said to her, "It seems like God has it in for me.  God dangles something wonderful in front of me, and then He takes it away immediately." 

Now, I know that's not the way God works.  God is infinitely compassionate and loving and kind and yadda yadda yadda.  At the moment, however, I'm not really feeling that.  I actually started 2020 believing that it was going to be better than last year.  I had real hope.

Now, not so much.  I came home yesterday from work, sat down, and literally said to myself, This virus is going to kill me, one way or another. 

So, let me just talk about the one bright spot in this whole shitty day/week/month:  I led a poetry workshop tonight.  For two-and-a-half hours, I got to read, write, and talk about poetry.  And I did this with some of my favorite people in the whole world.  It was a true gift.

So, to prove that, in the midst of shittiness, there is poetry, Saint Marty is going to share something he wrote this evening.  Something that made people laugh.  It's called . . .

Ode to My Bald Head

by:  Martin Achatz

A dome sits atop my eyes.  It flashes
in the sun like Moses on the mountaintop
with Elijah and Christ.  If I am out
in public, and the day is bright,
my head blinds drivers, signals passing
airplanes of my presence.  It is concave,
convex, rests on a pillow at night
like some precious lost sculpture
by Michelangelo.  Reflection of Poetry
or Writer at Rest.  It has been mistaken
for the skull of a pope, a Starfleet captain,
Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now.  This crown
of skin, taut as a birch bark canoe, has seen
the dawn of humankind on the Serengeti. 
Ice Age.  Eruption of Pompeii.  Some day,
it will be unearthed in the Valley of the Kings,
entombed in a pyramid built in its honor.
Dome of Ra.  Of Zeus.  Of Yahweh.  It will
crash into flames, be mistaken for the burning
bush, Bethlehem star.  And people will sing
to it.  Mine eyes have seen the glory!
Hallelujah!  Glory, hallelujah!