May 11: "Wet Morning," Artists at Work, "Rabbit in the Morning"

Billy Collins has a green thumb . . . 

Wet Morning

by: Billy Collins

The big red bougainvillea

is drooping,

an effect of last night's

wind and rain.

Thunder too,

but plants don't have ears,

or is that

what the petals are for?

We got some rain last night.  Not a lot.  However, it was cloudy and wet enough to obscure the auroras that were blazing all over the heavens.  I don't have any bougainvillea in my backyard, but I'm sure my lilac bushes enjoyed their shower.

It is Mother's Day weekend.  I took my son Mother's Day shopping this afternoon.  He wasn't happy about it, but he picked out a card and a present without bloodshed or violence.  That's a win in my book.  This evening, my wife and I attended a fundraiser for a local theater group we support.  My wife drank an overpriced pop.  I drank two glasses of overpriced wine.  And we listened to really good music sung by some talented friends.

My wife is now sleeping.  My son is playing online video games upstairs in his bedroom.  My puppy is in her crate.  And I am getting ready to watch an episode or two of my latest obsession--a British competition show called Landscape Artist of the Year.  My wife hates the show, but I find it endlessly fascinating watching artists at work.

It almost makes Saint Marty want to take up oil painting.  

Rabbit in the Morning

by: Martin Achatz

He watches the dog

from a hunch of dewy grass,

waits for her to charge

or bark.  Instead, she lifts

her snout, sniffs, looks

away, like an old 

girlfriend at a 50th reunion

who can't remember 

your name.