expiration date: none

I finally picked out and ordered most of my new furniture.

In case you sell or will sell furniture... Don't charge me (or anyone else) 9,800 for a plain mahogany round pedestal table, even if it's solid mahogany. And don't charge me 18,000 for a table you call "kierkegaard" unless he personally used it or wrote something on it (in indelible ink) (and you can prove it).

And.... don't charge three times as much for the same brand, same item when other trustworthy merchants sell it for 1/3 the price!

The amount of money I or anyone else has is completely irrelevant to these stipulations. So there.

the story about the cat

my marmalade story doesn't compare... to this story about the cat.

this took place (and I do mean really took place) 80-88 years ago in a far away land, about 3 hours north of the northern Greece border. Then and there, it was the habit and prerogative of young men to hunt rabbits for good eatin'. When a young man would be able to aim properly and hunt a rabbit, he would hang it on the limb of a nearby tree to skin and then to later retrieve to take to the local grill pit. As it so happened, there was a beautiful wild cat that would roam in and around the local streets and farms, attacking and eating chickens from resident farms. So many young men tried to catch that cat, but it was a smart one, stealthily moving about the streets, hiding, and escaping all intentions - at least until that one day when one young man, hunting alone, was successful. He shot with a steady hand and a sharp aim, and killed the cat. He then hung it on the tree to skin and save it's especially shiny and beautiful fur as a souvenir.

He took the fur and left to have it cleaned and preserved. Minutes after he left, a group of his young hunter friends happened to see what to them looked like a delicious skinned rabbit hanging from the tree. They decided to play a game on their friend and steal away what they thought he had saved for his own enjoyment. Giddy with excitement, they took their prize to the local pit and had it grilled into kabobs. As they drank their drinks and scarfed down the delicious 'rabbit' meat, they laughed at what a wonderful joke they had played on their friend.

Later that evening, when all gathered at the local pub to drink, play games, and be merry, they waited for their hunter friend to express his annoyance at having his prize catch for the day stolen. When he made no mention of it, his friends asked, "so how many rabbits did you catch today?" and so on... When he seemed unresponsive about catching rabbits, they asked him, "what about the rabbit hanging on the tree"... And his response, of course, was "well i don't know what rabbit you're talking about, cause I didn't hunt any... but i'll tell you what i did hunt... that cat that was eating all the town's chickens is what i hunted...hung it on the tree and took the fur too." The loud chuckles and laughes turned to silence, and then of course to the sounds of whimpers, coughs, and puking.

So many lessons in such a short little story (and a true one at that)...

concrete

a warmer shade of yellow golden sun
cast the shadow of my car's well
traveled soul onto the cold concrete

glassy like tired eyes, the shadow
reflected platinum rays to the iris
of my right eye, pressuring
my rods and cones to print colorful memories

into my brain

setting off a chain reaction, from
somewhere deep behind my eyes, trickled
a salty dew

licking my lips, breath escaped from
the corners of my mouth

where everything went i don't know
but it's still going and i can't stop it

ready or not, i'm shoved ahead in time,
in anticipation of seeing a platinum sun