for Comic Book Store Chuck

—for Chuck Seeley who passed away January 1, 2011

To console the inconsolable numbness, I collect
Earthworms and gravel in this graveyard’s soil.

I hold the grieving stones in my mouth
And let the sounds be my words of sorrow.

I loose myself thinking of our concrete cartoon passings.
Marvelous dreams happen in drawn nothing memories.

At the lonely end of the wooden bar at the great whisky a-go-go
Don't come the old boy scout at me sunshine; come have a drink!

Get out your black silks and a smile;
I told you, I would love going to his funeral.

The Celadon Room

To conduct this orchestra he will need help
He feels around blindly for the heaviest pen

There are empty colorful candy wrappers in the desk
His eyes are softly closed and her gentle mouth is open

He stares at the small pile of tobacco and rolls a cigarette
The computer screens glow green making the room celadon

I feel unsafe
She is alone

An orange cat is sleeping on the dirty laundry
The dogs are out hunting in the nearby woods

There is a man walking on the sidewalk
His hands are in his pockets
The police say he is dangerous

The signal is given
There is an absence of darkness
The menu means nothing

There are no second choices in this performance
How he contracted malaria is still under investigation

The waters remain untouched
The falling rain enriches the trees

The camera focus on a single silver water droplet
The backdrop is a blacker undertaking than night

The water becomes a ringing phone interrupting sex
A shooting star moves across the blackening backdrop

A young boy is holding the hand of his mother
As they are walking in a well-groomed garden

A spotlight falls over them, illuminating the pair
They look in the mirror hoping to see themselves looking back

Twenty Years On

2011-01-20

In the twenty years since we went to war we find more things to argue about.
There is a round wooden table where many old men sit recounting old glory.

Their arms are on their chins while another of their group articulates a point;
One man is covering his mouth in disbelief, holding back his need to speak.

He said, there were successes to counter the mistakes that were made.
The camera moves its focus to the toy hobbyhorse over their shoulder.

If we could forget the old men and their toys
We could go outside and play with our friends.

Sugared Apple Cake

4 eggs
2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cooking oil
¼ cup fresh orange juice
½ cup milk
3 Teaspoon vanilla

3 cup all-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/4 Teaspoon salt

1 cup walnuts, chopped

2 cup Apples, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
3 Teaspoon sugar
Powdered sugar

With an electric mixer, beat eggs until very light lemon colored and thick. Continue beating, gradually adding sugar. Continue beating and add in the oil, juice, milk and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder and stir into egg mixture. Slowly fold in the walnuts.

Peel the apples and cut into quarters. Remove the core and slice the apples thinly. In a large non-stick cake pan pour one third of the batter. Layer half of the sliced apples evenly on top of the batter. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl and sprinkle on top of the apple. Cover the apples with another third of the batter. Layer half of the sliced apples evenly on top of the batter and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar on top of the apples. Pour the remaining batter on top of the apples.

Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees F. for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Remove from the oven and dust with powdered sugar. Allow to cool and serve.

Classic Rice Pudding

3/4 cup white rice
1 quart Milk
2 cups Water
1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 bay leaf

Put Rice, Milk, Water, Sugar and bay leaf and lemon zest into a heavy bottomed pot. Place on stove top under a medium flame, stir frequently. Let cook until the rice soaks up most of the milk.

Turn off heat and remove the bay leaf. Get ready to add in the following ingredients:

1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons of Sugar

Mix the egg and egg yolks, cream and sugar into a bowl. Whip them well to be sure they are fluffy. Bring the bowl to the hot rice mixture on the stove. Take a ladleful of the hot rice and stir into the egg and cream mix. Do this is to temper the eggs and cream so they do not cook too quickly and turn into scrambled eggs :-) Once this is done add this back into the rice mix and stir on a low flame for five minutes.

Take off the stove and put rice pudding into a container and cool :-)