Today,
I’m picketing injustice
with my son’s guitar.
Time to learn
how to play.
A rainy picket day
may as well bring new skills,
since there’s no other pay.
poem-dying
One tumour
one bed
two hands clasped
four walls
five chairs
eleven shallow breaths a minute
twenty-four syringes of pain meds
counting down now
four days since you ate
five days since you spoke
how many hours
of life?
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.
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Good bye Auntie Linda
who passed away at 10 p.m. June 26, 2014
apparently moments before I wrote this poem.
I’d been with her at 9 p.m.
.
poem- after June 25, 2014
After he came to her bed
she threw out her make up,
grew her hair over her face,
and zipped up a blubber suit.
After he came to her bed
she faded into a gossamer ghost,
hidden in plain sight.
poem- greedy June 24, 2014
I want
sun on your shoulders
breeze in your hair
speed in your feet
you with
me.
harp tune-Suo Gan
Here is Suo Gân, a Welsh lullaby, arranged by me and dedicated to David Prosser of the Barsetshire Diaries.
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My paternal great-grandmother was Margaret Owen, born in Holyhead, Wales. She was married to Thomas Mosses of London, England. About the only time the two appear to have been together is on their marriage certificate. According to many years of census data, Margaret was alone from the time of the marriage onward. My grandfather was David Owen Mosses. I wonder if single mother Margaret ever sang this lullaby to young David?
.
(And if you happen to be a Mosses from Liverpool or London, I’d love to hear from you).
poem-darkness June 23, 2014
The porch swing rocks
beneath a speckled sky.
Mosquito hums fill the air;
black wings swoop overhead
in invisible rustlings,
swallowing music.
micropoem- illicit scent June 22, 2014
The perfume from
these stolen peonies
seems extra sweet.
.
.
.
(Lest you think I stalk the neighbourhood, masked, with scissors in hand looking for floral victims: the peonies in question were bending onto my driveway from a peony bush in a bed so overgrown I don’t think the neighbours even know the bush is there!).
Shawn L. Bird 
political statement- BC teachers’ strike June 26, 2014
Tags: BCTF, strike, teachers
This is why teachers in BC are on strike.
I find most people in our community understand that we’re out for a reason and they are *very* supportive: bringing us food, coffee, waving, honking, etc.
Occasionally people shout “Get back to work, you lazy SOBS!” (Not many- about one or two a day) We are sorry the education system was able to teach these people neither how important it is to research an issue before you articulate an opinion, nor how important it is for people to stand up for themselves against illegal actions from their government. We’ll stand up for the kids of even those uninformed people.
For details, here is a very entertaining and accurate presentation about why every working person in BC needs to be alarmed about this government, why teachers voted in such numbers to walk. If they can do this to the teachers, they can do it to you.
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I am the BCTF.
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