Bone stones

best found without seeking
two lines of limestones
parallel or close enough
walked past for three decades
wooded streamside
spring head
never spoke until its time
then was there
had been there

a body's length and width
dark soil between
no bed for sugar arch
perhaps for bones
mindless recognitions
some spirit sleeps here
or passed here
cairn not to be disturbed
at least by me
i stop and leave respect

Somehow...

...it has gotten to be summer of a sort. Nothing as debauched as leaves on trees, but the first eighty degree day has arrived and passed and one of the forsythias is actually blooming. Most years none of the forsythias manage to bloom - too many warm days followed by hard frosts. With the first three quarters of April having been in dull gray wet mode, the buds have survived.

World Views

A piece on NPR this evening discussed the State Department's reticence in providing evidence of the Iran government's claimed provision of arms to [whoever the enemy is]. The commentator stated that the administration believes Iran must be behind attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq because the increasing sophistication, coordination and effectiveness of the attacks could only happen with the backing of a government.

I was struck by the parallel between this assertion and the intelligent design school of creationism. The model is the same: no complex pattern of behavior can be exhibited without an identifiable governing intelligence as cause.

We have here a structural foundation for the administrations's repeated inability to understand and effectively deal with real situations, be they domestic or foreign - the need to have an immutable doctrine and an identifiable unitary other who governs events. In the recent hurricane, local governments were the other. In Iraq, Hussein, and now Iran have been selected for the role.

In reality, Mr. Bush and his chosen advisers are facing and cannot recognize a form of free market activity. A set of individuals or groups who incrementally improve improvised explosive devices and their delivery do not require more than roughly common goals and the means to share information on what worked and what didn't. The innovative, the lucky, the experienced survive and thus evolve. No politbureau is required.

There can be no reasonable expectation that, given its background, the Bush administration will learn the art of pragmatism. Without eyes, one can not see.

Mandolin

My uncle Tommy used to play the mandolin, old songs like Lily Marlene, and a long time after he died I got up the courage to ask my last remaining aunt for it. She gave it to me last fall, maybe, and it's a cheap Harmony Monterey.

The soundboard was separating from the body, the tailpiece was 1/4" off center as originally delivered, the bridge was way too high...

I got a luthier friend to reglue the soundboard, took the rest of the bits apart and cleaned them, and ordered a new set of strings. The instrument then sat in my study for months.

Today I drilled new holes and remounted the tailpiece, and strung it up.I sort of remember from racial memory or something that you coil the extra length of each string to keep it out of the way.

Now I am looking at it and wondering if I have the courage and persistence to learn to play some Holy Modal Rounders songs.