P A T I E N C E

I have come to Southern Chile's
Ortway Bay, seeking
Magellanic Penguins.

I walk the weathered,
wooden boardwalk
toward the sea,
            just beyond carpeted grasslands.

High-tide waves
                    crash nearby.

There they are - among
bleached driftwood and the
continually battered boulders.

Nestled together -
cluster of young penguins,
attired in rock-grey and dull white.

Standing in patient silence.

They await an inborn urge to
venture into krill-rich waters -
and the risk of
being snatched up by roving,
hungry seals.

As night falls,
the young penguins
return to the security of
their birthing burrows.

Bougainvillea Trinity

Bougainvillea Trinity

                  Go ahead . . .

         show your three-partite
              bracts to the sun.

               Delight the eye.

                       Fade . . .

                   then spiral
                  earthbound.

               Solar-powered
                    pinwheel.



-The Bougainvillea is such an unusual vine.
 What you would assume to be its flowers . . .
  are actually colorful bracts. (The flowers are
  tiny and hardly to be seen.) Our Bougainvillea
  vines are in pots and we move them outside to
  grace the deck in the spring, summer, and fall.
  Then, it's back inside for the winter.

Never At A Loss

    Why is it so rare
      for a person to
     starve, while at
         the beach?

   They can always
            eat the

sand which is
       there.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Years ago . . . while in seminary in Washington DC . . .
I was standing on a corner with a gang of inner-city
youth in the, then infamous, Second Precinct.

At the time, it was the city's most crime-ridden area.
I was meeting with black, junior-high youth who
lived in the area's run-down tenements.

A helicopter flew low overhead. It blared out:
"President Kennedy has been shot."

The gang shouted at me, don't leave - stay.
They ran off, soon returning with scrapbooks filled
with newspaper clippings and photos of Kennedy
and Cassius Clay . . . their two heroes.

I will never forget standing there with Oliver, Donny,
Sonny, Charles, and their leader JT. Tears were shed.
We hugged.

A tragedy beyond imagination.

F a k e r s

Twaats can be fake,
     tweets are fake, but
          twiits are not fake -

                most of the time.

There can be
     fake twoots . . .
           fake twuuts.

I know all of the above
     for sure,
            because
                I've seen a
                     thing or two.

One thing is for sure . . .
     and Rene' Decartes*
             would never lie,

I think, therefore I am.


                     *Rene' Descartes (1596-1650), philosopher and
                                  mathematician, is regarded as the originator of
                                  modern philosophy and for defining a starting
                                  point for existence . . .
                                                      I think, therefore I am.
                                               

Why Breathe?

Breathing in,
     breathing out.
          28,800 cycles
                on a good day.
Not boring -
     in the least.

Minnesota Fat Cat's Annual Column / Rant

It's that time of the year again. But, this year is so
unprecedented, that if I wrote it up and tried to
publish it, no publisher would touch it. I'd be told
no one would believe it because it was too . . .
       you pick a word for it.

Now, I know it is my public duty to emerge and
check out my shadow. But if you think I am going
to even stick my paw out, you are crazy. It clearly
is not safe out there.

Besides, if you looked out the window this morning,
there was so much sunshine . . . there is no question
about shadows. There is a very large shadow looming
over the land -- the man I wrote about last year -- the
one with the orange hair.

I have been watching TV, at least some of the time.
Don't want to make myself sick (or crazy) over what
is on. Instead, I have put in place some precautionary
measures. I have a new back exit, enough food so as
not to starve, and have stopped my newspaper delivery.
I keep my cell phone fully charged.

Punxsutawney Phil, a couple of DC cousins who live
in Rock Creek Park, and I were going to head south
to Cancun for some winter relief. You know, laze around
on the beach getting a good tan, and sip on margaritas
and those little coladas with the cute umbrellas. But we
decided to cancel the trip. Being brown and not white,
we were afraid of being detained at the border as Mexican
rapists and drug dealers.

Going north into Canada, where sanity prevails, trades the
beach for skis and snowshoes. Not my cup of tea.

So, I have kept my bag all packed in case I need to make a
quick getaway.

As best as I can figure, the administration strategy is to make
even money by being King of the World, alienate all of
America's allies, and use the GOP before they catch on that
they are being used. And climate change is a conspiracy
concocted by all those scientists.

I had been thinking of visiting the West's national parks.
But, I understand that they will be used for mining oil and
other minerals.

So . . . I will hole up, watch snippets of news, and wait for
the house of cards to collapse.