the smashed glass bits and pieces of it smiled up at him from the road through and in between the sodden leaves who were enjoying their last hurrah before the air and sun dried them and they were crushed by car tires and footfalls and dispersed like ash by soft breezes

We were a bottle once they chorused A Lagunitas they agreed

Thats a good beer

Yes 

Then we were emptied and smashed                 

Weve probably flattened a half dozen tires

Are you smiling brightly because of the tires youve made flat

We made flatWe didnt smash ourselves

We were a happy community

We were happy having a purpose

What purpose have we now

they had a point

Okay  Then why the brightness the jewel-like glittering   It was one of my kind that smashed you

You shouldnt assume that responsibility They were unlike you

After all youve paused to talk with us

Well  I have an affection for the inanimate

You do  And most of your kind as you say do not

Well  most of my kind are thoughtless

Then all the more the reason not to shoulder we can say their sin and shame

Ahwell  Ignorance knows no bounds

You are not ignorant

I am not  And if I find I am I try to rectify my ignorance learn my error and not make that mistake again

Living life should give us that

It should We agree

Well then  We have an agreement

Yes

he bent and gathered their bits and pieces in the cup of his hand and curtailing his walk he returned home and scattered them on the potted soil at the feet of Iggy the Fig

he made them Iggys guardians

1339,  Twosday,  20  12. 16

wisdom   or wisdumb

               I think were about to get an enormous dose of wisdumb(a Derbys Dose  --  and if you dont know what that is then you better look it up)

Joe Strummer of The Clash said “Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom . . . but I could see . . . (it) was only a system of control. And it didn’t have any inherent wisdom.”

when The Clash sang in Rock the Casbah  Shareef dont like it  I think Drumpf thought with his election he was going to be the new Sheriff in town  his error however likely wasnt unpresidented  I could imagine lotsa English-speaking people thought the song was about a sheriff

and Id bet its better odds than a simple coin-toss that wisdumb demonstrably wins out over wisdom

1303,  Monday,  26  12. 16

"Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom," Strummer said in Westway to the World.  http://www.npr.org/2012/12/20/167651279/joe-strummers-life-after-death

Clash  Rock the Casbah  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15FfWj11uys

Drumpfs misspelled tweet (among many)  http://heavy.com/news/2016/12/donald-trump-tweets-unpresidented-unprecedented-china-funny-twitter/

the walnut tree was cut down

from his back porch the view to where it stood   the unfurled canvas he looked on every day for four years was abruptly altered  a magnificent piece ripped away  the walnuts wide-spread up-lifted branches enfeebled by disease dropping finger after finger lichen-encrusted debris had persisted

trees dont take a bullet to the brain and die

their deaths have a distinct art

only when the demands of its sheer weight can no longer be throttled does it collapse

his bet was that the walnut wouldnt fall for years

it didnt have strong winds to suffer as it stood on the lee of a hill behind the house or would it have to endure brutal rains freezes or snow  this was California 

it would let go when its cellulose came unbound  and not before

his landlords thought different

they acted to protect their interest which they said were his too   
                                                 the tree threatened the house

A threatening tree  he asked  wondering if the walnut thought itself threatening was as absurd as he didhis thought-process informed by all the houses he lived in since a boy were razed

he wondered in kind if a tree would kill him or a house would fall on his head(there were worse ways to die)

he wasnt able to communicate to them the absurdity implied by their tree threat  The house the housethehouse was their mantra and fixation 

so they had it cut down

and like the family cats whose deaths he witnessed he too witnessed the walnuts dismemberment
it hewed limb from limb

it was all he could do 

he failed it 

he circled the tree ran his hands across its aged husky trunk and gently slapped it as the bucket the treecutter and chainsaw descended from overhead

it was his punishment

he loved trees  

he nurtured and replanted apricot seedlings from the yard to make amends  tending the ones he could and cajoled for the care of those he gave away

his daughter took three

she teased Youre becoming Johnny Apricotseed

when he visited it was good for his heart to see that they flourished

Whats Dad doing her husband asked

she laughed Hes visiting his children

and when he helped her put up jam he tasted what solace should taste like  sweet and delicious

their flesh anointing him

Johnny Apricotseed  

hed been called worse

he put out his cigar

he took another sip of beer

despite the canvas was rent the tree was gone    
                                     it still lived in his eyes

1343,  Sunday,  11  12. 16