Monday, January 20, 2020

Freedom Rocks




image from fineartsamerica.com


Freedom Rocks

“We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth
Rock landed on us.”--Malcolm X.

If rocks could talk, the one at Plymouth,
Massachusetts would have a lot to say. Long
venerated as the site where William Bradford,
and the Mayflower pilgrims landed in 1620. Yet
the 20,000 lb. gob of granite was more a
landmark than a stepping stone.

It’s considered a symbol of both the virtues and
the flaws of the English immigrants who colonized
New England. But the writings of the time never
mention the Rock. Today only one third of it remains;
chipped away by tourists. 

I would like to think of it as Freedom Rock, a real
symbol of repressed immigrants who sailed to the
New World in small ships, who searched for religious 
freedom and a new start; something that’s been 
overlooked by populists at present. The Rock cries out 
to us today: You may stand upon me, but do not hide
your face.


Glenn Buttkus

Prosery

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Thursday, January 16, 2020

From Calabria




image from italia.it.com


From Calabria

‘Not every father gets a chance to start his son off
in his own footsteps.”--Alan Ladd.

Midnight, June 14th, 2019. I sit alone in the
darkness, weeping.

“My heavy heart has developed helium stanchions.
My disabled feet have new ankle wings. My troubled
soul is now mantled in rainbows. My DNA is no longer 
lost, it now has the gift of a musty helix map. My
malevolent curiosity has slain no one. My quest has
ended with treasure. My inexorable inquiries have
born blossoms. My lungs fill with Mediterranean 
love mist.

My father, 25 years post-mortem, has reached out
from beyond the stars to hug me with his dead arms,
to embrace me with his dead lips, to recognize me
with his dead eyes, for, it turns out, I am his first
born son--whom he was aware of, but never met.
I have spent 74 years weighed down with ignorance.
plagued with dark doubts--but for my birthday, the
universe and Ancestry.com filled in the blank over
“biological father” with the most wonderful of names,
Frank Herman Pellegrino. 



Glenn Buttkus

Soliloquy

Posted over at  dVerse Poets Pub

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Lion Hunter




Ernest Hemingway from pinterest.com


Lion Hunter

“The old man was dreaming about the lions.”
--THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Ernest Hemingway.

In the 1950’s, Frederick Brightburn hunted lions.
He traveled to Africa with Hemingway’s and
Hollywood’s depiction of the “Great White Hunter”
carved into his cortex. He booked his first safari, 
and showed up with marksman skills using his new
.375 H&H Magnum rifle, bolt action, peep sights,
holding six CZ 550 cartridges.

He only killed the male lions, having their heads
stuffed for displaying in his trophy room.
On his fourth safari, in 1962, he had a guide who
chose to educate him about lions. He learned that
lions are the only big cats that live in family groups
called prides; three males and a half dozen females
and their cubs. It turns out that the females do all
the hunting. The males are only good for procreation
and pride security.

He became so enamored of lions that he retired his
rifles, and began using Nikon cameras to hunt with.
His photographs became so popular that National
Geographic put him on their staff. For 40 years he
traveled across Africa shooting his wonderful images.
His pictures of the maneless males in Kenya won
several awards. In his 80’s, his health declined, and
he was restricted to a wheelchair. He became an
activist, fighting against the killing of lions.

The lions came to play
only in his dreams now; they
were never afraid.



Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Monday, January 13, 2020

Lion versus Bear




image from nationalgeographic.com


Lion versus Bear

Lions and tigers, and bears, oh my.”
--Dorothy from WIZARD OF OZ.

When the Romans
used to pit
a bear versus a lion
in an arena,
the roars were
deafening.


The bear would stand
10’ tall, and swat
the lion down
repeatedly.

With each swat
pounds of flesh
were torn off;
bears always
were victors.



Glenn Buttkus

Quadrille

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Blackthorne--Episode 107




image from pinterest.com


Blackthorne

Cinemagenic 107

Brotherhood

“We have never preached violence, except the
violence of love, of brotherhood, which left Christ
nailed to the cross.”--Oscar A. Romero.

1(two-shot)
Johnny: Yes, it hurts to talk, but without
the talking, there is only the pain.”
Buck: Do you have a woman somewhere?
Johnny: Am I not a man?
Buck: Muy bueno.
Johnny: Mucho senora, and sons--but none like you.
Buck: I am honored.
2(sound cue) harmonica and Indian branch flute.
Johnny: The pain dulls, but I tremble with chills
and sweat. I do not want to close my eyes.
Buck: I will hold you and share my light.
Johnny: Yes, yes, for the darkness closes in, and
it is full of red eyes and white fangs.
Buck: I am here.
Johnny: You know I love you.
Buck: And I love you, brother.
3(steadi-cam shot during the conversation,
slowly circling the pair)
Johnny: I waited for you. I promised your father,
with the freight wheel tracks across his chest, 
with his dying breath.
Buck: Voices on the wind compelled me to
return, to pick up the pieces of the past, to
rebuild this rancho.
Johnny: He knew you would come, and I knew
it too; besides, I had nowhere to go. Waiting for
you became my sunshine.
Buck: You had never met me, how could you wait?
Johnny: I had met you in my heart, through your
father’s stories. But you are wrong--I did see you
once.
Buck: When?
4(sound cue) piano and guitar.
Johnny: It was after the death of your father. I was
camped near here when you showed up. I watched
you visit the graves, and I followed you into town--
but I never approached you. If you were to
stay, you would have, but you didn’t. You drank
and then rode like hell into the night on a black
horse. I had already been where you were
going, so I waited for you to come back.
Buck: Thank-you.
5(medium close-ups) lantern light flickering in
their faces, shadows dancing in their eyes.
6(sound cue) coyotes yipping and howling.
Johnny: Some men are together for ten minutes,
and things are in balance, blue sky in an eternity
of blow sand.
Buck: So true for us, and you are a poet.
Johnny: We see the same buffalo, we share the
same pain.
Buck: You may close your eyes, old one...rest.
I will let nothing pull you from my arms.
Johnny: Never, I will not even close my eyes at
death. I will see past death. I will watch the 
vultures pick at my body on my scaffold.
Buck: You talk much of death
Johnny: Because it is near.
Buck: It comes for these scum we have killed. 
They lie all about us like slaughtered sheep.
Johnny: Put me with your family.
Buck: I tell you that you will live to put me with my
father. Do not befriend death; not yet.
Johnny: For you, I cannot die. I need to take your
sons fishing.
They laughed, but it sounded like a whimper. He
relaxed, and put his own head on the saddle next
to Johnny. Suddenly he was very tired. He could
hear a chorus of coyotes over the faint crackle of
hot embers. The smell of charred flesh was in the 
air. Buck closed his eyes.
7(medium close-up) Johnny stared unblinkingly,
as he lie cuddled in Buck’s arms. He slowly let
his heavy lids flutter, then close. He had a small
smile on his lips.



Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub OLN

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

What's the Matter?




image from reddit.com


What’s the Matter?

“I think that God, in the beginning, formed matter
in sold, hard, massy, impenetrable moveable
particles.”--Issac Newton.

Do we really understand
much about the basic 
properties of matter?

I mean
what the hell
is the difference between
a lead pipe and iron bars?
Is steel stronger
than both of them?
If so, of course
the Man of Steel could
kick Iron Man’s ass?
When does lead
morph into graphite?
When your libido wanes,
do you have less lead in your pencil?

Why did they pump helium
into dirigibles, but blow
oxygen into balloons?
Is aluminum lighter than tin?
What kind of metal
made up medieval suits of armor?
The modern copies are made of steel.

Why is gold more fetching than silver?
Yet silverware is more popular than goldware.
Why did Paul Revere choose
to be a silversmith rather than a goldsmith?
Are there gold tea sets?
Are Trump’s toilets only gold plated?

Is there any silver in chrome?
Actually chrome is an alloy
made from steel, aluminum, copper or zinc,
then it’s applied to bright nickel plating.

Coins can be confusing too.
Is there any nickel in a nickel?
Is there much copper in a penny?
When did they start putting copper
into the middle of silver dollars?
How much gold was put into
a twenty dollar gold piece?
Strange that statues and lamps
are made out of brass, but old
plumbing is made out of copper.
I guess brass is an alloy
made out of copper and zinc.

I wonder how much different
the elements will be on Mars
or beyond, on astroids and in
other star systems?

Metaphysically, matter only exists
because we will it to, since we shared
in God’s creations as co-creators.
As per usual, the more we learn,
the less we can grasp.


Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub

Monday, January 6, 2020

Sieve of Eratosthenes




image from matematiklase.com


Sieve of Eratosthenes

“Hang onto your dreams,
for if dreams die, 
life is a broken-winged bird
that cannot fly.”--Langston Hughes.

My wife and I worked with the blind for decades.
We felt that the year 2020 would have special
significance for us. 20/20 represents perfect
visual acuity. 2020 is the inception of a new
decade that could/should represent Hope--
like those Obama campaign posters; contrasted
to the Trump posters that read Nope, Dope, and
Trope.

But 2020 dawned like a dangerous dragon, bring-
ing chaos, fire, and death. Trump hovers over our
nuclear arsenal like Dr. Strangelove on opioids. The
Middle East remains a bellicose quagmire, a bloody
cauldron, swaying to the tune of Death to Infidels.
From space, Australia looks like a nuclear bomb test
site, an angry lesion on the bottom of the planet.
Trump’s deserved impeachment remains half-done,
like legal divorce papers missing a second signature,
like slapping your bad dog with a rolled-up newspaper
after he just killed 500 chickens for sport.

So here we are, holding funerals for extinct glaciers,
rattling our sabers in time with the strident Farsi
throat warbles, attending fascist rallies, and killing
Jews during High Holy Days. Before we can tout
new beginnings, we must push Capt. Bly into his
lifeboat, choose a new captain, and chart a new
course; for the edge of the world beckons.

Holidays wither.
We must make ready, planting
strong seeds and grand hopes. 



Glenn Buttkus

Haibun

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub