Carpe Diem Summer Love + The Tuesday Platform: Love is Love on a Hot Summer Night

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Can you tell me why

It troubles you so badly

To see him love him

Perhaps you would do better

To concern you with yourself

~Cie~

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Ghost Town Grover Sez: "I don't git bothered none with who's zoomin' who. Only thing is I ain't too keen on folks doin' them dang PDAs durin' poker night here at the ole Grover Hotel. I don't care if it's Adam an' Eve or Adam an' Steve or Annie an' Eve. If yer suckin' face is disturbin' my concentration so's I'm losin' every hand to Cactus Clem, I ain't gonna be none too pleased. Git a room, or go out to the swimmin' hole like them fellers in the picture!

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Cactus Clem Sez: "I'm okay with folks givin' each other a kiss fer luck on poker night, 'cause I usually have a really lucky night when they do. 

Support the Grover Hotel Renovation Project! Visit the Good Stuff from Grover blog to follow the misadventures of Cactus Clem, Ghost Town Grover, the Ornery Old Lady, and their friends and family, plus get updates on the renovation proceedings.

You might also consider trying some of this Cactus Candy. Grover and the Ornery Old Lady recommend it, and Cactus Clem certifies that ain't no Cactus People was harmed in the making of this here candy.

Carpe Diem Renga with Jane Reichhold: Placing the Flute

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wind perfumed

from a woman's shoulder

desert night

beauty of the soul hidden

beneath harsh exterior

dancing on the beach

I jab a stick into the sky

to break up the blue

blue for those loved by the world

sky is never blue for me

days so complete

words become the calls of birds

the high tide wind

what would it be to feel joy

satisfied at the day's end

placing the flute

against her lips something

slips into place

stupid girl that I once was

believing I could be more

I'm not old

all night my eyes have held

the ancient stars

I was broken before birth

my heart has never been young

moon white water

lovers in the secret cove

Saturday night

I walk on by full knowing

there is nothing there for me

~Jane & Cie~

Notes:

It's possible that for once in my train wreck of an existence I managed to follow directions and didn't, say, create Troiku where Renga was called for. SMDH at my failure to brain when it comes to even the simplest things.

The Hokku (Haiku) of these Renga were created by Jane Reichhold (1937 - 2016). The Ageku (two-line stanza) were created by me.

Carpe Diem Summer Love 2019: Day 5: Beach Love

Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay

Walking on the beach

Lonely ghost of a lost world

Remembers a day

He walked with his princess

Beside the now toxic sea

For Serab, the Thief of Hearts

Notes:

This poem is part of the Fetch universe, which is part of the Yadira Chronicles.

Serab was a thief who was a member of a persecuted race in the totalitarian kingdom of West Holpry on the planet Zecor (Zetar) 6. The diminutive Serab was brought to the long-suffering Princess Ondina to replace her slain bodyguard as a joke by Ondina's churlish and cruel brother, King Qweh. Ondina, however, did not treat Serab as a joke. In truth, she fell in love with him from the moment of their first meeting. Their story ended tragically as Qweh's ill-advised magic prompted the small sun of the binary Zetar star system to begin consuming energy from its larger companion, eventually causing itself to go nova and flooding the entire system with deadly gamma radiation.

Serab later reincarnated as Gerry Clifford, the primary male protagonist in the Fetch stories, and Ondina reincarnated as Pepper Baiij, a troubled medium and Gerry's love interest. Star-crossed as always, Pepper and Gerry don't meet until the point when Gerry's body is failing and Pepper encounters him astrally.

The story was inspired by several factors, one of them being my decades-long desire to create a back-story for the unfortunately almost universally panned Star Trek episode, The Lights of Zetar, which fascinated and, frankly, scared the living hell out of me. Like the majority of my works, Fetch is primarily a Cthulhu Mythos-based story.

Like the Legend of Seacliffe, Fetch is one of those stories which doesn't get nearly the amount of attention that I'd like to devote to it.

Carpe Diem Summer Love 2019: Day 4: Ice Cream

I Scream, You Scream...

snow fall in belly

adding lusciousness to feast 

vanilla ice cream

snow fall in belly

it had been too long a time

since I had ice cream

adding lusciousness to feast

after our woodworking class

we wished for a treat

vanilla ice cream

was not the flavor chosen

I chose chocolate

~Cie~

Notes:

Even as a child, I always chose chocolate ice cream. I can remember being three years old and my dad was pulling me in a wagon back from the ice cream shop. I had chocolate ice cream on my face, and I was ridiculously happy.

My son feels that butterscotch is a tremendously underrated ice cream and topping flavor. Much to his dismay, they have ceased carrying the butterscotch cone dip at Dairy Queen. However, we went to Baskin Robbins last night, and they had a new butterscotch flavor ice cream.