Day: August 26, 2023

storiesstories

i chose to tell you a story you could understand
you were children, barely awake

i knew if i told you fifteen billion years
you’d never believe me
and a number that big would be meaningless to you
you were just learning to count up to twenty

so i told you it took me a week
children’s stories for children

later i told you the story of how i was my own son and could die for you
and how there were some useful things you could learn if you thought about this
even took it to heart

more a story for adolescents than for children
a riddle to challenge growing minds

now you’ve come all this way—lately you’ve grown so fast!—
so let me tell you another story
you can’t have nothing unless you have something
and if you have anything you have to have everything

as for the rest of it, you’re on your own

(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

one cat sleepsone cat sleeps

house’s air laden
with fragrance of cooking bacon

two cats sleep cat-sleep on wall-to-wall carpet

siva dances on her infant in the kitchen
cracks eggs
stirs batter
slices peppers
squeezes oranges into juice

krishna marvels
stringing cobra heads into a garland

one cat wakes
one cat sleeps

(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)

“The more you drive a man, the less he will do.” – Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast