Emancipated

“A little backbone once in a while wouldn’t cheapen your dangle,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

I’d just apologized to the waiter for the fact that she had ordered a Dos Equis and that he had brought her a Tres Equis.

When, in fact, I was pretty sure she’d said Tres Equis.

Now what the hell was her meaning?

Which is exactly what I asked her.

“It means that you should learn to stand up to some people, my dear man. And it would not hurt that swagger of yours I love so much,” she laughed and slapped me in the area of my bum – which she couldn’t quite get to because we were seated.

Reading between the lines is sometimes difficult.

What she really was trying to say might be, “Stand up to others as much as you like, but be wax in my dainty little hands.”

However, there definitely had been some innuendo in the dangle.

So that I was not entirely surprised when she suggested going back to our room after a while.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2016)

Written around the words backbone, cheapen and dangle from 3WW.

The Martin Shkreli haiku

There he goes crowing
and smirking: the cockiest
cock on the dunghill.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2016)

Note
This one was prompted by this morning’s news on France 24, where it was said that Martin Shkreli might easily be America’s most hated man nowadays.

The early morning dog haiku

Barking. The shrill kind,
a smallish yelp. Ecstatic
to have done a job.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2016)

Note
I hope this renders the facts as experienced from my early morning office: the yelp of a dog being walked somewhere in the vicinity. Saw neither the dog nor its walker. The job is my interpretation. Alas, many of these jobs can be encountered in the vicinity.

The Ansel Adams haiku

Oak tree, grassy hill,
fence posts in bottom foreground,
color, faded some.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2016)

Note
It’s a little known fact that the American photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1984), who is famous for his monochrome photographs of American landscapes, also experimented with color photography. This poem is a direct reference to one of his color photos, which can be seen online here. The first two lines actually consist of the photo’s matter-of-fact description at the Center for Creative Photography site.

The photographable interior haiku

Oh how I'd love to
have a photographable
interior! Oh!

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2016)

Notes
Welcome to this new year's first poetic product. It was triggered by looking at pictures of stylish interiors on tumblr. Sad to say, our interior at this point does not look like interior design mag material. It is as pictured above. And, contrary to some of those stylish pictures, it looks lived in...

Rude

"My internal monologue started ..."
"Keep it internal!"

- Leonard Blumfeld ((c) 2015)

Note
Inspired by some chatty piece I encountered in a blog a minute ago. After reading the first few words and glimpsing the length of it (considerable), I knew I would have no patience for these monologic outpourings of a literary soul.

The alone at home haiku

Alone at home with
two hibernating turtles
and some silverfish.

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2015)

Note
The truth and nothing but the naked truth. That’s all, folks, for now.

The all is well in the tv series haiku

Metal impact, tires
screeching, sirens, megaphone,
explosions and shots.

- Leonard Blumfeld ((c) 2015)

Note
This is what I heard from the living room below as an episode of Quantico or some such series was unrolling.

The situation in central Italy haiku

Wild pigs in the streets, 
trash scandal and regular 
bus service delays.

- Leonard Blumfeld ((c) 2015)

Note
Once again, nothing but the truth in a haiku. Today's newspaper, quickly perused at the breakfast bar, reported on wild pigs in the streets of Ostia. A photo graphically demonstrating the lack of garbage removal at Viale F. T. Marinetti was published in the press a few days ago. And the bus service has been sporadic, erratic or simply nonexistent. Supposedly because the bus drivers have not been paid in months.

The undulation haiku

An undulation
through the wall – sufi music
or vacuum cleaner

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2015)

Note
Again the truth and nothing but the truth as it happened a while ago. Considering that this musical event did not last very long and did not develop, I now suspect that it was indeed the vacuum cleaner run at low speed to pick up a specific moderate mess and not the alaap of an Indian music piece.