Thinking back to the days when kids
were running around here,
when cows were mooing, roosters
crowing, dogs barking and cats
meowing – life.
Unlike now when there’s only
mechanical clatter of machines –
sometimes.
– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)
Note
This was written to accompany the photo, which shows a tree next to the remains of what used to be a farm (Lazio, Italy, southeast of Rome).
Rome, July 31, 2024
Burning heat, sometimes
crying of children, howling
of dogs, power cuts.
– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)
Note
Razor-edge-of-time reporting from the climate change front.
Discarded technology
Title chosen in variation of lyrics by Tom Rush ("no regrets / no tears good-bye").
Once a means of communication, now a piece of high-tech trash carelessly thrown away. Photographed in Rome, but this could be just about anywhere on the planet.
– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)
Photo credit
AI - no real people or cars are shown here.
But, more importantly, what is its content?
– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)
Note
Inspired by a similarly titled poem by Kathryn Bevis, which has lots of detailed content, I came across at the Poetry Society UK site. I decided to not only question the title of the poem but also the content, thus taking it up one notch.
That was one particular April in 2014, when it had been drizzling, raining cats and dogs and hailing in turn and I was working at this farm somewhere in the boonies of southern Germany, where the rough charm and ruddy looks of one Mr. Rolf Pralad had brought me. One of his favorite songs was Neil Young’s “A man needs a maid” – he’d told me that before I arrived there, but I had no idea how literally he understood the title.
I learned to get up early, feed the animals, milk the cows, make breakfast, clean the place, etc. In turn I initially got some loving, but that faded after a short time.
It was towards the end of April, and it was still raining, I kid you not, when he tossed me out because his old girlfriend had come back.
“I don’t deserve this, Rolf!”
“A matter of opinion.”
“What has she got that makes her better than me?”
“Well, for one she is blonde, and I prefer blondes, and then –”
“Then what?”
“I don’t want to insult you, Karo.”
“Well, you’ve done plenty of that already, Rolf. I deserve better.”
“You don’t. Get lost!”
Upon which he threw out my suitcase, pushed me out the door and slammed it shut in my face.
But his dog Pummel followed me, and now, ten years later, I still have that dog – a heavenly creature compared to his former master.
– Kathleen Mulholland (© 2024)
Author's note: Story not my own. Loosely based on a video game (see lo-fi clip above).
Read today we should
all be grateful for any-
thing and everything
– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)
Note
I really did read that today somewhere on the oh so social media. “Anything and everything” would include drab streets, right? Like the Roman street with its crumbling brutalist architecture eternalized in the photo above.
PS:
Anyone interested in drab street photos like the one shown here please get in touch!
Dedicated to Alessandro
There we go.
And now.
That’s what I need.
Next.
A bucket.
This goes here.
Shit.
Dropped it all.
A broom.
Now what.
Needs to dry.
What is this.
Nothing.
Damn.
No way.
Next thing I need.
Found it.
Now that.
Doesn’t work at all.
Maybe it will.
All OK.
– Nicole Weiß (© 2024)
Author’s note
Yesterday, the handyman Alessandro S. was working in my house. This short story is more or less based on things he mumbled to himself while he was going about his work.
Translation from German. The German version was published here.
Drop sideways onto
bed in desperation, then
sad eyes on pillow
– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2024)
Note
Inspired by watching yet another South Korean TV series – Dr. Slump (2024). The photo is a film still of actress Park Shin-hye in a scene from this series.
