haiku for volcano and richard murdock

good job volcano
for being better than richard murdock
we like you volcano

I was about to watch the debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, and I was a little early and there were these negative political adds on TV.  Negative adds really disturb me so I changed the channel to NOVA on PBS, or maybe it was NATURE.  On the screen was a volcano which was erupting, it was on the beach and the lava was touching the ocean water and instantly boiling it.  The cameraman went underwater in one shot following the molten lava underwater as it cooled and turned into black, very hot rock called 'pillow lava'.

I realized that nature shows are so enjoyable because they are Positive.  they say, hey look at the world and how awesome and grand it is, NOT oh you stupid volcano we hate you for existing.  I realized that there is something fundamentally, inherently, self-evidently better about building something up as beautiful and wonderful rather than pointing out how disgusting someone is.

three things

three things:

(1) conversation can be dangerous

(2) counting is hard

and finally

(3) you're a smart cookie, you'll figure it out




(extra bonus) life is not a dream, you can't just pee anywhere you want

zero recall

i had a thought

it lasted for a moment

then it was gone

it changed the way i look at things, but

i'm not sure what change was made.

it's kind of like not remembering what it was like

to not know how to read

when you are a kid

this happens all the time, and you wouldn't even know it.

i mean how many times does a kid radically change his veiwpoint of the world

like on a daily basis

and when they are older, do they remember it?

the point, as if i had one, is this: think all the time,

think about lots of things, and figure a lot of stuff out,

and don't worry to write it down, or to feel bad

when you can't remember your good ideas. the point

it's not whether you recall, but just that you have stretched your mind.

"a mind once stretched never returns to it's original dimensions," I think the guy from Star Trek said that, but I'm not really sure.

cheater

she heard him coming, so she concentrated hard on doing all the things that people do when they are NOT cheating. It bothered her that she kept hearing him coming from behind. Clockwise around and around, always clockwise. but she didn't think about this, all she knew was that it was always from behind.

now he's far in front, sitting down again, she's almost done.

"lemme see your test". the girl next to her wispers mutely without moving her lips. she makes the "t" sound by clicking her tongue on her upper teeth. without looking, the girl hands the answer sheet under his line of sight...

"hurry up," he'll be coming back soon, she thought. the girl sitting next to her wasn't exactly a friend. maybe it was because they shared some after-school behaviors that they always sat together in the back of class. she was kind of getting bored with it, though. a few minutes pass, the girl sitting next to her didn't say anything, she just put the answer sheet on the floor.
then, she put on her coat and walked up to the TA at the front of the hall, who hadn't moved at all during this whole time. she didn't look at him and handed her test out to him.

"what was that, a calculator?" he asked.

Startled out of her reinforced blank expression, the girl quickly recovered. "no, uh she lent me a pencil." "oh, ok then, see you."

As the girl walked out, towards the back of the hall, she didn't notice the girl who gave her the test, furiously erasing all the marks she had put on the exam sheet before time ran out, and methodically, carefully, put the right answers back in their place.

what if butterflies...

what if butterflies
had big teeth, and angry
eyes, evil breath, and bitten
those smitten not mild a death
would most quickly come and pain
would ensue to those around a terrible
flu, I bet sure and through that
niether me nor you would care too much
about those flying few that
humans did spare, from poison or
fire, but butterfly we would
call it not, but rather a hellfly
a demon or what ever the name
the same would be true for
any nice creature that
turned into something
so very not nice, like
rats, bats, fleas, and lice
but why are these things particularly
bad, do they harm or what do
they do, they hurt us
humans, yes this much is
true, but we hurt back
far worse than they do, in
any case, justice this
is not, but human
we are, and
imperfect our lot