Dream
by Ron Olsen
There were three in the room
Two men and a girl
Standing there
Without expression
Looking back at me
Dressed mostly in black
They were dead
That I knew
And they would not talk
Even while I implored
“Talk to me”
And so one did
The older one
Apparently in charge
“Exorcism 101” he said
As he shut the door in my face
© 2015 Ron Olsen / all rights reserved
(The “You Are The Star” mural at Hollywood and Wilcox, Hollywood, CA. USA –
painted by Thomas Suriya photo: flickr)
The Mural’s Secrets
by Ron Olsen
If you look deeply enough
Far Inside
With courage, daring and flare
Beyond the troubles of everyday life
The issues of mundane care
There you will see
Looking back at you
Dietrich, Monroe and Gable
Issuing the simple demand
“Carry on if you can
Join us if you are able”
“Would you act?
Would you act?
Would you dare to join us and act?”
“Have you the courage for it?
To bare your soul and act?
Have you the magic to show your true self
Will you join us and seal the pact?”
As soon as they appeared
They drifted away
Fading to black upstage right
Leaving me there
Forlorn and bereft
Confused and alone in the night
And then from the darkness a voice in my ear
So close that it gave me a fright
“I’m neither your daughter
Your sister
Or dad
I’m neither your mother, too”
“I’m the essence of all
That drives the stage
Brave Ulysses
And William’s brew”
From downstage center
The little tramp appeared
Looking humble in all his might
Warning me time was ticking away
That my power would soon take flight
“Join us if you dare” he taunted me
“If you have the courage and peak
Cast the one that you are aside
And become the other you seek”
“If you can’t do that
Then go away
You’ll not join us here on the wall
Just go away and remember the day
When you dreamed of having it all”
© 2015 Ron Olsen – all rights reserved
Ron Olsen is an LA-based retired journalist who writes essays and an occasional poem. More of his poetry can be found here.
Nathaniel is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University
Here is a find! From the University of Pennsylvania, Mp3 readings by Mackey Penn Sound. include the excellent recordings from Song of the Andoumboulou
Nathaniel Mackey has won Yale’s 2015 Bollingen Prize for Poetry. Past winners includes Marianne Moore, ee e cummings, Ezra Pound, and Wallace Stevens.
[tubepress mode=”tag” tagValue=”nathaniel mackey reads” resultsPerPage=”24″ resultCountCap=”96″ orderBy=”relevance” perPageSort=”relevance” ]
HOTDISH
by Ron Olsen
God bless hotdish
It kept us alive
But first we’d pray
Our Sunday morning ritual
Praying
To get through it all
For just one more day
We meant it too
We were so unworthy
The Vicar told us
And vile
And ungrateful
Not worthy to “gather up the crumbs” under His table
Which we really didn’t need
Truth be told
We had hotdish
Plenty of it
Stronger than theology
And tasty too
Tuna
Noodles
And sour cream
Pimentos
Olives
A splash of milk with a can of soup
Mix it together
Crush some potato chips on top
A sprinkle of paprika for an exotic edge
Throw it in the oven
And there you go
Salt and pepper
To give it taste
Bracing your blood to stand up
To the demon weather
Wailing outside
Begging you to come out
So it could try and kill you one more time
But we had hotdish
Made by the Ladies of the Ladies Aid
Who knew what they were doing
Big, strong German and Scandinavian farm ladies
With secrets they brought over from the old country
Arriving with only their bibles, babies and the family jewels
Bending over stoves
In the Episcopal Guild Hall basement
The heat flooding out to envelop the entire room
Making heavy, hearty, homemade hotdish in
Big Pyrex glass baking dishes
Doing their part
To keep the kids and the cardiologists going
And just as you were about to burst with joy
Unworthy as you were
There was even more to come
Through the passthrough and out into the main hall
Giant bowls of green and yellow Jell-O, wiggling and jiggling with life
Bits of cottage cheese suspended inside
And green olives
Molded in the shape of pinwheels
Or Christmas trees
Or peculiar giant half-moon shaped fish with big scales
And the old men would watch
Mumbling under their breath
“Damn kids don’t know how good they’ve got it…”
So we prayed to be forgiven
And were mindful of the need to be always alert
If the weather didn’t kill you some crazy old man might
Or you could fall through the ice and drown a horrible death in the lake
And all the while the wind screamed
Threatening to take your soul
And it might have
Except for the hotdish
Neither the north wind
Nor the crazy old men dared cross
The ladies of the Ladies Aid
Who knew exactly what they were doing
© Ron Olsen – all rights reserved
Ron Olsen is a semi-retired journalist who lives in Los Angeles
and writes essays and an occasional poem. He drew upon his
youth in Minnesota, for “Hotdish,” which he says, he no longer
has the courage to eat. You can see more of his poetry here at
Artvilla, or at his website at http://workingreporter.com/poetry.html
Bon appetit
connecting to infinity….
possibilities, outcomes
floating weightlessly
irridescent, intangible
mapped in stars
touching down
as pixie dust
and flirts of angel hair
choices to the right
paths to the left
someone has stolen the fork
in the road
moon cast wrinkles
characters “˜cross the lawn
where oh where
has my little mind gone
garrulous cotton candy clouds
griping frenzy
whisps of knowledge
ancestral crones
weeping, moaning heart in tears
annoint myself in
dandelion down
roll my head
in passing nimbus
connecting to infinity
again and again and again and again……..
connecting to infinity….
possibilities, outcomes
floating weightlessly
irridescent, intangible
mapped in stars
touching down
as pixie dust
and flirts of angel hair
choices to the right
paths to the left
someone has stolen the fork
in the road
moon cast wrinkles
characters “˜cross the lawn
where oh where
has my little mind gone
garrulous cotton candy clouds
griping frenzy
whisps of knowledge
ancestral crones
weeping, moaning heart in tears
annoint myself in
dandelion down
roll my head
in passing nimbus
connecting to infinity
again and again and again and again……..
Posted on January 6, 2005