Announcement: Now With Half The Content!

Coming up soon on our tenth anniversary, we at Shalblog Industries™ have decided to revamp, somewhat, our posting schedule. Rather than posting every day, we’ll be posting on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. Yes, that’s right, if you’re reading this today on Saturday, this will be the last Saturday I’ll be posting. This way, there can be a little time for readers to catch up with posts, and maybe free up some time on this end as well. Or not. We’ll try it out for a while and see how it goes.

See you Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday.

Three Poems

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I don’t write much poetry, but lately I’ve been reading the poems of the Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska (bathroom reading—that’s a compliment in my house) and perhaps she has inspired me.

Announcement

I’m ready to begin my life
Did you get the notice in the mail?
I’m ready to begin my life
Balloons, a cake, a sale

The leaking eyes repaired,
The crumpled mouth refurbished
The heart painted a new shade of pink
The hours lost recovered
The unfortunate pants replaced
Astro turf hair glued down
In the privacy of my home

I’m ready to begin my life
Don’t bother me with how
I’m ready to begin my life
In just a week or two from now

 

The Mystery of Avocados

No one has cracked it.
You crack them
In two
And greedily spoon the new terrain
Leave that pit filled
Half for later.

But what later?
The rotting grey
Mocks your prudence
Calls you out as a chump
For thinking you could postpone
Happiness
With frozen insides

 

Abacus

What am I feeling?
Take a look
There are only—what?—seven of the damn things.
But thoughts
As many as the sparrows