MAY

Summer here,
there was a bomb in her head.

The Artiste

She showed off what she'd done then
but she didn't want correction.
She didn't want to be corrected at all.

She pressed her fingers to the strings to make sounds
but she didn't want to hear it
and she didn't want a callous to form there.

She didn't want any mark to be made
permanent or impermanent.

Last Night a Bug Flew In

Image Paper Tiger by *contraomnes on deviantART via ffffound.com

Last night a bug flew in, a beetle
and it was buzzing around our window sounding
just like a kazoo.

The lights were off but we couldn't ignore it.
Andre got out of bed to have a look at the thing. "A June bug"
I said. But it was something else.

The unknown in an insect is never a good thing and Andre immediately identified teeth
and a stinger. The word stinger should never be uttered anywhere
near bed and blanket.

At that moment our cat Mowat piped in.
It was almost a chirp, the sound he made,
with his tail twitching like a windup toy.

Andre soon knocked the thing to the carpet,
and now both our cats were circling it. Patting it with their paws,
gently bludgeoning.

Mowat attempted eating it but spit it out in a hurry.
"It bit him!" yelled Andre
and he acted out the chomping of the insects' jaws.

I imagined now that some sort of mini-winged-rhinoceros
had made its way into our bedroom;
such a frightful thing.

And when Andre got the oven mitts I was glad.
Gladder still when he tossed it out the window
and explained consolingly to the cats they couldn't hunt it anymore,
it was gone.

Dish Debt

Image from ffffound

Doing the dishes is like paying my credit card bill;
I have to do it incrementally.

If I have breakfast this morning then
that's a debit.

One spoon, one bowl, one knife,
one cup.

I'd like to make a dent in debits owed so I'll wash
this morning's breakfast away and also the teapot
from Monday evening and just the lid from Tuesday's
spaghetti pot.

My debt is payed in lavender dish soap, time-served and the number of prune-like
wrinkles on my fingers.

geithner

geithner, originally uploaded by _stringsong.

Drawing from a photo in the Globe and Mail Report on Business, Mar. 25th, 2009. I like to follow American politics and draw politicians, apparently.

elephant

elephant, originally uploaded by _stringsong.

I've been wanting to update my sketches for a while as an impetus for drawing daily and am starting with something really old for some reason. I really need to know how my sketch journal heros Jillian Tamaki and Lauren Nassef upload such pretty images with no smudge marks. Is it just the curse of lefthandedness that causes them? (I actually love being a lefty and in no way think it is a curse.)

Red Doll Illo

Red Doll Illo, originally uploaded by _stringsong.

Had fun doing something creative tonight. The first thing I could think to draw was a doll. I love drawing faces.

Was getting all inspired by Sonja Ahlers and now I want to collage up the world.

Cam Mera

A few weeks ago I took the time to open this old camera bag that we've moved to three apartments in the last two years, which contained- I thought; an old and broken camera. But instead voila! there was a fully working and pretty Canon 1000FN film camera. I am a know-nothing when it comes to photography, absolutely. And taking photos that are anything but point and click, digital and disposal causes mountains of anxiety in me. BUT - I went and bought film and battery and now am happily clicking away. I have no idea what will come if it, but maybe something presentable and even interesting. I'm excited for it. Stay tuned.

Rainy Ol' Saturday

Heading to TCAF a bit later, but first returning to Wychwood barns to buy sweet little tomato plants, all yellow-flower-covered, ready to be pollinated. We're doing our community garden plot again and need to re-experience the tomato-y glory of last summer.

Good day for cuddling cats.

World.

Beautiful Saturday with Andre, back to bike riding, his bike now being fixed.

Last night got to try new bikes at home: a Peugeot, way too tall. Strained back, leg. Woke up this morning thinking brunch, and meat. Caplansky's college street, Kensington Market. Tins that eat each other. Courage My Love. Good day for a Sunburn.

Free Comic Book Day, not so stellar. Not good for indies. Home up one-ways, back to birdfest at home. Shade and sun and cats on screen doors. Leaning and scratching.

glad.stone.

Kitchen Grilling

The other day I was in our kitchen grilling and had the screen door open to let the fumes out. And then I was kneeling to look out of the open screen part without the sun in my eyes, and I noticed the movement of a large grey racoon. He was lumbering like a red panda but also not unlike my cat, the one with the squirrel tail. I watched this fellow as he lumbered across the large garage roof and shimmied down the side of it to lift- I'd seen him do this before- to lift open the heavy lid of one of Toronto's standard issue garbage receptacles. I called Andre into the room, and we watched as he used his small white hands to lift the clamshell lid over himself and then sniffed at the white-bagged garbage within, but there was nothing delicious there. So then he moved on to the shorter, stouter green bin- the lid of which popped open like a present. It was full of delicious things; forgotten leftovers, food scraps and coffee grinds. We watched him do this, and pictured these things suddenly strewn across the asphalt, and Andre yelled "Hey!" so that the racoon stopped to look up. Then Andre stomped his feet so that it wandered over to the grass and reluctantly left us, behaving not unlike Lot's wife and looking over its shoulder.

The Reasons

When your neighbour does not say hi to you:

Why is that?

Maybe they are shy.

Maybe they are nervous.

Maybe they want to enjoy their cigarette.

Maybe they are watching you

and noticing the way you

do not lock the door to your belongings.

Maybe they are villainously unkind.

Maybe they were waiting

for you to say it first.

Two doors slam.