Image: Pixabay
I sense something afoot;
I scent a deadly toot,
That threatens to pollute.
You ate that massive bean burrito
Chased it with a glass of mojito,
So stop playing incognito.
No worries though;
I’ll clear the air flow,
By politely asking you to go.
Image by blogetta
Will rises early, eager to please his mother, whose birthday is today of all days. He shuffles to the kitchen to make her a special breakfast. He looks in the refrigerator but finds it bare. He checks the pantry and sees cobwebs in it. Remembering another refrigerator in the house, he goes downstairs to the basement.
What a senile moment, he chuckles to himself. Of course, he stocks the downstairs fridge so no one can see the exotic food he keeps. He takes out a plastic container and brings it upstairs.
After fussing around the kitchen and making all the fixings, Will carries a tray of food down a short hallway. He stops in front of a closed door and knocks.
“Mama?” He calls out softly and gently opens the door. He sets down the tray on a dusty dresser and walks to the bed where a desiccated looking body is laying under a blanket.
“Rise and shine, birthday gal.” Will sits the figure up. “I made your favorite, scrambled brain, Mama.” He gets the tray and places it on the bed between the remains and himself. Sitting across from her, he talks about the things they’ll do to celebrate her birthday. Every year he finds it easier to face his mother because his vision is growing weaker. He doesn’t like seeing how his mother ages.
Image: Pixabay
Rich’s eyes water from fatigue, the bags under his eyes are dark from weeks of not being able to sleep through the night. The sleep specialist he had finally gone to see gave him specific instructions to reset his circadian clock. He cannot take naps and he has to stay up until 12:30 A.M. for the first week, and then get up at exactly 6:30 the next day. The amount of sleep he can expect will incrementally increase an hour each week until he can hold a six- to eight-hour straight sleeping pattern. Such a possibility inspires Rich to do all he can not to succumb to a quick nap on his recliner chair, where he has dozed off so many times. Before he gets too comfortable, he decides to go outside and take a walk. At 11:30 at night he can be assured of getting that extra hour of jolt.
Zing. Dodging a bullet from a drive-by shooting, he drops down to the sidewalk. Hurriedly, he gets up to cross the street before he runs into a group of drunken young punks who sound like they’re looking for a fight. He walks to the little patch of green they call a park in the area, breathing in deeply only to inhale smoke from a bum savoring the last tip of his cigarette. Quickening his pace, he goes further down a street he doesn’t think he’s ever been through. Always learning something new, he thinks, as a howl pierces through his thoughts. Sounds too close. He looks around. A few feet down he sees two glittering red eyes sitting atop a hairy animal face. Without further curiosity, he turns and tracks back to his home like he’s never done before.
Upon reaching his place, he opens the door and immediately shuts it. As he finishes locking the last of the three deadbolts, he hears someone clearing their throat. Slowly, he turns around. A very pale man with arched eyebrows smiles, revealing two particularly sharp teeth gleaming on either side of his mouth.
“How’d you get in here?” As soon as Rich asks, he simultaneously recalls going outside and not locking up because of the screech of tires and the shooting that followed.
“When the door is unlocked, it implies an invitation,” the man replies, walking toward Rich with arms extended, as if drawing him in. “As your guest, I thought I’d give you a gift.” He gets closer to Rich, who is paralyzed and mesmerized at the same time. Then, all becomes dark.
When Rich comes to, he finds himself sprawled on his La-Z-y Boy recliner. “Oh no, I took another nap,” he says, getting up from his chair and heading to the bathroom. He washes his face and looks at the mirror. He notices two puncture holes on the side of his neck. He shivers. Behind him is a pale man whose grin is not reflected in the mirror.
Image: Pixabay
Jewel in the sky
Against the velvet of night,
Beauteous full moon.
Under light so bright,
The madness of a full moon
Makes fools fall in love.
It’s a supermoon
11/13/16
Through tomorrow morn.
“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
–Douglas MacArthur
“With courage and character, American soldiers continue to put themselves on the line to defend our freedom, and so many have paid the ultimate sacrifice.”
–Dan Lipinski
“Being a soldier, fighting for this country, is neither Republican nor Democrat.”
–Max Cleland
Image: Pixabay
[6th and last of a series of posts about my late October travels to southern Germany]
Short distance away
From my memories and heart,
A part of me now.
[5th of a series of posts about my late October travels to southern Germany]
“You are not responsible for what happened. But you certainly are responsible for preventing it from happening again.”
—Max Mannheim, Jewish concentration camp survivor (b. February 6, 1920 – d. September 23, 2016)
Dachau Concentration Camp was the first of its kind to be built for its purpose and was used as a model for other Nazi-era camps. As the oldest such facility, operational from 1933-1945, Dachau was originally opened for political prisoners, but later evolved into primarily holding Jewish people, who were subjected to gross overcrowding, medical experimentation, and torture. It also continued to imprison political prisoners, non-Jewish Nazi protesters, and groups that the Nazi Party considered as “inferior peoples,” e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies, physically or mentally disabled people, homosexuals.
Similar to the Documentation Centre in Nuremberg, this infamous site has been slowly transformed over time with historical buildings that document what happened here and exhibitions. Some exhibits show what life was like at the camp during its active years, the timeline of the Nazi regime and the people behind it, and stories of some of the prisoners and survivors. In memoriam to all the different groups that were detained at the camp, religious memorials representing such populace have been erected on the grounds and are open for all to ponder the atrocious crimes to humanity that happened here.
[4th of a series of posts about my late October travels to southern Germany]
Nuremberg was considered as the major center of the Holy Roman Empire. In an attempt to mirror the greatness of the medieval past, Hitler and his Nazi Party chose this city to establish a power base and hold their political and military rallies. Hitler’s ambition and dream of building his own empire is reflected in the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Dokuzentrum), a huge building and surrounding edifices that still exist today in the form of a museum established in 1994 inside the Congress Hall. Had Hitler prevailed, there were plans in place to build plenty of additional monuments and structures in the area that were supposed to glorify his political beliefs and stature as a ruler of the empire he imagined would be his.
To Germany’s credit, the museum contains permanent exhibits that educate the public of what led to Hitler’s rise and fall in an objective manner, painfully sensitive to his evil deeds. It is a highly informative forum presented in chronological order, replete with pictures and films. A must for those who want to learn more about this dark part of history. The acreage of what remains of the grounds reveal Hitler’s megalomania.
[3rd of a series of posts about my late October travels to southern Germany]
Psalm 146
1 Alleluia.
Praise the Lord, O my soul;
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
Chapels, churches, and cathedrals visited:
Bamberg Cathedral, Bamberg
St. Stephan Church, Bamberg (Evangelical Lutheran)
Regensburg Cathedral, Regensburg
Alte Kapelle, Regensburg
St. Lawrence Church, Nuremberg (Evangelical Lutheran)
St. Sebald’s Church, Nuremberg
Mountain chapel near Schloss Hohenschwangau, Schwangau
St. Michael’s Church, Munich (King Ludwig II’s burial place)
Frauenkirche, or Cathedral Church of Our Lady, Munich
Church of the Holy Spirit, Munich
[2nd of a series of posts about my late October travels to southern Germany]
Schloss, castle, palace
Ah, to live like royalty,
One can only dream.
Schlosses, castles, and palaces visited:
New Residence, Bamberg
Imperial Castle, Nuremberg
Dachau Palace, Dachau
Nymphenburg Palace, Munich
Residenz, Munich
Castles of Ludwig II (no interior pictures allowed for the first two castles):
Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau
Linderhof Royal Palace, Ettal
Herrenchiemsee Royal Palace, HerrenInsel (supposed to be a copy of Versailles Palace)
Karina Pinella 
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