Living Off the Grid
The sun with rare generosity
beats down on the solar panels
on the roof of Vincent’s log cabin.
The first sentence of his organic novel
–The abattoir, for once, was silent –
sits alone on his laptop screen.
This is the seed from which will spring
plot, character, content.
He gets up, walks out through the kitchen door
through the tortured arch of his driftwood arbor
and into the vegetable garden
where he urinates in a jagged arc
sprinkling life-giving nutrients
on the unsuspecting butter lettuce.
Returning to his desk
he taps out another sentence:
With his mother’s mop, he wipes
the blood from the kitchen floor.
Why so morbid?
It’s warm, he’s feeling drowsy,
he detects a faint signal from a long-dormant source
like the distant ping from a submarine
at the bottom of the ocean.
He should invite someone for dinner,
the lady who sells jam at the Saturday market, perhaps,
or the angry sculptress – she of the tangled hair,
the scrap metal raptors, the acetylene scent.
The jam lady it is.
Bottle of wine from the retired lawyer’s vineyard,
salmon from the gnarled fishermen down at the dock,
try a little humor,
ask her if raspberry jam is a male preserve,
make a nice salad. What’s the worst that could happen?
This poem first appeared a little while back in “The Basil O’Flaherty” .
It was also published previously on this blog, thought it was worth a second look.
Taking part in open link night over at dVerse, check them out here.
Stopdraggingthepanda 
How did it go?
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You’ll have to wait for “Living Off the Grid, Season 2” !
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🙂
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The jam lady could bore you with tales of exotic preserves,, making you pine for the touch of sensual madness exuded by the wild-haired sculptress. It’s always a pleasure to read about writing; nice job.
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Thank you Glenn and yes the safe choices are seldom the interesting ones!
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Fascinating piece Jim… A study of contrasts. I’d probably go for the sculptress. Fury can be sexy…
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Thanks Rob…the sculptress seems to be getting the votes!!!
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i like the way this starts out with writing about writing and wanders (or connects) to pondering thoughts about dinner dates. So interesting to read.
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Thank you, Mish!
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It is so good to be green, Jim, seriously green. It must be the way to save the world. What a gorgeous and eloquent piece, with hidden sharpness and depth, like the runner-up for the date and the submarine.
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Thanks Steve, it took me a while to piece it together! The angry sculptress seems to get everyone’s vote!
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