Acorn Jewels

Found hundreds of acorn tops from a single tree in downtown Bloomington. The kids colored the insides thoroughly with markers, then filled them with Elmer's school glue and a pinch of glitter. They must be propped up somehow to dry so the glue doesn't spill. We used a base of "floam."

When they dry (takes about 24 hours) the color from the marker magically shines through the hardened glue and they look like jewels. They can be used for treasure hunt games, memory matching games, etc.

Love Affair With Bloomington

A love affair with Bloomington
Still as passionate as ever--

The people, the plants
Wild animals and ants
Nice neighborhood cats
Hidden library bats
Alleys secret and dark
Quiet spots in the park
Bright ideas abound
Simple pleasures are found

Like to kiss the sweet hills
With the hit of your heels
And to seek unique thrills
Riding swift on two wheels
Like to flirt with the dirt
Till your feelings are hurt
More a lifestyle than a town
To be lost and then found

Still as hot and heavy as ever
Love affair with Bloomington.

Stella and the Stone

Stella sent a semiautonomous servitor
With the form of a half frog half weasel
To locate the stone of living death
So that she might make use of it, for
Wouldn't you?
Wouldn't you wish for The Power of powers?
Blindly build a naked tower only to see it
Blasted into sweet wet oblivion?
She survived and thrived on attaining such power.

She demanded the secret knowledge
Commanding her beastly creation in an
Unrecognizable tongue to retrieve it and
Was most displeased when she received a vision
Of a humble tree in a forgotten forest
Surrounded by a humble fungus
More than half of the trunk rotted out
Neither dead nor alive nor neither nor both
But this was the secret, the stone
As shown to her by the frog-weasel.

She found her way to the tree to see
Three tree fairies relaxing on its limbs.
Each one offered to grant her a wish.
She wished first for a fabulous palace
Made of broken mirrors and mouse hair
Then she wished to be Queen of Earth.
Both of these wishes were granted but
Her third wish was not which was to be
Supreme Ruler of All and she was then
Asked to leave by the fairies who were
Annoyed at her arrogance.

My Brain Looked Like This at the Time of Drawing

The Watchtower

The Jehovah's Witness man in the tan suit with thin moustache showed up at my door again. He seems to come about once a month these days. He no longer has the young boy with him, whom he calls "Mr. Jackson," which is good because that always made the exchanges slightly uncomfortable, as the boy would remain silent during my conversations with the old man.

My windows and front door were open to let the warm air of early March in, as an eccentric incense burned in the kitchen and Peruvian mountain music played on the stereo. I heard him calling over the music in his gruff voice "hello!?!" I did not want to deal with him so I hid in the shower for a few minutes. He did not leave so I decided to show myself and at least take his magazines (which I often cut up for collages and other more sinister purposes) and bid him good day.

His literature and his rap mostly dealt with what God's Kingdom would be like -- see picture above -- and he assured me said kingdom was coming quite soon. I remain perplexed as to why pictures of God's Kingdom always feature children riding on elephants and women carrying baskets of bountiful produce amongst flowing fountains. The magazine reports that the kingdom will be "firmly established" by the ruling megalomaniac male deity and "it will never be overthrown."

I told him that God's Kingdom sounded pretty lame and male dominated to me. I then told him that I could show him the Goddess Kingdom (Queendom?) which is already here, if he would but follow me a few miles outside of town, deep into the secret wild spaces within the forest. He laughed nervously and handed me another pamphlet, this one titled "How to Protect Your Children From the Occult."

Busted

Governor Daniels going to cut down
Mighty trees of the backcountry
Our forests of Monroe county
Has he ever even hiked them?
Taken the time to look at what lives?
To listen to their message?

We read recently that he was
Busted for possession of Cannabis
Hashish and LSD while living
In the dorms of Princeton, 1970
So surely he must be aware
Of the wild, unspeakable worlds
That thrive beyond normal perception
He must have a memory, at least
An inkling of what it felt like
To be sensitive and open enough
To receive Nature's endless gifts.

VINE Portal

An old fashioned walk
Through the wilds
Of Bloomington where
Purple brambles and
Power line love birds
Intermingle freely.

Tree Burls V

Derma Dream

Removed one face upon
Finding out it was fake, only to reveal
Another artificial face.
A farce of a face!
A ludicrous, empty show
So easily peeled off
One face after another
Layer upon layer
And it never ends--

Photo by Vincent L.
Facepeeling by Tia T.