Different Slants

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355

© August 27, 2015

Trapped in my three-hour commute

Wisconsin to Illinois

Illinois to Wisconsin

Over and over and over

Images spill out of my mind

Like coffee sloshing

Over the edge of a cup

Window open, wind racing by

Avoiding the striped road-kill in the North

Muscular trucks belching black smoke

Wreathing me, lulling me

Interstate fossil fuel perfume

I miss my damn exit

Every time

And the yellowed old images

Flicker by…

(Read on …)

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355

© August 12, 2015

Hey, I’m not shy

Just brown-eyed

Racine is a suburb of Detroit

Wall-to-wall used car lots

Ya got some kinda problem, Bud?

Transmission shops

Emission shops

Muffler shops

Brake shops

Body shops

Tire shops

Junk cars

Town’s only

Four miles by six miles

Barely enough room for people

But if a car is broken

Ford to Porsche

All of those people

Can probably fix it

(Read on …)

Robert M. Katzman’s Amazing Story: www.differentslants.com/?p=355

© August 7, 2015

I built this fire pit out of stone and bricks in my Wisconsin back yard. Not a large yard, but encircled by tall pine trees. If the wind is calm, I can smell the leaking pinesap.

Also, I have three older dogs—my last dogs—a laid back black/tan/white coated Beagle with fragile hips, Betsy; an annoying and irritable miniature black Shih tzu named Chewy because with its hair hanging over its black eyes it resembles a miniature Chewbacca; and Jasmine, a tall skinny mixed breed Labrador-Spaniel, with reddish-brown hair, inquiring wolfish eyes and a desire to be on the same level you are when you are speaking to her. She is the youngest and dominant. Betsy, at fifteen will be the first to go, and Chewy, an inherited creature, daily tests my intent to always be compassionate with animals. They all sleep on our bed, separately.

(Read on …)