Wednesday, April 27, 2016

impermanent

How luxurious to imagine your death…
You go down that path

You take your last breath
full of family one last time
Your hands held by 
loved ones who
sigh and whisper
words of encouragement
as you fade

Or you die alone 
You don't wake up
Quite quiet 
Only quiet
Just quiet
You heard that's the best way to go

Or maybe dementia creeps in
and you just don't care 
dead
alive
doesn't matter
one way or another

but no one talks about the white space…the corridor of nothing…the two or three blank seconds…punctuated by jolt upon jolt…and…you're jarred into your next reality…but…you don't know it…until days later…when…you stand naked in the shower…warm water flowing past…bruises and soreness…and you need to be carried in God's pocket…for a while…because you can't walk throughout it…anymore…and you shake just like you did…that moment you realized…that you can't breathe…because you are breathing…because that's your reality…because you are not dead…just impermanent
©kcasady2016



Friday, April 22, 2016

keeping it real

you recite Pesach prayers at home without a Seder      you create the most relaxing Passover you've ever had

this is what it should be about      praying to God      remembering the Israelites'  sojourn in Egypt      keeping it real      without a Seder

"on the sabbath and festivals, a person is forbidden to go more than 2,000 cubits from his halachically defined dwelling"      from Pesach commentary

Hence     home is sacred      a place for prayer      do not go far      a cubit is the measurement from the tip of the middle finger to the end of the forearm 

you drink whiskey when wine blessings come up      you utilize beer as your matzah      you read exodus out loud to your cat      you go back and forth between the Torah portion and the siddur's prayers      time passes

Judaism is flexible      accommodates your holiday interpretation   you plan to do your own Seder again next year      keeping it real
©kcasady2016


Thursday, April 21, 2016

pretty things

You took the bus down to
Beverly Hills to
Rodeo drive you said
You wanted to
walk with beautiful people to
look at Pretty Things
You stopped
in front of Chanel
Coco’s Pretty window of Things
You watched a video
of Coco’s runway show
Paris was it?
Perhaps New York?
You have a problem
with lust you said
You went to 
the Beverly Wilshire Hotel to
the men's room to
get off
You had words with a desk clerk
You got back on the bus
Don’t even 
think about lusting
after me I say
Let me shake your hand you say
Don’t touch me I say
©kcasady2016

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

mitochondrial Eve

The same but different.      Different but together.      Together but unique.    Unique but united.

"United we stand. Divided we fall," says Aesop

We mirror each other.      I smile.     You smile.     I frown.     You frown.      

We match.      You and me.     We.
We and them.      They.
They and us.      All.

Unbroken double helix descendants.    Once removed.     Twice removed.     Thrice removed.     Never removed.

From mitochondrial Eve mother.
Mine.      Yours.     Theirs.     Ours.
©kcasady2016




diamonds

Once, not too long after her mother-in-law died, she lost two diamonds in one week. Now, it’s odd enough to lose one diamond, but two put it into the realm of peculiar. Her earring, a diamond stud was the first to go. She’d reached up one rainy afternoon after removing her outer clothing and felt its loss. Only the screw back remained, tucked behind her ear, clinging madly for its life. She searched frantically, for it was a diamond of great value, but to no avail. And amidst the tears for her dear mother-in-law she also grieved for her diamond.

The following morning, as she reached for the milk in the refrigerator she glanced at her diamond wedding band. To her eye the row of symmetrically placed stones seemed out of kilter. It’s just the light she thought. But closer examination revealed a missing diamond, one of the smaller stones. In its place a set of empty prongs nestled forlornly among its fellows. It can’t be, she said out loud though she was alone in the room.

Horrified she sat down at the kitchen table. She stared deeply into her coffee mug. The light catching the ripples in the cup reminded her of her missing stones. She began to contemplate how this could have happened. The impossibility finding the missing diamonds loomed large before her. The cost of replacing them seemed outrageous. So she began to pray to the diamond goddess, her only hope.

As her words fell silent, a memory materialized in her mind, a story told to her by her beloved mother-in-law. Sometimes the dead need to borrow diamonds from the living in order to bribe their way into heaven she had said. She remembered her mother-in-law’s colorful past and suddenly understood.

A few days later, as she was showering, she stepped on something sharp. A piece of debris she thought as she lifted her foot thinking to find a small pebble. Amid the water and soap streaming along the tiles was her missing diamond stud. Astonishment gave way to gratitude as she joyfully offered a prayer of thanks to the diamond goddess for returning her earring.

Several days after that remarkable moment, a glint of light from the kitchen floor caught her eye. Looking down she saw the tiny diamond from her ring glittering up at her and then she remembered the rest of the story. Bribes are always found out and the diamonds are hurled into space where they glimmer among the stars momentarily before falling back to earth, returned to the person to whom they belonged. And of the dead who garnered them, they are also thrown from heaven.
Karen Casady©2016


Monday, April 18, 2016

binary composition

One birthed a child
One raised a child
One let me go
One let me in
One walked away
One walked toward
One put me down 
One picked me up
One brought me to life
One brought me to fruition
I am of genetics
I am of environment
I am of both
I am of neither
I am of two
I am of none
I am of me
I am of
I am
I
©kcasady2016