This month’s prompt is “the leaves of November“
Chuck Forster
YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID?
You can’t fix stupid!
Really…?
I know a man…
Stole from employers, the collection basket
Sex unprotected – quick, clumsy, oblivious
College –
alcohol, weed, blotter, pills
Fall to the floor
Grasp for support the women to one’s side
Take her down too
Later, vomit
Repeat weekly some version of this
Does it matter if this happens in the pleasant company of
a monk?
if it culminates in flipping one’s vehicle down the hill
behind the monastery?
if the vehicle lands atop a rock cave
in which is resident a statue of the virgin Mary?
This man I know…
Woke up
Recognized those years as
a lamentable waste.
Re-learned
Feminism, activism, dance
Love, gratitude, humility
This man…
Tell him you can’t fix stupid!

Leon Petty
Death Mask
In every life
there comes many times
when blacked and blued
from tumbling through
the acrobatics of surrender
one can only cry
as brash quintessence
dwindles with
the ebbing vanities it tows
waxes repugnant
face flinching from the stink
of all the bloody things it thinks
it knows
torn until
it trades for peace
slapping down
plap plap plap plap
the righteous Gods
smack onto
the altars of
Gods not so busy
lazy languid draggy candid Gods
our sappy souls have never dared
to know
and in our parting
each one will
epiphany of why
in God’s mocked holy name
just why
didn’t we surmise
to give this soft shit up before