Cats crying under my balcony
remind me of cats crying
somewhere else. But sadder.
photo and poem by Rachel McAlpine
how to
A mask
In a personal
ground-level
crisis
a mask may descend.
Take it off.
Then attend
to a child
or a friend.
Poem and photo by Rachel McAlpine
Longevity
If you want eternal life
don’t be a human
or a web site.
Be
a sea
anenome.
poem and photo by Rachel McAlpine
Say less
Say less.
Mean more.
Win the match.
Lose the score.
poem and photo by Rachel McAlpine
A useful tip
When in doubt
do something
that you’ve done before.
When in pain
do something
that you’ll never do again.
poem and photo by Rachel McAlpine
Metadata rag
Put a bit of metadata
in a little metatag.
Then the automatic tagger
puts your bit of metadata
in a better metatag.
Metatagger, metadater
metabigger, metabag
metadagger, metabragger
metabugger, metanag.
—–
Rachel McAlpine
Talk English, techie
Talk English, techie.
I just drive this thing.
Name your home,
but do not name it ‘Home.’
——
Rachel McAlpine
(With apologies to all the brilliant technical professionals who have helped me over the years.)
Stuff in a blog
Let’s not pretend
that stuff in a blog
is poetry.
A blog is a diary
upside down, a silo
where notions wait
for processing
or better times.
Crammed tight
they twitch
in the dark.
They long to sprout
and see the light.
Let’s spill them out
and set them free.
At worst the birds
will feast.
– – –
Rachel McAlpine
My father’s blog
In my father’s blog
are many mansions.
A blog is content
in a room full of cells.
A blog is ever empty
and willing to be filled.
A blog is not lost
and may never be found.
– – –
Rachel McAlpine
Healthy Things
I should never be sick
’cause we have Healthy Things
(says Ruby).
They’re little tiny small things
and they’re a lion. Here, I’ll draw one for you.
There are arrows pointing to their tummy,
with skin dots, pale, very hard to see.
You should always have one a day
so you don’t get sick.
Well, I’ve got the hiccups inside my tummy
so I should have had more.
They taste like — how can I describe it?
Say you were cooking a Healthy Thing
and you just needed two ingredients:
an orange and some salt.
You squeeze out the juice and mix it up,
pour it into a salt bowl
and it turns into a a Healthy Thing.
Hm, how can I describe it?
It tastes like lemon with sour salt.
They’re called Healthy Things
because they’re Healthy
and because they’re Things.
*
Rachel McAlpine
Advice from Ruby, aged 4 or 5
Poems in the wild—Rachel McAlpine 