Pat Jones

Pat Jones' ART At The Balmar

Sisterly Correspondence

Home with a fever,
your nephew is restless.
That aside, I painted the day away,
stopping only to bake dog biscuits,
fresh salmon for dinner.

Unlike the others,
Shorty is appreciative,
likes the change from peanut butter
to beef bouillon and garlic.
Given where he's been, the cages
he's seen, he's easy to please.

Tomorrow I'll plant fairy wand,
needlegrass and fescue.
Come fall I will watch them
dance to the weather.

I do love the wind,
how it moves things around.



Brotherly Correspondence

Dear Sis,
Tell Tay not to worry. There's
nothing to embarrassment. And less
to doctors...I may be headed for
Rantsville in a green VW called Jung.
Each day another climb up the hill,
the path marked by guitar picks strewn
on the ground...how else are we to think
of it? Tomorrow, you can be Jack
and I'll be Jill.
I'm broke again, and this time I'm
not worried...there's a consistency,
a familiar ring of logic to being broke.
I was rich at ten O'clock on Monday.
A great storm induces the kind of calm
you can drown in if you're not careful.
For a while yesterday I believed I was
the vice president of China, but this
was another false alarm. The trajectory
keeps changing as we become different
people.
Love is too easy, too ephemeral
in spring and summer but clear, sharp
and hard in winter. Winter is the time
for laughter for it's then we see
a stupendous trick's been played.
I follow these frivolous trains
of thought until they're sidetracked
and there's nothing left to do
but go fetch another pail of water.
Love,
bro


Dear Bro

I've been to Rantsville, just south
of Stark Raving on Highway 5
if I recall it correctly.
Been to broke a few times, too-
remember how Mama
used to give us each a handful
of hamburger, make it a game
with a prize for the one
who could make the most patties?
I always won, of course,
'cause you ate yours raw.

My man Van and I agree
with your assessment of winter-
high summer gets us low down too.
I like your idea of a guitar pick path,
remembering a song each step
of the climb. So will your pal, Tay
who, by the way, mentioned this morning
that his doctor was not very cheerful.
As you can see, he gets some things right.

Take it easy coming down the hill.

Love,
Sis

PS
I wish you were Vice President of China