23 August 2012

Editorial



Contents 23 Aug 2012
Snake eggs: Joselyn D Morton
Summer photos: Roger Morton
Stephen O’R’s Ch Ch, NZ
Cover: Roger Morton
After longing for the sun, the golden ball has outdone itself and we have had many days of 36, 37 degrees. Temperatures so high, that I have had to cower inside for fear of being burnt to a cinder. Alas my thoughts seem to have evaporated in the heat and I can think of nothing meaningful, original or vaguely provoking to say.
I am very sorry that since Mary Kalemkerian left BBC Radio4 Extra, they have now changed their dictum and there is no longer a chatty, newsletter from there each Friday.
I enjoyed dipping in and out of the Olympic Games and switched allegiances with careless loyalty. Most frequently France, NZ and the UK but often wildly cheering for Jamaica or Kenya. I loved the French gold medal pole-vaulter. What a difficult sport. Jessica Innes really was a goddess and I loved watching Usain Bolt win and strut and be an Olympic god. It was a fun distraction from the weary stress of worrying about the world and all the money we spend to lead a half-way decent life.
I hope Julian Assange figures out a way to avoid being trapped in a US prison like Bradley Manning. I hope to get news from our 22 year-old grandson presently on a 5-day Annapurna base camp hike in Nepal. Look forward to hearing all about it.
Meanwhile enjoy yourselves, Joselyn Morton

Poetry


Snake eggs

Seven soft rugby-shaped snake eggs hatched
this morning – perfectly formed tiny
lizards crawled out. Thank god. I hate snakes.
I found the eggs under a thick tangle
of weeds in an old iron pot. I’ll try a
rose in there next. Or maybe sweet peas.

At night too hot to sleep I read that a
found piece of heavy wood becomes a piece
of art. I’m sceptical, ponder its
brutal impudence or ignorance.
I switch on the TV, someone wipes blood
from a Syrian face. My life is so easy,
no bullets, no gaping wounds.
I don’t fight my government on the street.
I stay inside, complain about the heat.
My inertia shames me. The world is huge,
it is not enough to be kind to
exist in my mind blanking blemishes,
blinkered against the worst, backing from
conflict, avoiding night-time terrors.

We know people who sit in the full sun
at the edge of their pool, drink pale pink wine.
If it were me, I would swim, swim, swim, swim.
Life is cruel. I doze inside on the sofa
too hot outside in the hammock, I don’t
know where to put myself. I am awkward,
uncomfortable, ugly even. Tired
or lazy awake in the dark, keeping
quiet, creeping about, impatiently waiting for
a cool dawn to attack the weeds again.
Joselyn Duffy Morton ©

Roger Morton summer photos



Tractor ploughing competition at our local village of Champagne

Our best dahlia

Tour de VĂ©sone, our local Roman tower in Perigueux

More para gliding

All images: Roger Morton