"Wooden You?"

“Wooden You”

{a wooden dialog, after Carlo (Lorenzini) Collodi, 1883}


Geppetto: Pinocchio, my dear wooden Son,
you need fixin’ but my hands hurt too much.

Pinocchio: Soak them in clear water, Father.

Geppetto: I have, my wooden Son, I have,
but they still hurt, I cannot grip my knife.

Pinocchio: Who else can fix me, Father?
Who else can carve me as well as you can?

Geppetto: Any, who have knives & skill.
There are many skillful wood-doctors.

Pinocchio: Well, where are they, Father?
Bring me to them, or bring them to me.

Geppetto: It is not so simple my wooden Son.
Wooden insurance is needed to make it work.

Pinocchio: Then say those words, my Father,
& They will do it. You are their master, Father.

Geppetto: I wish I was, my one wooden Son;
I must choose among them & I am confused.
What does 'Public Option' mean? 'Single Payer'?
At the Coperativa, there is no wood-doctor.

Pinocchio: Father, somebody can explain
each of them to you so you will understand.

Geppetto: Who? I have no telephone. Besides,
Parlo solo Toscano, no capicce Talianno.

Pinocchio: How do I speak to you, my Father?

Geppetto: I do not know, my one wooden Son.
We just say what we have to say, somehow.

Pinocchio: Then think wooden Thoughts, Father.
Think wooden Thoughts & They well hear you.

Geppetto: I am thinking them, my dear Son.
I cannot fix you all by myself. I need help.
Please help me, o, skillful wooden-doctors.

Wooden Doctors: We are listening to you,
Geppetto, we hear your wooden thoughts.

Geppetto: Thank you, listening wooden doctors.
I need your skills to repair my wooden son.

Wooden Doctors: Are you covered, Geppetto?
What kind of wooden coverage do you have?

Geppetto: I have clothing of cloth & leather;
my wooden covering is my wooden roof.

Wooden Doctors: You do not undertand us,
Geppetto. Covering is wooden insurance.

Geppetto: I only need wooden insurance for
Pinnochio, my only wooden son, not myself.

Wooden Doctors: You both need wooden
insurance for us 2help you, Geppetto:
for us 2talk2 you & for us 2fix your son.

Geppetto: How do I get wooden insurance?
What do I do? Where do I go? Who do I see?

Wooden Doctors: You are doing it now, but
you alone must choose the type of coverage.

Geppetto: I do not understand this coverage.
What does it cover? My head? My hands?

Wooden Doctors: Your hands, because you
are a self-employed wood-carver, Geppetto.
Just your hands. They are what hurt you now.

Geppetto: Yes, they hurt me so much I cannot carve.

Wooden Doctors: Do you have Workmen’s Comp?

Geppetto: No, I work alone, I have no workmen.

Wooden Doctors: Then we cannot help you. We
cannot fix your hands to fix your wooden son.
That would make you a wooden doctor like us.

Geppetto: But you are skillful wooden doctors!
Wooden Doctors: Yes, we are, but we follow
the rules set by whatever coverage you have.
You have no coverage, so we follow no rules.

Geppetto: All men follow rules. I have a Rule
there on my workbench & I follow it carefully.

Wooden Doctors: We follow rules of practice,
If we do not, we could be sued for malpractice.

Geppetto: But you practiced for many years!
Questa mala fortuna has now befallen you?

Wooden Doctors: Health care reform, with
many new options, will soon re-regulate us.
We fear what it may do to our wooden skills.
(We should not be talking to you about this.)

Geppetto: Wait, please, skillful wooden doctors;
Do not fear talking to me; I try to understand.
I do not cause your mala fortuna malpractice.
I am a humble woodcarver. My hands hurt. My son…

Wooden Doctors: We do not want to hear any more
about your wooden son until you choose a health plan.
A wooden health plan for him, not you. Yours must
be a human flesh & blood health plan. For your hands.

Geppetto: [weeping] My hands are my only skill.
My hands have made my wooden son. My hands
are my only hope! [raising them towards the ceiling.]

[End of Scene 1. Wooden curtain descends.]

(18 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)v5

Pissing Blood

Pissing blood in rage,
a GOP-agitated citizen slips
on his blood pooling up
on the hardwood floor
of a high-school gymnasium
in the flyover-heartland while
standing to rave at a D-politician.

His face reddens, his eyes
bloodshoot, bloodpressure
skyrockets; his GOP script:
‘Abortion leads to euthanasia
under diabolical Public Option.’
falls to the floor; he stammers:

“The gub-mint wants to kill us!”
soaking in his own blood; an
ambulance 911’d from a local
VA hospital takes him away...

(13 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)v3

CHENEY stingz Dubya

Vexed by his having flexed for Dubya
while VPOTUS, CHENEY’s memoirs
sting Dubya as ‘an ordinary politician’
for having ignored CHENEY’S advice;
blind-sided by a late-changing Dubya,
CHENEY, freed now to speak on then,
stingz Dubya as unworthy of CHENEY’S
piercing perceptionz, steel-jacketed in-
iatives, steely rezolve, abzolute goalz.

(13 AUG 08, Santa Clara CA)v3

So Much More

to & for Carolin Combs

While I’m still on this Earth,
& what's left of you is, too,
we’re still engaged in its
activities & significations,
my actions on your behalf
weigh heavily on me: I
have so much more to do
for you, your name, work;
so much more, out of love,
so much more in gratitude.


(12 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)v2
(Carolin was born on 22 AUG 56;
she died on 26 JAN 07.)

Golijov, davening

Slowly davening
while his music’s being
rehearsed, Golijov reverts
to his embodied
Jewish music.

Off any horse,
off any motorcycle,
far below any bird floating above,
his wholly human heart beats
as mine does as I watch him daven.


(12 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)v4

Quail & Bunnies

During the Spring
many small baby quail are born.
Parent quail are very protective,
very alert to danger,
warning their babies of any
person or thing approaching.

When a high-pitched signal is given,
the babies run quickly
to the bushes for cover,
Except:
When there are bunnies about
who share fallen grain with them:
then the babies run to them.


Ginny Beecher Zeitman
(10 AUG 09, Santa Clara CA)

Cabrillo 2009: Golijov

Last week from Wed. to Sat. a.m., I was down in Santa Cruz for Cabrillo 2009 with Ginny Beecher Zeitman who has been going there since the late '60s & is now a sponsor.

The most stunning piece we heard last Fri (opening) nite was "Azul" by (Argentinian-Jewish) Osvaldo Goiljov, inspired by his trip to Macchu Picchu: a cello concerto with 2 native-instrument percussionists & a hyper-accordionist, backed up by "a lot of other people" (he Cabrillo Festival Orchestra); Golijov historicized: "In the 19th c., music(al rhythm) was (based on) horses, in the 20th, motorcycles, now birds floating on air-(currents)." What about the embedded rhythm of the resting normal human heart? (1ce/sec.) Ginny (who was medical staff on the Stanford heart-transfer program) thinks we may have longago (primitively) adopted it as a musical meter. Is it a setting of the std. metronome?