Carolin Combs: "A Wedding"

Carolin & I were invited to her cousin's wedding reception at a county park in southeastern Michigan.  - Bill

A WEDDING

I felt like I was in an episode of Cops, one of those episodes where the cops have set up a sting and they invite all the local felons with outstanding warrants to come to a party and collect a prize.  It was my cousin’s wedding reception, and I expected the police and a camera crew to burst in at any moment and start cuffing the guests.  They looked that good.

The wedding itself took place the day before, in another county.  The bride & groom’s home county requires 6 weeks of pre-marital counseling in order to get a marriage license, and they didn’t intend to bother with that.

It was the second marriage for each.  The groom is a cousin of mine who is old enough to be thinking about mortality.  He’s an alcoholic. His first wife was an alcoholic who died of a heart attack.  The Pepsi bottle he takes to work is actually filled with whisky.  He was the only person in the wedding party or among the guests to wear a suit.

- Carolin Combs (d. 26 JAN 2007)

IT's

for Mark Halliday

If the 'breath line' still counts,

it's how far your lung-truck
backs to the loading dock

to dump what it's hauled

from where it got it;

inside, stuff 

gethunks.

(13 JUL 12, Santa Clara CA)v5

CHENEY & Romney

{Jackson Hole, WY}

VPOTUS CHENEY hosts

$30,000-a-couple dinner

Romney fundraiser at his home,

after a country club reception.

Total take: ~ $4M

{Flashback: September 2011, AZ}  

Romney:

"When it comes time 

to choose a VPOTUS...

I'll pick [someone like] CHENEY

[he's] the kind of person I'd like to have,

[one] of wisdom & judgment,"

(~2012:) 

Romney rarely appears in public

with CHENEY or Dubya Bush
who he calls "Obama's predecessor." 

Romney advisers: his relationship 

with CHENEY is cordial, but not

particularly close, little influence. 

(12 JUL 12, Santa Clara CA)v2

THE SERVICE

THE SERVICE

I rarely ever think

of my uncles’ entire lives.

Instead, I  think of their lives

in the military: The Service.

I've hardly ever thought

of their lives after it,

only of their years spent

in The Service
as definitive,
because

the permanent war

only values

our service
to The Service.

(28 JUN 12, Santa Clara CA)v7

I SMILE

I SMILE

I smile (rare for me) as I read to the end

of my latest poem where I admit

I’ve prayed (a poetic 1^st for me) &
I smile each time I re-read the poem.

I'm smiling now as I read & write this.

(26 JUN 12, Santa Clara CA) v5

ASK & you WILL be Helped

ASK & YOU WILL BE HELPED

for Dr. Ginny’s sake

I thrashed again all night, praying
for help in our unending anxiety.

Sunday I prayed with Canon Linda
in St. Mark’s kitchen, & we left, thanking
each other & ( I’m assuming) God as well.
I tell Linda she'd changed my life when
she told me “Ask & you will be helped”

proving I’ve come so far so fast
for Ginny’s sake, for Ginny’s sake.

(26 JUN 12, Santa Clara CA)v4

FEARING DAN

FEARING DAN

I’m frightened that as her Trustee

Ginny’s son Dan will refuse to pay her rent

& she’ll be evicted from where she lives.

Jutta doesn’t think he will do this “to his mother”

but I think Dan is so vicious he will try anything

to counter her resistance to his absolute control.

He will seek to have her conserved.  He tells

Jutta that he will not tell Ginny

how much money is in her Trust

“because I don’t have to.” Why?

It isn’t a specified in the Trust.

(26 JUN 12, Santa Clara CA)