Wednesday, August 5, 2020

August 5,  2020



YELLOW:
BANANA OR BUTTER


Yellow:  a good  choice for a favorite color.

If one needs to place two volunteers to win
that contest: it would be wise to place  a banana
or a rectangle of cold butter before the judges.

Or how about butter on a baked potato or on six spears
of roasted asparagus or on a slice or rye bread toast?

I think those two could beat red as in strawberries
or purple as in plums or blue as in blue birds.



© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020


August  5,  2020 


Thought  for  Today

“Poetry  is  the impish attempt to paint the color of the wind.” 


Maxwell Bodenheim, poet, 
quoted in Ben Hecht’s play, 
Winkelberg, produced in 
New York, January 1958

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

August   4,   2020




SWISS  CHEESE

One chair backwards, 
one hat backwards, 
three people talking 
at a kitchen table, late 
at night, swiss cheese, 
rye bread, some thin, 
really thin, sliced ham, 
pickles, 13 grapes, I 
counted them, the right food, 
the right time, the right 
three people, good cold 
beer, a conversation 
that changed everything – 
finally.  It was about time. 
It was about longtime friends. 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020

August  4,  2020 


Thought  for  Today 

 “August  is a wicked month.”


Edna  O’Brien [1932- 
Title  of  a  novel l [1965] 
Irish  Novelist  and short-story writer
What is that about? 

August  3,   2020



FETCH

He expected his wife 
to be an airlines attendant. 

It was as simple as that, 
but it took her a while 
to figure that out – maybe 
because that’s what she 
wanted to be as a young girl. 

Getting him this 
and getting him that: 
a pillow, a magazine, a snack. 

He: never to give, 
always sitting there 
ready to receive. 
She: never to sit, 
always ready to serve. 

He: watching her walk 
down the aisle. 
She: smiling, the last one 
to fasten her seat belt 
in any turbulence 
in the space of their life. 

That is till one day she said 
to herself,  “It’s time for me to 
quit my job and take another flight.” 

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020


Monday, August 3, 2020

August   3,   2020



Thought   for  Today

“You're gonna need a  bigger boat.” 


Jaws” 1975.

Sunday, August 2, 2020



CERTAIN   CHAIRS


Sometimes certain chairs end up 
as sacred chairs – a chair that 
everyone wants when mom or dad 
dies or has to move to a smaller place. 

We have ours. It’s wooden. It’s red. 
It’s old.  It would be passed by if left 
at the curb when people are getting 
rid of stuff – but this one has stories. 

My father sat in this chair, In fact he 
made this chair in the 1940’s from wood 
he picked up on the beach  at the Narrows –  
the water  leading  into the New York Harbor. 

It was down our basement in Brooklyn 
for years  My mother sat in this chair.
My brother sat in this chair. 
My 2 sisters sat in this chair.  

My nephew Michael sat in this chair 
playing the role of King of the World 
in games with kids – that is,  till he died 
suddenly at the age of 15 of cancer. 

It’s now outside – on my sister’s porch 
in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Not too 
many chairs last this long – but I hope and 
pray there is fight to see who gets it next. 


© Andy Costello, Reflections 2020