hippohank

"Billy," by Bren

2010-07-20T01:19:27Z

Refreshments?

whatcha got there?

2010-05-19T19:00:47Z

The Butterfly Gimp

2010-05-16T14:49:46Z

My inept drawing ability has left this poor butterfly gimpy.

Which brings to mind the senseless things I've wrought on innocent text.
Poor, poor words!
Bullied and wedged into ridiculous flow.
Non-palatable juices wrung from their rinds,
the delicious fruits tossed aside
anemic in meaning and over-simplified in assumption.
Perversely forced couplings
disgraced for the sake of cheap rhyme,
tossed in the middle of an insidious path
between vision and design.
Crippled and maimed before even given a chance
to fly.

I crumpled the page upon which my impotence was
disgracefully displayed, as I should do
with this thing I call poem.
Because on it's way to the bin, would you believe...
It flew!

cereal bowel fungus

2010-05-16T03:18:23Z

While cutting the lawn today,I found three interesting things: a toad, a rock with shell fossils imprinted on it and a bowl shaped fungus.
The mushroom, in question, is known in the mycology sphere as a Galiella rufa, but here at hippohank, has been reclassified as the Cereal Bowl Fungus.

Nosey Neighbor

2010-05-02T20:04:36Z

The Cardinal family is back in the bush under the bathroom window.

Inky is a nosey neighbor!

Friends in Kalamazoo

2010-04-18T18:43:32Z

Sue, Making Friends in Kalamazoo

Attention Deficit Dishwasher

2010-03-18T02:06:27Z

Half open, half full,
are those dishes clean or dirty?
Who the hell knows?

Bird at the window was singing about spring.
Black masked splash of red
contrasting the snow.
The floor was swept, but was it mopped?
Who the hell knows?

An interesting discussion on the radio.
Mom may want to know.
But while I was getting her on the phone
I left the fish defrosting for dinner and the cats alone!

Kettle on the stove boiled out.
Mind the clothes basket on the stair.
Someone from your office left a message,
but I can’t remember what about?
Had an email to send, left the vacuum
cord out to ensnare.

Went sledding today and had a photoshoot
with a hippo and a couple of snow men.
What’s for dinner tonight?
Wish I knew!

ADD Bird

Oh, nose!

2010-01-31T23:20:14Z

OH, NOSE!

Sounds of Snow

2009-12-14T01:53:45Z

This tree, and my children, are happier than I...

Sounds of Snow
My feelings toward snow
are as varied as the flakes.
Gentle dustings of
early snow adorn naked
trees left bare by autumn winds.

Snowing makes a sound
like wind from butterflies' wings
scattered across windshields.
Cause poor visibility
as they sparkle in the sun.

Come February
ice storms, wind chills, scrapping, and
slipping on the walk,
cease the thoughts of flutterings.
The sound of snow drowned by plows.

Turkey

2009-11-28T16:13:03Z

Hank hopes you had a gratifying turkey day.

Flirting with Dragonfly

2009-10-17T21:07:43Z

Heard the news today
and it wasn't good.
Couldn't get the radio switched
off fast enough.
Death tolls continued to ring
in my ear.

Got out for coffee.
Every laptop on most tables,
more details revealed.
One lonely newspaper in the corner,
old news already.

Escaped outside, free of wifi
and those leashed to it.
By myself until a dragonfly delicately landed
on the brim of my cup
and seemed to say, "You're silly."

Dragonfly wings remind me of paper kites
lost to trees.
Things that tear.
But the dragonfly defies that,
hovers around my head
like laughing.

"You're right, I am silly."
Strange that today of all days
is the day I flirt with a dragonfly.
I smile, despite myself.
I smile to spite myself.

A Birthday

2009-10-14T23:26:11Z

When I tell mom I love her, she says, "I love you more."
I say, "No way," but I know better because when my son was born I discovered she was right.
Now when my children say, "No Way, " I look at them the way my mom still looks at me, with that bit of weariness around the eyes that says, You have no idea.
My son turned 10 yesterday, but I remember it all as if it were yesterday.

Tunneling through the valley
with the sway and a clack, clack
a rock-a-bye for my submerged Peanut
also dreaming of trains.

Zigzags of cinderblock gray burst open
with light and color of backyards along the track.
The intimacy of a clothesline, while shouldering a stranger
with the rhythm of the sway

and the beat of my heart soothes the one close to me,
I've yet to meet, while I nod along with the clack, clack.
The first leg of our journey is a peaceful one,
displaying the signs of life revealed to us along the way.

Then
cast through the air, flung back to the desert,
I'm the only one not singing Viva Las Vegas.
Patchworks of growth below become dusty, revealing less signs of life.
"No, thanks" to the fourth offer of a drink. "I'm pregnant," works on the fifth.
Viva Las Vegas, your birthplace,
but don't worry, Peanut, we won't stay long.
You can take the Valley Girl out of the valley,
but never, like totally,
remove the valley from the girl.

Today I celebrate the both of us... the three of us... the four of us... the six of us...
all of us.

Little Frog!

2009-10-08T17:51:03Z

Hey look, I found a little frog!

We Need To talk

2009-09-10T12:45:44Z

Red Bird :(

2009-07-23T23:17:09Z

If this wasn't irritating enough...

... the red bird has been at the wild berries.
I know this because there is berry colored poo all over our window ledge, deck, and bench as well as berry bird slobber all over our windows.
Hank loves those berries.

Good-bye Red Bird, I'm very sorry about the hippo

What am I going to tell his wife

and kids

That's a really bad hippo!