The Transparent Life of a Happy Curmudgeon

This one is for Sunni.

A Poem Like A Grenade
   
It is made to be rolled down
a flight of stairs,
placed under a guilty hat,
or casually dropped into a basket
among the desks
of the wrongheaded statesmen.

As it tumbled on the carpeted stairs
or settles quietly
in its wire-wicker nest,
it begins to unfold,
a ragged flower whose raw petals
burn and scar...

Its wastepaper soil catches fire,
the hat is blown from its hook.
Five or six faces are suddenly,
permanently changed...

There will be many poems written
in the shape of a grenade -
one hard piece of metal flying off
might even topple a government.

- John Haines

Here's one of mine:


HT: the breda fallacy

Can't find anything to disagree with in Wendy's lasted blog post - Do Not Squander Your Life. Thank you, Wendy.

" Rights belong to individuals, not groups: Just because all the other kids jump off the bridge, it doesn't mean you can push me off, too."
--Tamara K.

Back in October, I posted a list of books I remembered that I'd read up to that point.  Here's an addendum:

Tony Judt: Memory Chalet
Tim Ferris: 4 Hour Week
Henryk M. Broder: Hurra, wir kapitulieren
Friedrich Ani: Idylle der Hyänen
Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies
James Salter: 1. Burning the Days; 2. A Sport and a Pastime
Helene Hegemann: Axolotl Roadkill
Paul Celan: Poems of Paul Celan
Norbert Krapf: Blue-Eyed Grass: Poems of Germany
Oskar Maria Graf: Das bayrische Dekameron

Can anyone recommend a good source for purchasing German-language e-books?  I can use Calibre to convert most e-pubs for use on my Kindle, so format shouldn't be an issue. I'm looking for more contemporary authors rather than stuff on Project Gutenberg.

 Alleged hit-and-run driver may not face felony. 

Bruce Weber attempts to explain why what Derek Jeter did was wasn't really cheating.  Oh, really? 

Jul's post on Spontaneous acts of riverdancing brought a bit of sunshine into a rainy day here here in Baltimore.