Its the start of Christmas

It’s the Christmas season already and I’m broke as usual. The teaching gig in Fiji looks like it may come through. So I may become solvent again. I gota stop living like this, it’s bad for the soul and the heart. I’ve sent my empty bank account information and Invoice so if the cash flows I’m headed to paradise to teach Linux administration. This is a class I love to teach. I know it like the back of my hand and it’s really fun to teach.

I also got a call from a headhunter (do they still have those on Fiji?) on Wednesday. It’s the first headhunter that’s called me since 9/11. Would I like to be a Linux Systems Administrator for Lincoln Labs? It’s a multi-year contract job, which means that they want to get me cheaper than if it was a three-week assignment. The truth is that the job will last till they run out of money or realize that they can get a young puppy into a full time job for next to nothing. Then that multi-year contract will abruptly end. Am I cynical? Yes! It’s happened many times before. I need the money so I’ll gladly do it. I have a love/hate relationship with computers.

It looks like all the writers in the family are going to earn a living doing something else. Liz just accepted a wind surfing instructors job in Porto Rico. She’s been interviewing for a bunch of junior copywriting jobs in NYC but no one ever gets back to her. Indecision is a major form of rudeness. I give any company perhaps 2 attempts at being civil then they get blacklisted. Staples, Fidelity Investment and a few others I can’t think of right now have all made it to my list. For a girl who hates cold weather she’s doing just fine.

What would I rather be doing? Anything with the arts. Harris Gardner has been prompting me to gather my poems together. He’s seen or heard maybe 3 but he likes them. That’s cool. He has good taste I think. I have about a hundred or so that have never seen the light of day, that is never been published or even read in public. Some are, of course, awful but some are surprisingly good. This isn’t the brag it sounds like. I haven’t read some of these poems in 20 years and they still stand up which surprised me.

Here is one I found that I like:

life

new born, younger pine
with neighbors
to young for sky or birds nest

one small, yearling pine
with friends
moss and fern
with proud first cone
very small

five year, younger pine
with old friend
eldest fern
with cones still small
and wrens nest

ten year, still younger pine
old friends
left far behind
with many cones, still small
and wrens nest

fifty year, maturing pine
new friends
elder pine and sky
with many cones, birds nests
yearling child

centurion, elder pine
old friends
neighbors and sky
many seeds and offspring too
broken branch

almost dead, eldest pine
old friends
moss and fern
with one last cone
very small