Getting Old Never Gets Old

My dog may kill me yet. Up at 4:44 am. She is quite the lady, my Maisy. She does not like peeing in her diaper. If only she had hands and arms, she would throw her diaper on stage, and Tom Jones would sing about her, “She’s a lady. Whoa whoa whoa!”

Who likes peeing in their diaper, you may ask?Well, I’m not there yet, so ask me in a few years.

The rain stopped sometime in the middle of the night. There is a little arctic wind blowing, not a lot, but just enough that my muscle-less body gets cold, even with two coats and a long sleeve Heat-tech shirt. The streetlights are on, and the moon is shining. It is quite beautiful at this time of day.

I should be thankful instead of cursing my four legged friend.

Here we are. We have arrived and survived another year. Happy New Year, 2024. The Nazis are still sleeping in their own filth. The folks who are outraged by Trump, turn a Biden eye to the genocide in Gaza. These are the ones who think Israel deserves billions of dollars in aid, while children starve in their own country. Poor Israel is one of the top five countries in the world for armaments. In fact, they export weapons along with their superior surveillance technology to other parts of the world, including the USA. These are not untested systems. No - they have been tested …..on Palestinians.

The world goes round and the money goes round, and round here we don’t take vaccines.

My mind goes dark in the dawn. I drift down a dark alley, transported by the word leash. For some reason, leash reminds me of the words to my song 634 Dog, written in the AKA days of 1978-1981. It all comes back to me.

Here is a photo grabbed from a video by Lenore Herb from her archives at V Doc

634 Dog

Torture culture

Burning desire

Molotov I love

No match no match for my old flame.

Goddamn her dog face

Her pa’s at the back door

A jag on the Jung ones

In her in her interpretation.

Barking dogma

With your leash, expect it

Information

How soon how soon how soon you forget it.

I’m down to the dog wire

I’m losing my dog thread

Losing my dog

Andalusian dog

I dream like a dog

I scheme like a dog

I dream like a dog

I scheme like a dog

634 Dog

Dogs of Seoul.

I may have missed a line, as I had to decipher from my 20 to 23 year old mind, wading through the muck and mire of my affected voice. Had my voice even changed yet?

The lyrics are shards, as true as when they were first written. Stabs in the dark, trying to make sense of the incomprehensible world.

Is that even a world? You need be careful when you’re using your worlds. I am watching videos of AKA on my phone from the Lenore Herb collection. It is probably 1980.

From an early age, young Dense like to play with words. He would have played with guns, but sadly he had no guns. His Mother smothered his Dark Companion, as Dexter calls it. He was not allowed to even play with guns. Give him a jar and a cardboard moving box and he was happy. Trapping bees and grasshoppers in a jar- yes. Guns- no.

So his young adult anger had to come out in different ways. Better ways? At least he can say no one was killed. No pets were harmed. No weapons found. Not tested on animals. Are Humans even animals? Yeah, dumb animals. Don’t just lie there like some dumb animal.

We are barely 3 days into this new year and already we have the first US mass shooting. For those keeping score at home, five people were shot but only one death. Unless you count the shooter. Ok let’s humour him. Two down, not a touchdown, but it’s still America’s favourite game. Apparently you need 5 deaths in a shooting to qualify as a “mass” shooting.

But wait! There’s more from the land of plenty.

“Police say Grade 6 student killed, 17-year-old suspect dead in Iowa school shooting”

Also, a six year girl old is dead. “A Texas woman is facing a capital murder charge in the death of her 6-year-old daughter, police said. Mom found running around naked in ‘very chaotic’ scene, Texas cops say.”

On New Years Day, “ a house fire in Staten Island on New Year's Day claimed the life of a 6-year-old girl, according to authorities.

“On the same day, “The father of a 6-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy who was killed in a stabbing attack in October, an attack that officials said was fueled by Islamophobic hate, made an emotional plea Wednesday for justice and exhorted Americans to reject bigotry and "embrace the diversity that makes our nation so beautiful."

Such a beautiful murderous nation. All of this information came up when I googled 6 year old dead.

I’ve been up for 3 1/2 hours and it is still dark outside. Thank God and dog for modern lighting. And fire. And wheel. And woman.

Fire, women and wheels. What more can a 65 year old man want in this world?

I crave newness. I search the end of year lists for new music that I may have missed over the past year.

What a year I just survived. Cancer. Music. Cancer. Radiation. Chemo. Weight loss. At least my hair isn’t coming out as much when I comb it.

There is much to be thankful and grateful for here. I am alive. My mind is active. An active shooter. So active that when I said yes to a coffee after a massage at 5:30 pm the other day, I was up all night, no rest for the wicked.

And I must really be wicked.

Here is a song that I’m obsessed with this week:

Caroline Rose- Tell me what you want

-from the Art of Forgetting - the whole record is so good. Check out the video.