The message was as legible
As orbits in astrophysics.
The syntax was true as
A mathematical equation,
Not calculated by accident or coincidence.
And precise, announcing,

HAPPY VALLEY NUDIST CAMP

Boldly, on a southern hillside,
In white-painted stones,
On Hywy #22,
On the crossroads between youth and age,
Doubt and confusion.

The stones are gone.
Picked over, or, rolled down the hillside.
And the Hywy is hardly used.
How. By accident or happenstance?
Or a higher intelligence orchestrated
The arrangement of the stone message.


And this happened outside our town.
On the road to London.

It was like a perfect storm
All the ingredients were there
It was like all the pieces had fallen into place
Taylor Swift was coming to Dublin for some gigs
My niece was a big fan of hers
I was a bit of a fan myself, she had some great songs and videos
She had just put out a new album and it was called
"The Tortured Poets Department"
Now I'd once written a funny poem (Electric funeral) and mentioned Taylor in it.

So my niece comes down to visit
And she asks "What have you been up to Uncle, I haven't seen you in awhile ?"
I looked at her a bit weirdly and then said real mysterious like
"It happened !"
"What happened ?" she asks a bit concerned,
"Taylor Swift happened".
"What! You mean you were at the concerts".
"Well, not quite... kind of".
"What do you mean ?"
So I explain "I once wrote this funny poem and Taylor Swift was in it, I posted it online
It has a lot of views"
Then I say "She must have read my poem and then read my other poems. Y'know she has a new album out, you know what she's called it ?"
"Yes! she replies "it's called... isn't it called The Tortured Poets Department"
"You see!" I say as if it's self evident, "my poems they inspired her new album. So of course when she came to Dublin she wanted to meet me...  I was summoned... to go up and see her backstage
I was ushered into her presence
She had this lovely friendly welcoming smile just for me
And I could feel straightaway there was this... this chemistry, this spark there between the two of us
So I said to her "Careful now Taylor, if you ever fell in love with me girl
You'd start writing even better songs".

2023, after the rain at Black Rock,

already past Gerlach on County Road 34, north.

not far from Winnemucca, as the crow flies
- you know.
In the bottom of a no longer dry shallow lake.
The People of 10 Principles are dealing with weather.

I feel for the fearful, and pity them a bit,
but the world is in a novel state, bhering up
under the worth of eight billion plus of us,

all awishing
to leave the system behind, out grow the terminii,
for a time,

loose the future on the past, for a week,
with no choice of your own,
overriding the ten principles of the community.

Today, the dry lake
feels like a war zone, f'real
refugee reality chance, t'be with your self, to re-
imagine helplessness out of bounds,
with fidence, confess, the hermit swears
even fasting you can walk to Winnemucca, in three days.

It's eighty miles as the crow flies,
and all the waterholes are full this year.

But I got a pint of RSO and a box of toothpicks, so
I'd mud trod over to the nearest puddle,
and offer dabs to my neighbors.

This I'd call my gift, fret-less.

That's the essence of the whole experience.
I'd imagine.
Had I had the need to be radically included,
in an unsustainable urbanity exercise this year.

How incredibly wonderful and unlikely
That a universe so vast and mighty
Might bring about a sentient species
Capable of developing theses
Which attempt to explain space and time
Thus, the universe can observe itself
Within the consciousness of our minds.

in dream-like states where
thoughts emerge from unconscious
whim, we carve stone sculptures
on opposite garden ends –

mine is a goat with webbed feet,
Carl’s is a duck with horns;
this is a meaningful coincidence

later, we play in the sand
with our wise inner figures;
he dances while I draw hearts