the nine-fold peace

peace, nine-fold.

peace to all on earth, especially those
who want to live on into the next year
(those who do not, in pain, hunger or strife,
desire their own peace so much they don’t need ours).

peace to all those who keep searching the sky
for a way to go beyond mars, venus or pluto;
forgetting the ungraspable black, may they find
calm, chastity and deathlessness on earth.

peace to those who sincerely believe their god
is ordering gold, myrrh and incense for breakfast;
let the coal softly ebb out of their censers.

peace to the shepherd who guards his sheep,
peace to him who helps where he can’t understand
and loves beyond reason; peace to the mother

who gave birth without knowing how, and peace
to the child left to make his way from the straw
chewn by the warm-breathed ox, and also to the donkey

peace.

the caterpillar...

wishes to inform everyone that he's having a nice christmas. (click to enlarge)

Baby Discovered in Cowshed

Underage mother detained pending investigation

Bethlehem. – Early this morning, social workers (following an anonymous telephone call) discovered a new-born baby in a cowshed just outside the city boundaries. The boy had been wrapped up in strips of cloth and placed in a manger – presumably by his fourteen year-old mother Mary (family name unknown), who also seems to have spent the night there.
When trying to convey mother and child to the local hospital facilities, the social workers met with considerable resistence from a middle-aged man called Joseph (family name unknown, allegedly a carpenter from the city of Nazareth), a group of local shepherds and three suspicious foreigners, who said they were magicians from a non-specified country in the East. All these people seemed to be in high spirits, though they had spent the night out in the cold.
The social workers preferred to call in the police, who presently ascertained that the three foreigners, besides being without passport, visa or other documents, were carrying a large amount of 24-carat gold as well as some other, very likely illegal substances. The strangers’ claim that God had ordered them to travel in secrecy, without reporting to the proper authorities, did nothing to allay suspicion.
Mary, when questioned, asserted that she was a virgin and the child was supernaturally begotten by a deity. She is at present undergoing physical and psychological examination at the Bethlehem District Hospital, under police supervision. Joseph, who emphatically denies being the father of the child, is facing prosecution for seduction of minors.
As to the shepherds’ assertion that a young man in a nightgown with golden wings had appeared to them – “He said we should go to that old deserted cowshed at once and congratulate the young woman on the birth of her first” – Police Commissioner Yehoshua comment: “As far as my experience goes, that’s just about the lamest excuse ever dreamed up by a bunch of stoned junkies.”

oh, listen. they're playing our song.

don't come knockin'

(news of grandma caru)


my daddy just phoned my granny (his mum), as he often does in the evening. she didn't answer the phone.
this had him quite worried, because she hardly ever goes out, and surely not without telling, and not on a winter evening long after dark. and bless her, she's 94 if she's a day. so he phoned her next door neighbour, a lady in her seventies, who kindly went and rang granny's doorbell. no answer. knocked a few times, no answer either.
and the neighbour seemed to remember she hadn't heard granny's TV going today (and usually it's on from morning to night, and very loud too, for her hearing isn't what it used to be).

daddy jumped into his car (his blood pressure at about 200, so was my mum's, and mine too, when she told me over the phone), drove to granny's, didn't bother to knock or ring - expecting to find her unconscious at the very least - but let himself in with the emergency key.

oh, granny was SO surprised. no, she hadn't heard anyone knocking or ringing. yes, she had heard the telephone, but couldn't find it because it was dark, and wasn't quick enough turning on the light, because, you see, the light switch is difficult to find in the dark, too. almost annoyed, she was. but in good health, thank you. yes, the TV was on as usual, maybe the neighbour's gettin' deaf.

it's my strong belief grandma caru will live to be 120, and then someone will wring her neck for ruining his nerves.