The two co-editors of a publication requested a new poem of mine for their November issue. That was my high for the day. What an honor. We belong to the same on-line poetry community/workshop where we aim to share a poem twice a month. We sometimes get feedback. This time I received such a wonderful request. I haven’t submitted poems to journals on a regular basis in a long time. I hadn’t submitted to this one either though I like it. So to be asked felt so special.
It also is like a loving smack in the head. Get your shit out there, woman! Whattaya waitin’ for?!
As far as my battle with cigarettes goes, I’m still doing better than I had been before attempting to cut down. I hope I can eventually do better than now because it’s not really good enough.
Aside from eight mosquito bites, I had a wonderful day with two long-time friends on Friday. We went to the Village of Sleepy Hollow and spent the day and evening under a gazebo in Rockefeller State Park (or right near it). We each know each other well and accept each other as we each are, flaws and all. No matter have much aggravation we might be having in our lives individually, we end up cracking up laughing over so many of our life experiences. Deep laughter is so good. Really helps endure the pain.
When we were up there, we stopped in a couple of food stores before going to the park. It was wonderful to see that the supermarket there carried Bronx Hot Sauce. It is the only hot sauce I ever liked.
I once worked at a job that, as a bonus project, had developed a garden where they planted peppers (among many other things). The peppers were grown for the Bronx Hot Sauce company. They supported us and we supported them. Several teachers, a former director, and many students are due the credit for that work. Though I was barely involved, I encouraged my students to get involved. Many came from countries where they farmed, so it felt like a bit of home for them. They’d get to take home many of the vegetables they planted. In many ways, it was a good adult education program though there was room for improvement. When the third administration team came in, it became a whole different program. The garden, the dedicated counselor, the most popular teachers, gone. Other good people left on their own. It takes so many years of hard work and evolving minds to build something great, and so little time for the narrow-minded to destroy it. One of my former co-workers told her therapist what was going on at that job. The therapist believed that the new director got rid of those she felt threatened by because she felt they knew more than she did.
It echoed of the previous White House administration.
Constant love to
CGG-M ❤ ❤ ❤
Mindy Matijasevic, June 2021
