Contributor Posts

Bats in my belfry,
ants in my crown.
I think I'm turning
into Bozo the Clown.

Late in the day,
not keeping score.
Perhaps I'm winning,
losing is a bore.

When days are gone,
You are too.
I'm unsure of what
I should do.

You profess your love,
almost every day.
I love you too,
nothing else to say.

Blow cold the winds
which Winter brings.
Give love to all who
God gave wings.

Long lay, the grassy plain,
dry in Summer, awaiting rain.
What happens when clouds will burst
as parched land, quenches thirst.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

That's no sunspot. It's the International Space Station (ISS) caught passing in front of the Sun. Sunspots, individually, have a dark central umbra, a lighter surrounding penumbra, and no Dragon capsules attached. By contrast, the ISS is a complex and multi-spired mechanism, one of the largest and most complicated spacecraft ever created by humanity. Also, sunspots circle the Sun, whereas the ISS orbits the Earth. Transiting the Sun is not very unusual for the ISS, which orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, but getting one's location, timing and equipment just right for a great image is rare. The featured picture combined three images all taken in 2021 from the same location and at nearly the same time. One image -- overexposed -- captured the faint prominences seen across the top of the Sun, a second image -- underexposed -- captured the complex texture of the Sun's chromosphere, while the third image -- the hardest to get -- captured the space station as it shot across the Sun in a fraction of a second. Close inspection of the space station's silhouette even reveals a docked Dragon Crew capsule. Follow APOD on Instagram in: Arabic, English, Persian, Portuguese, and Taiwanese

Photo by Mehmet Ergün

Louie Schwartzberg is an American director, producer, and cinematographer. Since 2004, he has worked as a director for films, including the 2019 film, Fantastic Fungi, and the 2014 Netflix series, Moving Art. More

I can't recall, anytime
in this life of mine,
where my emotions, with others,
became complex and entwined.

But here I sit with heart a beat.
I do not like to receive a scold.
Not saying thank you when you
ask me to buy things, it is old.

Among the people of Memory Care,
words of idiocy may litter the air.
Questions are raised about a loved one,
yet, you know that person is gone.

Here I sit,
in early morning hour,
trying to write words,
for a life gone sour.

Why do things
go wrong for someone good?
I sit and ponder about my wife's
last 10 years, as I should.

Diagnosed with Lung Cancer
in the last part of 2013,
successful treatment, in 2014.
Now she is deemed clean.

No one will say she is cancer free.
They test every year. "In remission."
The words I hear bother me. Then
Early onset dementia. A new Mission.

So I sit here. She is in Memory Care,
with a diagnosis of Dementia-Alzheimer.
What did she do to deserve
ten years of declining health for her?