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What can the decline of the Roman Empire and the end of European feudalism tell us about COVID-19 and the future of the West? Read more
Image source: Unknown author - Public domain

Tomorrow, January third,
a day I dreaded to see,
for it is the day, when
my loved one won't live with me.
I did not want this day to arrive
as it changes a relationship
of living free and staying alive.
I will still see you, but it won't
be the same. It will never be.

I think of you,
my mind goes blank.
My thoughts have dimmed,
as my memory fades,
away from the reality of
these days so frail.
The times are compromised
by the politicalness of vaccinations.
Why do you feel your rights are
being attacked. It's about Health
and safety. Get vaccinated.
Wear a mask, until this pandemic
is over, please.

Do you miss me,
like you said you would,
or has this old, heart,
hardened into a dense wood?

Have you seen light bend,
like rays of the Sun,
reflecting off the water
warming the Spring Day.
A reflection it is, yet
the heat feels warm,
when basking in the Sun,
while I am gardening,
keeps the feeling of being young.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Sometimes falling ice crystals make the atmosphere into a giant lens causing arcs and halos to appear around the Sun or Moon. One Saturday night in 2012 was just such a time near Madrid, Spain, where a winter sky displayed not only a bright Moon but four rare lunar halos. The brightest object, near the top of the featured image, is the Moon. Light from the Moon refracts through tumbling hexagonal ice crystals into a somewhat rare 22-degree halo seen surrounding the Moon. Elongating the 22-degree arc horizontally is a more rare circumscribed halo caused by column ice crystals. Even more rare, some moonlight refracts through more distant tumbling ice crystals to form a (third) rainbow-like arc 46 degrees from the Moon and appearing here just above a picturesque winter landscape. Furthermore, part of a whole 46-degree circular halo is also visible, so that an extremely rare -- especially for the Moon -- quadruple halo was captured. Far in the background is a famous winter skyscape that includes Sirius, the belt of Orion, and Betelgeuse -- visible between the inner and outer arcs. Halos and arcs typically last for minutes to hours, so if you do see one there should be time to invite family, friends or neighbors to share your unusual lensed vista of the sky.

Photo by Dani Caxete

Be here tomorrow,
life's over and done.
There is no joy in "Mudville"
Life is no longer fun.
Losing your loved one,
to a terrible disease,
does not come easy,
there's no time to grieve,
for our life's treasures
will not appease.

Love is in bloom,
yet it isn't Spring.
When love bites,
you feel a slight sting,
including the promises
of what love will bring.

A song,
He sang,
Was sung,
for hours
in the
car and
in the
hot shower.

You think you're cute.
I know that you do.
You still have my love
and your friend does too.

I will write of the dust,
clogging the fissures which remain.
A mental cleaning, of grey cells,
should not happen, anytime soon,
unless the Moon is my objective.
No more romance, no more love
of another, just the Lord above.

Stay away from your window.
Don't look out your door,
for there are temptations, outside
looking for you once more.