The potential of a life of clinical debauchery had its delectable merits, more so when one had the ear of The Pope. Better that than a lifetime of tedium, kneeling upon cold stone with glued palms and eyes closed tight dreaming only of forbidden celestial flesh. Given that hara-kiri was not of his fancy it was thus he had to deal with the pressing issue at hand.

Nuns, for the main part, had scant appeal, nor choirboys. Most definitely not the latter. That would never do. His reputation in a world of nosey clerics had to be maintained at any cost. Also, were it not for their foul language and a lack of that certain panache barmaids would suffice in a crisis yet could never be ideal. Decisions, decisions. At times like this he wished his sister were not his sister. She may well have sparkled like the midday sun…

A Photo Salvador Dalí kindly took of Shirley & I at our favourite Parisian Café back in ’24

It is June 1924 in the magical period of the ‘Années folles’.  We are in The City of Love.  Paris by any other name. Moreover, we are young and devoted to one another.  Overnight, spring has turned to summer and it is as if the tantalising romantic May dance of titillation has been fully consummated beneath the clear blue skies of the summer equinox.  There are no shadows under the high sun of noon this day as Shirley and I walk the Luxembourg Gardens.  Ever the actress she has adopted for this trip her very best mid-Atlantic accent in order that she will fit in when we meet up with the others, mostly arty-farty American writers of the ‘Lost Generation’, on the ‘left bank’ a little later on.  For now though, we…

The European folk-tale/fairy-tale “Henny Penny,” is an old story that goes as far back as twenty five centuries. The American version is known as “Chicken Little” or “Chicken Licken.” It is a delightful children’s tale ,which I adored as a child about a frightened little chicken named Henny Penny. The theme throughout the fairy tale is that “The Sky is Falling!” cried out by the scared small chicken who felt an acorn fall upon her head, she reacts with hysteria. Henny Penny desires to warn the King and with her many friends who accompany her along the way.

It is similar to the Climate Change warning of modern day. Fearmongering is known to cause the public a type of hysteria known as Chicken Little Syndrome, described by D.L. Ashliman as a fear of an apocalyptic event of the world that can cause paralysis.

shy of sundown

I wrote the sun 
out of the sky
And saw 
The first stars
Come up..


#ku