Vive la compagnie!  It's Bastille Day, and I'm back online after an 80-day absence. In the meantime, Texas just passed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation; Zimmerman was acquitted in Florida; the oil shale boom is fueling the energy industry; the housing sector has perked up even as interest rates slowly rise; Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are at loggerheads again; and the nation is still reeling from the aftermath of the Boston Marathon tragedy, tropical storm Sandy, wild fires, and a hair-trigger stock market.  In other words, not much has changed.

Wind last night blew down
A gardenful of peach blossoms.
A boy with a broom
Is starting to sweep them up.

Fallen flowers are flowers still;
Don’t brush them away.

The Winnowing Season

Winnowing is as ancient as
Sod and plow, the time when
Chaff and grain must separate.

I feel the weight of chaff like
Picasso's dust on the soul,
The debris and decay of routine.

The steel gray sky commands
Me to be still as the year begins,
Before the mad rush is on again.

I will take stock of provisions
And map out the year's journey,
With watchful eye on the compass.

'Tis the season for winnowing,
A time to blow chaff off the grain
And dust from the soul.

~ Stephen Mendonca