GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

She called the bull a donkey.

My dad bought a new touchscreen computer.
Today’s zoom call was filled with caricatures on a digital whiteboard.
He drew mice, then a cat.
My daughter caged the cat.
The boy asked for a bear.
My dad drew the head; she added the body.
A racing dog and a silly elephant.
An angry bull and a gorilla.
A fish with a cavernous jaw facing a squiggly worm.
The girl hooked the worm with a fishing line but changed her mind.
She dressed the worm and fish in dark suits with red ties.
She gave them a computer.
My dad added a mouse, with two buttons.

I did the same at her age.
On rice paper.
A black cotton ball with a beak and claws in front of a brood of chicks.

..

Three carps by Ohara Koson (1877-1945).

..

Rule a big country
the way you cook a small fish.

from “60” in the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (transl. Ursula K. Le Guin)