{"id":1978,"date":"2013-09-17T18:19:40","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T02:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2013-09-17T18:19:40","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T02:19:40","slug":"mike-oconnor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=1978","title":{"rendered":"Mike O’Connor"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE HUMANIST
\n\u2014In Memoriam, T.G.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At Sea Breeze Trailer Court
\n(in mill-smoke range),
\nmy friend, the old professor states:
\n\u201cTV\u2019s my babysitter now;
\nplease, take a seat.
\nI\u2019m always glad to see you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrapped in wool sweater
\non a wooden built-in couch,
\nlegs draped with blankets,
\noxygen tubing curled at his feet . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m breathing better now,\u201d
\nhe says. \u201cMy mood improves, but
\nI can\u2019t sleep. Whatcha
\nbeen reading?\u201d<\/p>\n

Heart surgery, arthritis, pleurisy\u2014
\nhe declares he misses coffee
\nwith the writing gang.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you\u2019ll be back,\u201d I tell him.
\n\u201cWe all expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trailer\u2019s light is dim
\nas on a trans-Pacific flight.
\nI fetch a cup of soda for him
\nand a pill.<\/p>\n

Remote in hand,
\nhe changes channels.
\n\u201cHere\u2019s the Discovery station,\u201d
\nand I look:<\/p>\n

a pride of female lions
\n(muscled, eager)
\nsplits off a bovine
\nfrom a grazing herd.<\/p>\n

\u201cCats right out of Gaudier-Brzeska,\u201d
\nI observe.<\/p>\n

Terrified, the ox
\nbrandishes its horns; then turns
\nand tries to lumber off,
\nits big hindquarters
\neasy for the cats.<\/p>\n

One lion springs upon the ox\u2019s withers;
\na second climbs its haunches.
\nBoth getting teeth and claws in,
\nripping chunks of flesh and hide.<\/p>\n

A third tears at the ox\u2019s underbelly;
\na fourth, bounding ahead,
\nseizes the ox\u2019s snout
\n(briefly, we see the ox\u2019s eyes)
\nto suffocate it, as the beast
\nis ridden to its knees
\nin the sub-Saharan grass.<\/p>\n

It will take some time,
\nnotes the narrator,
\nfor the ox to die
\nwhile it is being ripped apart alive.<\/p>\n

Some of the hunt is shown again,
\nand in slow motion
\nwhen a point of science
\nmerits emphasis.<\/p>\n

I see now at the end,
\nthe African sun setting
\non the scene, forming silhouettes
\nof the statuesque cats
\nas they finish eating on their prey.<\/p>\n

Some folks speak coolly of \u201cthings as they are\u201d;
\nothers, like Jeffers, of the \u201cbeauty of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the old professor\u2014
\nincorrigibly humanist\u2014
\nchanges channels<\/p>\n

and remarks, \u201cIf I were God,
\nI would have made things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mike O\u2019Connor,<\/a> a native of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, is a poet, writer, and translator of Chinese literature. Beginning in the 1970s, he engaged in farming and forest work, followed by a journalism career in Asia. He has published eleven books of poetry, translation, and memoir, including Unnecessary Talking: The Montesano Stories; Immortality;<\/em> <\/a>and\u00a0Where the World Does Not Follow: Buddhist China in Picture and Poem.<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>O\u2019Connor is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, an International Writers\u2019 Workshop Fellowship (Hong Kong), and a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE HUMANIST \u2014In Memoriam, T.G.   At Sea Breeze Trailer Court (in mill-smoke range), my friend, the old professor states: \u201cTV\u2019s my babysitter now; please, take a seat. I\u2019m always glad to see you.\u201d Wrapped in wool sweater on a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[188,434,100,40,8,1],"tags":[669,670],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1995,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}