Mothers Day Missive

First of all, Congratulations to the “Sleeping on the Job” Photo Contest Winner: Former Rogue River Hotshot Kathryn Kaonis. Kathryn recalls her days of traveling adventure and working on fires day and night. She caught some shut-eye whenever she could— even when a giant smoke plume loomed in the background from a burn operation. Later, I’ll share more from our conversation. Wait till you hear where she slept at a fire in Alaska… Yikes!

Kathryn Kaonis catching some Zzz’s in downtime between assignments.

Here’s an ode to all women who try to make the world a better place:

Windchime

By Tony Hoagland from What Narcissism Means To Me 

She goes out to hang the windchime

in her nightie and her work boots.

It’s six-thirty in the morning

and she’s standing on the plastic ice chest

tiptoe to reach the crossbeam of the porch,

windchime in her left hand,

hammer in her right, the nail

gripped tight between her teeth

but nothing happens next because

she’s trying to figure out 

how to switch #1 with #3.

She must have been standing in the kitchen,

coffee in her hand, asleep,

when she heard it – the wind blowing

through the sound the windchime

wasn’t making

because it wasn’t there.

No one, including me, especially anymore believes

till death do us part,

but I can see what I would miss in leaving –

the way her ankles go into the work boots

as she stands on the ice chest;

the problem scrunched on her forehead;

the little kissable mouth

with the nail in it.

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