Wild Geese.

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I'll tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver

    *          *           * 

"Lexophile" is a term used to describe those who are clever with words, such as "you can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish" or "to write with a broken pencil is pointless"!

A competition to see who can come up with the best lexophiles is held every year in Dubuque, Iowa.

This year's winning submissions are :-

* A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

* The batteries were given out free of charge.

* A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.

* A will is a dead giveaway.

* A boiled egg is hard to beat.

* Police were called to the daycare centre, where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

* Did you hear about the fellow whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.

* A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.

* The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.

* He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

* When she saw her first strands of grey hair, she thought she'd dye.

* Acupuncture is a job well done. That's the point of it.

This is what literary sense of humour is all about! 

Tailpiece.

Got up at our usual time, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10. Bijeesh, the plumber-cum-electrician ditched us yet again; he called up late afternoon saying that he would come at 1030 hrs tomorrow.

Chalked out our entire programme for meeting up with Lekha's doctor, next Monday.