Sound Advice for the Aspiring Puppeteer

"It is advisable in any case that the puppet be outfitted with trousers, short pants, or suitably modest feminine garments that properly gird the loins. By such prudent means many an awkward question from curious youngsters may be avoided. We have already begun to see in some of the modern European puppet theaters monstrous displays of anatomically correct and often grossly exaggerated reproductive apparatus, but such affronts are clearly designed to shock or amuse adult audiences of dubious sophistication, and it is our hope that American puppetry will not be sullied in a similar fashion."   --DeForest Hayden, The Art of Puppetry. Streater Publishing, New York. 1907.

Taking Stock

Open wide and say 'ah.'
Make a fist. Go ahead and get
dressed. Listen to those birds.
No telling what they might be
trying to say. You wouldn't think
they'd be happy with this mess,
but who the hell knows about birds?

You know how it is when you get
something you think you really want
and discover that having it's not nearly
as interesting as wanting it?
You buy a book, for instance,
a book that you've been thinking
for a long time you really must
have, and then it just goes on the
shelf at home, or is added to one
of the growing piles of mostly unread
books. You suppose you're glad
to have it, though. One more thing
you no longer have to want.

You don't know how it happened,
but at some point everything became like
that book you thought you wanted,
and you can't quite decide whether
that's a good thing or a bad thing.