R L Swihart


Paint It Black

She wasn’t talking philosophy when she said I was 
a cynic and reminded her of So-and-So

*

Cynic: A member of a school of ancient Greek philosophers 
founded by Antisthenes, marked by ostentatious 
contempt for ease and pleasure

*

Old English hund (in the general sense ‘dog’), of Germanic 
origin; related to Dutch hond and German Hund, from 
an Indo-European root shared by Greek kuōn, 
kun- ‘dog’

Cynic (kynikos) = dog-like

*

My tub is on the back patio. I turn it so I have a good view
of the new ornamental peppers. Look for the little
boy reading a book

(C is my mentor when he’s not “marking” the place)

*

In “The Murders of the Rue Morgue” (I’m reading it in turns with 
“Philosophy of Composition”), Poe opted for the older spelling 
of clue: c-l-e-w. Once a ball of thread it became “by way of”
Ariadne’s ball of thread the “clue” of detective stories

*

Orangutans are seven times stronger than humans, but they are 
one of the most peaceful primates and rarely attack humans 
or each other. But, perhaps because of competition for
increasingly “limited resources,” there are 
exceptions:

The attacking female used a male orangutan as a “hired gun”
to help corner and attack the victim in what scientists
say is the first observed incident of lethal aggression
among orangutans (LiveScience 2016)

*

According to Erika Engelhaupt (Gory Details), meerkats
are the most murderous mammals. Also, according
to Gory:

For the last century, we’ve been relatively peaceable;
according to a 2013 United Nations report, today’s
global homicide rate (which counts murders, not
deaths in war) is just .0062 percent

*

Now I feel a little better and can get back to polishing
the apple of myself:

A regular Renaissance Man. A great dad. By way of
By way of By way of, straight from the Neander
Valley (Mettmann more precisely). And DNA
to prove it: 23andMe

R L Swihart was born in Michigan but now resides in Long Beach CA. His work has sparsely dotted both the Net and hardcopy literary journals (e.g., Cordite, Pif Magazine, Denver Quarterly, Quadrant Magazine, Poetry South). His third book of poetry was released July 2020: Woodhenge.

 
 

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