Bad Machinery by John Allison for February 12, 2024

Is that water balloon going to come down on someone?

I threw a water ballon into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight

Could not follow it in its flight.

. . . .

I breathed a song into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where;

For who has sight so keen and strong,

That it can follow the flight of song?

. . . .

Long, long afterward, in an Oak,

I found the ballon, still unbroke;

And the song, from beginning to end,

I found again in the heart of a friend.

. . . .

(With apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow…)

Speak for yourself, Shauna. With the boys, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference between malice and incompetence, but I’m pretty sure your BFF’s instructions were not intended to be helpful.

Better a little pent up rage than a pent up Lottie. Ben Beware.

Some of them pay other people to clean their faces.