the back burner

WHAT A STUPID MOVIE!

"It was dumb! It was obvious! It was... short. We loved it!"

Ok, ok, I finally watched Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits. I'm not sure I laughed harder at the thought of KAI watching it with her former housemates (and thus losing all movie-selection privileges for the duration of her tenancy) or at the hilarious midgets. It was dumb and obvious, but hey, at least I knew when to laugh. And it was a lovely thing to watch. A bit like muppets, a bit like The 5th Element, and a lot like Gilliam's other stuff.

And somehow, I think it's stupidity was strangely endearing. (Not sure what that says about me.) Afterwards, while my sister held a marathon phone conversation with her significant other, my parents and I enjoyed five rousing rounds of the poetry game...

Here are two good ones:

"untitled" (by an anonymous author)
as the plane leveled off at 30,000 feet
the steward come across
the phone
and recommended for our lunch today
the very wicked lamb

"untitled" (by me)
The strangest things can happen when you eat.
Be careful lest your food go down too soon.
An undigested piece of cheese or meat
can make your earlobes swell up, like balloons.
And if, upon life's dull and lonesome path,
some seaside trip should suddenly occur,
then stop, my son, and quickly do the math.
Allot three hours twixt mealtime and the surf.
The careless eater makes investments poor --
for, as she sees it, life is much too short
to worry over eating less or more.
(Besides, she thinks the worry causes warts.)
You may receive (if you don't make a pact)
sad reimbursements from your g.i. tract.