Glory for the Corps & the wolves cometh

As long as I brought up the subject, I thought I would continue it. Here presented, for your education, edification and enjoyment, is a small sample of T-shirts reflecting Marine Corps sentiment. As usual, the technical quality of the photograph is rather dismal but, if you pop it up to full size, most of the slogans should at least be readable. If they are not, let me know and we will hire an attorney and see if we cannot find three or four people to sue. I would think the T-shirt manufacturer alone would pay us a tidy sum just to have us get lost.

Two hunters exchange thoughts ....
Part two of two

The trail is ancient, while the day dawns new.
It skirts the shoreline of a deep, blue lake
which nips at sand and rocks 15 feet below.
There walks a wolf below, big, gray, prowling,
hunting, driving on a search for game
while I watch, admiring its stealth and grace.

While I watch, I am watched. I know it.
I sense it. I feel another presence, near.
I turn my head and see the hunter's mate,
behind me, six feet distant, no more.
Our eyes blend, lock, focus, one upon the other
in a penetrating stare, each the other to know.

His approach I had not heard, so silent was he,
as the pair hunt the lake shore, one high,
one low, he on the upper deer trail
while she stalks the shoreline below.
My eyes record his outer being, long legs,
thick fur, expressionless face but for his eyes.

We probe each other's eyes, even beyond.
A minute it lasts, maybe two before
the wolf seems to shrug his shoulder,
lower his gaze from me to the trail ahead,
step forward, all this in a single motion
does the wolf move past me, continuing
his march along the ancient deer trail.

He passes so closely I can reach my hand
to touch, but do not, for he merely
is offering passage, not a welcome
to his woodland, to his home, to his path.
It is his trail, not mine; it is his mate below
on the lakeshore, not mine; I am his guest.

We might be brothers should we hunt alone,
but he is wary and protects his mate,
who patrols the sandy, rocky shoreline below.
There are times when brothers do not trust
even brothers, and this we both have learned.
I watch them until they disappear, together.

Incidentals ….

I do have a few other elements I want to toss into the wolf mix, part 2, but this is where I am right now and I feel lazy -- like I am on vacation or something like it. Besides that, I woke up today with a bit of a head cold, and it has been catching up to me more and more as the day progresses.

On a more positive note, I learned last night that I can separate the work of artists from the political viewpoints of the artists. That sort of snuck up on me without warning. Small victory, but major good feeling.

The Marine Corps enters my mind every January as I approach my anniversary date. It usually has been washed from my system a few days after the date (January 24) has passed, but this year it keeps coming back. Something must be stirring the blood. I wonder what.

Maybe I will add to this later, maybe I will write an email or two, maybe I will watch a movie, maybe I will pour a brandy and sit outside a while .... it is my time, at least for the moment.

Music Note: Listening to Def Leppard ....
Specifically, "Pyromania" ....
Some lines from: "Foolin':"

Is anybody out there, anybody there
Does anybody wonder, anybody care
Oh, I just gotta know

If you're really there and you really care
Cause baby

I'm not F-f-f-foolin, ah f-f-foolin
F-f-f-foolin, ah f-f-foolin