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Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography.

I'd guess that at least every other person reading this column did at one time, as a child, carry home some animal that he or she wouldn't be able to keep.

Here's Connie Wanek, who lives in New Mexico, remembering her son in just such a moment.

Connie's most recent book is a collection of her "Mrs. God" poems called Consider the Lilies, published by Will o' the Wisp Books.

Rain Changing to Snow

He came home from middle school
with a wet kitten tucked inside
his black leather jacket.
He'd found it shivering in the tall grass
flattened by rain.
It could only belong to him
for fifteen minutes
and it understood that, I think.
Though just a few weeks old,
already it expected disappointment.
Yet it began to purr,
this scrap of cloud-gray fur,
as he drew it forth to show me.
Castaway (its name
he said), so lonely and hungry
after the shipwreck of
another day at school.


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Connie Wanek, "Rain Changing to Snow," (2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Connie Wanek. Introduction copyright @2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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Karen Rhoads. Courtesy photo.

COBB, Calif. – Join Friends of Boggs Mountain for a morning of music and friends.

“Piano Under the Pines,” a performance and conversation with classical pianist Karen Rhoads, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 10 to 11 a.m. in the town of Cobb at the beautiful Cobb Mountain Elementary School outdoor amphitheater.

Rhoads will play works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Bach and Beethoven. She will also perform her three-movement sonata “Firestorm” which she composed in the aftermath of the 2015 Valley fire.

Relax, enjoy the music and commune with nature on a shady forested slope. Friends of Boggs Mountain is sponsoring this admission-free event (donations to FOBM are appreciated). Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food Company is a proud cosponsor. Children are welcome, and the site is wheelchair accessible. Refreshments will be provided.

Rhoads is a Cobb resident and longtime member of Friends of Boggs Mountain. She studied piano as a child and reconnected with her musical roots five years ago after not playing for over 30 years. She was seeking a mentor and friends suggested she contact Santa Rosa Junior College.

“They had heard that a world class pianist was teaching there,” she recalled.

The music department head put her in touch with Dr. Rudolf Budginas. an international concert artist. Dr. Budginas had won First Prize in the prestigious Los Angeles Liszt Piano Competition, among other awards.

“I auditioned really badly but Rudolf agreed to work with me. He turned out to be that rare genius who also teaches brilliantly,” Rhoads said. “My love for the piano was rekindled. I still meet him for the occasional session to work through new music and deal with technical issues.”

“At this event I’ll be playing favorite selections and providing introductory comments about the music. Listeners are invited to ask questions and comment between pieces,” she said. “This will be light commentary, I promise, appropriate for a fun morning at a lovely venue. This is not a music seminar!”

Cobb Mountain Elementary School is one-quarter mile north of Cobb on Highway 175. Cobb is eight miles northwest of Middletown. GPS: 15895 Hwy 175, Cobb, CA.

To RSVP or for more information, text or phone 707-321-4964 or email Karen Rhoads at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Ted Kooser. Photo credit: UNL Publications and Photography.

All of us know people who wouldn't wear an article of clothing that had ever before been touched, let alone worn, by somebody else, and others who could care less.

As I write this column I'm wearing a favorite thrift shop sweater, so . . . This poem first appeared in Minnesota Review.

Emily Rose Cole is from Pennsylvania, and her most recent chapbook is “Love and a Loaded Gun” from Minerva Rising Press.

What Makes a Pearl

When she died, I took my mother's socks,
those fuzzy polka-dotted ones she'd worn

in hospice. I wore them all through winter.

Maybe that's creepy. But is it really so different
from the necklace she willed to me,

that single pearl clinging to its strand of silver?

The necklace isn't creepy. Every day for a year
I hung it over my heart, even in the shower,

even when it felt heavy as a beggar's first coin.

I want to say that having these things was like having a scar
but worse. In winter, socks are as inevitable as scars,

except there's more choice in it: when I was cold,
I chose which socks, and whose.

But I'm wrong. These tokens I harvested
from her deathbed are more like the pearl,

or rather, what makes a pearl:

that piece of sand, the irritant that the nacre
builds itself around, that tiny, everyday object

that, little by little, learns to glow.


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Emily Rose Cole, "What Makes a Pearl," from the Minnesota Review, (No. 90, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Emily Rose Cole and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
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‘RAMBO: LAST BLOOD’ (Rated R)

Early in his career, Sylvester Stallone had many uncredited minor roles in a variety of films. In Woody Allen’s comedy “Bananas,” he played a thug who terrorized riders on a New York subway. Maybe this was the start to his film career as a tough guy.

Notably, Stallone is known for two successful franchise roles, the most significant and enduring being that of underdog boxer Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” films. The other, of course, is the role of former Green Beret soldier John Rambo.

The fifth and possibly last installment, given the film’s title, of the “Rambo” franchise is “Rambo: Last Blood,” a brutal revenge story that is likely to be panned by many critics repulsed by anything remotely tuned to a “Death Wish” fantasy.

It will be interesting to find out if general audiences will be more approving of Rambo’s last stand, and my guess is that it will be more thumbs-up than down for the geriatric Stallone fully engaged once again as a killing machine.

At the end of the Rambo’s adventures in Burma in 2008’s “Rambo,” he returned to the United States and was seen walking down a dusty path to a horse ranch and past a rusted mailbox inscribed with his family name.

Eleven years later in “Last Blood,” Rambo has settled down on the family’s sprawling ranch in Arizona, where he’s found sanctuary and a sense of belonging, sharing his home with his adoptive family, Maria Beltran (Adriana Barraza) and her granddaughter Gabriela (Yvette Monreal).

A Vietnam veteran, Rambo is still afflicted with PTSD for which he pops pills on a regular basis. What’s more he’s better equipped that a small nation with an arsenal of firearms, swords, knives, claymore mines and even homemade weapons.

To the teenaged Gabriela soon to depart for college, Rambo has been a father figure that she calls Uncle John as she was abandoned by her father when she was little after her mother died of cancer.

From old friend Gizelle (Fenessa Pineda) in Mexico, Gabriela learns that her biological dad is living south of the border. Eager to find out why he left his family, Gabriela insists that she must learn the truth.

Knowing that the father was abusive and uncaring, Maria and Rambo try to dissuade Gabriela from a foolhardy venture but to no avail. Leaving the ranch in defiance, Gabriela travels across the border.

The reunion with the father ends in harsh rejection, and the next morning, when Gabriela doesn’t return home, a primal instinct kicks in for Rambo. Naturally, he sets out to find Gabriela, vowing to Maria he will not return without her.

The worst fears are realized when Rambo learns that Gabriela had been kidnapped from a nightclub and drugged by really bad guys that are part of a cartel running a sex trafficking operation that places young women into a prostitution ring.

In his first encounter with the bad guys in Mexico, Rambo suffers a beating so vicious that he’s left for dead, with ringleader Victor Martinez (Oscar Jaenada) carving a scar into his face.

Rescued by crusading journalist Carmen (Paz Vega), Rambo ends up in her care for several days until his wounds heal. As expected, he exacts revenge in a killing spree and saves a badly damaged Gabriela from a prostitution parlor.

The journalist, who fears for her safety from the vicious cartel that she’s investigating, had good reason to help Rambo. Her sister had been kidnapped and murdered by the same gang.

Leaving behind a pointed message for Victor’s brother Hugo (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) who runs the cartel, Rambo heads back to the ranch to prepare for the all-out war that will inevitably come to his door.

As we know from the beginning, Rambo’s expansive ranch property features an elaborate series of underground tunnels that are most likely in place as a reminder of wartime in Vietnam.

Elaborate planning is undertaken to prepare for the army of heavily-armed thugs of the Martinez cartel. Rambo booby traps his property with everything from mines and shotgun triggers to the type of terrifying traps and devices used by the Vietcong.

The grisly mayhem and graphic violence that comes when the bloodthirsty Hugo and his henchmen stage the siege on the ranch is an epic, vengeance-fueled showdown that is fast-paced, brutal and extremely grisly.

We know from the past that Rambo has well-honed survival skills such that a couple of dozen vicious hombres are no match for a guy pushed to bring retribution, suffering and death to those who have caused pain.

“Rambo: Last Blood” allows the war hero to seek revenge that is entirely predictable. Watching him prepare every deadly trap is to know exactly what is in store for those foolish enough to fight on his turf.

Any doubt about the outcome of Rambo’s battle indicates a lack of familiarity with the deadly skills this warrior has employed going back to “First Blood,” the original installment.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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Lee Marvin won an Academy Award for his performance in “Cat Ballou.” Courtesy photo.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1965 comedy/western, “Cat Ballou,” starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Entry to the film is by donation.

First rate parody of the Western genre and a showcase for Marvin’s comedic talents which brought him an Academy Award for his portrayal of good guy/bad guy twin brothers.

The story's plot lines are cleverly linked by Nat “King” Cole (in his last film appearance) and Stubby Kaye, a pair of banjo strumming balladeers.

Fonda is the young and innocent title character who turns herself into a gunslinger in order to avenge her rancher father’s murder.

The movie is sponsored by Tomkins Tax Consultants. Rated G. Run time is 1 hour and 37 minutes.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.

Jane Fonda stars in the 1965 comedy/western, “Cat Ballou.” Courtesy photo.
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‘HUSTLERS’ (Rated R)

Whenever a movie is inspired by true events as in the case of “Hustlers,” there is a natural curiosity to learn the backstory of a movie that focuses on the intersection of sexual exploitation, illicit drugs, larceny, greed and power set in the seedy world of strip clubs.

The article “The Hustlers at Scores,” written by Jessica Pressler for New York magazine in 2015, recounts the players in a criminal ring of strippers who drugged men and entertained them at nightclubs while racking up enormous charges on their credit cards.

The arc of criminal activity in “Hustlers” ties into the run up to, as well as the aftermath of, the global financial crisis of 2008 when Wall Street investment banking firms went bankrupt and the mortgage market was blowing up.

At the start of 2007, Dorothy (Constance Wu) is a young woman struggling to make ends meet, to provide for herself and her aging grandma. Working at a strip club may have been an act of desperation but seemed like a golden opportunity to grab a decent sum of cash.

Faced with the reality of a business steeped in graft and corruption, her job was not easy. Club managers, DJs, bouncers and bartenders expected a cut of the earnings, leaving Dorothy all-too-often taking home a meager payday after a long night of stripping.

Adopting the stage name Destiny, her life is forever changed when she meets Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), the club’s top money earner, who is first seen dazzling a crowd of mostly businessmen in suits tossing wads of cash her way as she twirls around the pole with acrobatic ease.

Without any doubt, Ramona is a force to be reckoned with, demonstrating that she’s always in control, knowing just how to tease money out of the hands of her clientele as if she were taking candy from a baby.

For Destiny’s good fortune, the two women form a bond, and Ramona offers a crash course in the various poses and pole moves like the carousel, fireman, front hook and ankle-hook (thanks to the press notes for the nomenclature of stripper movements).

Since her main interest in stripping is financial survival, Destiny finds that mentoring from Ramona, along with another stripper (Cardi B) teaching the art of lap dancing, is the most effective way to overcome her apparent lack of talent for the business.

Forming an enticing duo, Ramona and Destiny start working together in the champagne room to please the Wall Street high rollers with their exotic, seductive moves that are far more suggestive than titillating.

Along comes the Great Recession of 2008 and Wall Street takes a giant hit, thereby turning the previous huge cash flow from the brokers into the hands of the strippers into a mere trickle, causing Destiny and Ramona to go their separate ways.

Ramona goes to work in retail and dreams of creating her own clothing line. Destiny becomes a mother to a baby girl. Neither one is satisfied with an ordinary life that fails them as breadwinners and persons in control.

Becoming innovative to new methods, Ramona and Destiny recruit Mercedes (Keke Palmer) and innocent-looking Annabelle (Lili Reinhart) to frequent upscale bars to target potential male clients.

Crossing the line into illicit activity, the women have the knack of finding wealthy men they hoodwink by spiking their cocktails with ketamine and MDMA so that they will become pliable victims handing over their credit cards.

They have no qualms about maxing out the credit cards in one evening of sexual tease of nearly comatose clients. As one cop is quoted in the magazine article, men “don’t want to admit to being victimized by women.” The result is basically carte blanche for larceny by the strippers.

The game is working really well for the stripper squad until competitors get into the act. As challenges pile on, Ramona recruits other to keep a good thing going, and this is where mistakes are made.

The entrepreneurial spirit of Ramona and her crew eventually runs into serious glitches, and it is certainly a detriment when a junkie like Dawn (Madeline Brewer) becomes a catalyst to their world collapsing when a client offers credible evidence of malfeasance to the police.

Jennifer Lopez may be the big star in “Hustlers,” but the backbone of the story belongs to Constance Wu as her character, at various points, is interviewed by the magazine journalist (Julia Stiles) for her version of the sordid business.

“Hustlers” doesn’t paint an exactly pretty picture of the players. Coming off for the worst, Wall Street dudes are mostly arrogant, crude and ultimately pathetic. The strippers, seemingly disadvantaged and working the system, are hardly angelic.

Though the film is an entertaining look at grubby manipulation and payback, the Jessica Pressler article proves to be an even more fascinating revelation of flawed individuals in pursuit of either hedonistic pleasures or financial gain.

The best bet is to first take in “Hustlers” at the cinema and then read the magazine article that inspired the film.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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