Gardening Without Tuxedos

   GARDENING WITHOUT TUXEDOS

     How to Overcome the Common Sense

                and Still Be Friendly

                         

Critical Thinking Exercise

Identify the following passage, author and text

and  consider responsibly its significance and

relationship  to the whole —the whole,  I said:

text, context,  period of time,  weltanschauung

& evolution of humanistic ART in a now-post-

literate to neo-oral age. .

Be specific.

Your grade will be reflect my assessment

of your  clarity of thought (5,4,3,2,1), your

coherent development of thesis  (5,4,3,2,1),

the logical relationship of your argument

(5,4,3,2,1), good  looking sentences (5,4,3,2,1);

proper grammar and  punctuation of course goes

with out saying and also and especially your

VOICE  (5,4,3,2,1) —how you sound  (if it

ain't got that  swing  it don't mean a thing.) 

Spring advances to meet me: the trees

leafed out, the dandelions set to seed,

the smell of damp raw earth from

plowed fields, the distant puttering noise

of tractors when I stop beside the road

to take a leak, to make a peanut butter

sandwich, to pick a sprig of dogwood

and some wild irises for the water-filled

beer bottles at rest in my dashboard

beer-bottle holder.  I open a fresh bottle

of Budweiser, ignoring the twitch of

anguish in my pancreatic gland, drink

hearty and move on.

Solstice the dog stares straight ahead,

watching the road while I watch the

passage of rural Missouri.  She looks bad,

bleary-eyed and melancholy. I know she's

clear of ticks but she could have worms.

Will have to make inspection next time she

takes a shit. Unpleasant duty but I'd rather

look at hers than mine.