Friday, January 31, 2014

Changes...

1.30  Debut

You have arrived
a ball not lost
carried to the finals
and birthed
to decide whose lawn
you would like to inhabit
when that time comes
no bat could send you astray
no fielder stop your ascent
and I pray today
upon your arrival
that you make it through
this bottleneck
with a name 
which carries the weight
of your pedigree
without the drag of the past
over that fence
we could never hope to scale.

###

1.31  Suit

My thoughts return once more
to be reissued amended
perhaps you did
what they accused you of
when I realize you have
disrobed with strangers
and become part of a soup
which no one will drink
coming home midnights
pink glow not from jets
and without a job to boot
it seems strong decisions
are not your suit
and your suit
once hanging in the closet
waiting for the chance to maestro
once again joins the public
who eyes you in a way
brand new to me.


###

Out

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Saturday Afternoon Poem...

1.25  Little Bird

Little bird
sing me a song
and get off my lawn
leaving behind only 
nature’s wisdom
a stray feather
the grey shadow 
of your passing

for I have nothing
with which to afford
anything you may be offering
under those 
shiny wings
nature’s miracle
of lift and drag
I will never aspire to.


###

Out

Friday, January 24, 2014

Two For Today...

1.23  A Voice

This morning in the sky
a flying V of fowl
except
not at all the shape
normally reserved for
migration
no no

this morning in the sky
they formed a B
honking as if 
to say 
nothing to see here
and carried on

their calls fell away
almost entirely before
another gaggle appeared
this one an E formed 
straight from printer’s row

and next came 
H and I stood
craning my neck at the horizon
while A and V passed by
followed by yet another E
or perhaps the same

as the song of their passing
faded from the sky
and I returned
smiling
to my front door.

###

1.24  Treasure Hunt

These wooden pieces
and their cardboard home
tucked away beneath
paper and ink decrees
secreted away
in the back of 
this old teak chest
is so much more
than just a game.


###

Out

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Recent Fruit...

1.21  Legionnaire

Legionnaire
what brought you here
to lay in shade
on the side of this dusty road

bleached bones
smile a response
words could not convey
of a life lived
a goal not realized
and yet

from his natural cage
sprouts flox and daisy
the hated hyacinth
bees’ feast paid for
with a note
a song thrummed
on drunken wings

an ode
epic in scale
scaled too high 
for ears of passers-by
containing
all that bleached smile
would tell
as shade retreats
and sun continues
its flashbulb track
on the side of this dusty road.

###

1.22  Plow

Garden loam
rich with scent
of winter’s bounty
death’s decay
rudely upended
by steel interrupting
earthworm’s slumber

an alarm for Spring
cutting head from
ringed midsection
and creating
in its wake
two threads
Clothos must track
if she cares to
follow this innocent
to its writhing end.


###

Out

Thursday, January 16, 2014

A Shorty Today...

1.16  Other

Today is
not the first
day I have seen
someone else 
looking out from
inside my eyes.

###

Out

Monday, January 13, 2014

Remembering...

1.13  Chlorine Sore

You and the smell of 
freshly baked cookies
enticing us to move in
little knowing roaches
living inside the paneling
were listening to every word
salivating at the thought
of swarming the oven
once the lights went out

all we could dare to 
avoid eye contact with
were the square red 
patches on your arms
cracked and ringed with rime
and your conversation about 
too much chlorine in the pool
did I mention it has a pool
which my brain forever tied together
into a fear seen best
in the bathroom mirror
with its many lights
its cloistered vanity

where I urged the
redness not to appear
and that tiny concern
that engulfed my brain
to start growing if you please
since high school was 
as right around the corner
as Javi the Orkin man.

###

Out

Friday, January 10, 2014

Still going...

1.10 Radish Song

This shrunken radish heart
root vegetable with top chewed
by the local rodentia 
their ilk unasked and unasking
withers from bulbous delicacy
to useless, bitter tuber 
without a fence high enough
to ward off the tallest of them
each hunger leaves more 
destruction until this bumper crop
dwindles to maybe enough
for a single salad 
on a rainy afternoon
in January.


###

Out