Poems & Other Lies
Denial
I like my job. It is work that needs doing and I enjoy doing it. I have worked through several public health crises; I was a lab tech and phlebotomist through more than one hepatitis outbreak. I was working when AIDS first began to blossom, before we really knew...
Still Living My Best Life
Amy has been gone for three weeks, gone south to California to take care of her mother who is recovering from hip surgery. Our niece, Tessa, remarked to her: "Uncle Vernon must be living his best life, up there unsupervised." "Vernon lives his best life every day, "...
Bob Verpa
A morelity play starring Amy Wheeler. Featuring morels by Andy Wade. https://vimeo.com/416343095
Impermanence
My morning walk takes me past landmarks no longer there: Coe Primary, where I attended first and second grade, now offices. Down the street, third and fourth grade gone. Only a park remains Last year, May Street School razed, replaced by a brick...
Troubled Sleep
I lie perfectly still, refusing to open my eyes, refusing to roll over struggling with my own thoughts desperate for just another thirty minutes of repose Outside a bird calls from high in a tree striving to make its song heard above the incessant noise of...
Systems Check
I walk out under a dark blue, faintly luminescent sky The moon, one day past full, shines down on the hot tub My morning routine has become an anti-viral struggle against the pandemic Systems check: Water clear, thin islands of bubbles, 103 degrees,...
Pterodactyl
just above me, huge, silent, missing one secondary feather from the left wing, a heron glides across the pale blue plate-glass dawn
The Kiss of Contagion
You feel the warmth rising, the gentle caress of contagion brushing across your lips. You try to deny it, to push it away. But there is no denying what you feel in your chest, the ache at the back of your throat. It has caught you, and you will not get free. You may...
Yes, you are
Why do you argue with me, when I tell you how beautiful you are? Why do you roll your eyes and say, “No, I’m not.” as if I have no idea what I see with my own heart? You turn the stereo up so loud a deaf kid could dance to it, miming the lyrics with a provocative...
Morning Fog
Long before daybreak Roosters crowing in the fog of winter snowmelt
Last Night I Heard Your Voice
I know you think I don’t miss you when you’re gone and it’s true, I keep busy all day long and fall asleep before I get to bed. But last night I heard you call my name. I woke up in the dark, in bed, alone. I reached for you but found only tangled sheets I swear that,...
Throwback Thursday
1~4~2016 Home at last Driveway white with snow Happy dogs
Sunrise, January First, 2020
The rain has paused, but the gusty wind continues to blow water from the naked trees. Two maple seeds helicopter down to a hard splash-landing in the hot tub. Aside from the wind, it is quiet. Even the dogs and the rooster are sleeping in.
Walking Through My Memories
At lunch, I usually take a walk, just to get away, out of the office. I often walk along the old pipeline above Indian Creek. It's a little different now than when I was a kid. The water is gone and the pipe has fallen into disrepair, but most of it is still there....
Wanderback Tanglefoot
The walk home from the neighbor's Was twice as far As the walk over
