Poems & Other Lies
Missed
His glossy flanks glisten in the morning sun. Sleek and shiny, well fed on corn, he runs along the fence line, moving faster than my finger on the trigger. I will see you again after work, Mr. Rat.
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TMI
If you don’t want to read a slightly vulgar complaint about the discomfiting realization that I am becoming an old man, stop right now. You are under no obligation.
read moreHarbinger
Swarms of beetles emerge from the receding snow banks on the first truly warm day. Sunbathing on the south wall, a mass of black bugs lined with red, their excrement stains the window trim. Some find their way inside the house where they crawl into my teacup or...
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The Rooster
In the darkness a rooster calls for the sun. His brothers repeat his insistent crowing, like echoes up and down the canyon. They will drag the day from beneath the eastern ridge by sheer force of will. Deep in the shadows, a lone frog applauds their efforts. The...
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Shorted
Shambling along, we stumble through our daily routine with the dead eyes of Daylight Savings Time
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Bark!
A single bark rings out, exploding like a gunshot, echoing off the laundry room walls. Walter wants out. Now. A short while later he will demand to come back in with a similar bark. The stars look like paint splattered across a deep blue drop cloth. They provide just...
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Fog
The fog moved through the trees and we moved through the fog. It was as impenetrable as a wall, as ephemeral as a ghost( a thought half formed? a memory not quite recalled?). We were boxed in; at times we could only see one hundred feet, sometimes we could see one...
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The Latency of Morning
It has been snowing for a week It snowed all last night It is snowing yet. My world, confined to what I can see, is a shapeless mass of amorphous heaps. A rumpled blanket hides the ground. Everything is pale and colorless. The paper birch, branches laced with snow,...
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Naughty Nuts and Bolts, a Creative Talents Unleashed anthology, available from Amazon
Three of my poems - Yes, You Are, Animal Nature, and Last Night I Heard Your Voice - appear in Naughty Nuts and Bolts, a Creative Talents Unleashed anthology, available from amazon.com, to be released February 14, 2019 VW "The theme of this anthology, is ......
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Twice Savored
This story first appeared in the Lit Select anthology Love Slave: Sizzle Vol.5 March 2016 Ralph walked across the lobby to the phone, then hesitated, turned to walk away but stopped again after a few steps. Ralph was nervous. He and Clarice hadn't spoken for years....
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Words
No matter how close you think you are to a person, there are things you can never say to them, neither truth nor fiction, not in earnest and certainly never in jest. Words can be a knife or more often, a cudgel. I knew that, but somehow chose to ignore it. I find...
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Mortality Waits
In the ominous gloom of predawn, behind and somewhere above the henhouse, an owl poses the question: “Who? Who, who?” Inside, the hens shuffle restlessly, murmuring their fears and discontent, unhappy to be awakened before sunup,...
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I Got Burned
When I look at photos of you from your youth, I laugh and say:"I got burned!"You do know I am just kidding?You were beautiful when we metand you are beautiful now.When I look at you I still see the beautiful woman I first met, all those...
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The Mystery
The clouds are gone. Bright stars wink, sprinkled across the black sky. I close my eyes to meditate, breathing, but the stars call to me. As I open my eyes a shooting star burns across the southern horizon. I give up on the breathing exercises and stare into the...
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26 Degrees
Dawn breaks, the color of old lead; an almost invisible icy mist wafts down. I hear it rattle the dead leaves and feel its tentative caress on my face.
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