Poems & Other Lies
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
Fall
plunging from the sky into the tall oaks, a star rattles to the ground
Friday the 13th
Clouds hide the full moon, soaking up the light like a sponge In the corner, in the darkness, behind a low wall Two black cats fight, tooth and nail I cannot see them to throw a rock My shouts add to the clamor of their screeching In the early hours of this country...
Dreaming Me
I wish I knew Dreaming Me a little better. He seems like an amusing fellow. All night long, he tells me jokes and spins out dramas, sometimes comedies, sometimes parables. I can never remember all the details and I can’t tell you Dreaming Me’s stories as well as he...
