Two Dreams
TWO DREAMS The room was breathingthe music light and 1960’sHe could feel the constraintof the Marine aviators in the corneras they fit themselves to the roomCocktails were simplebourbon, waterNext to him, his Mom and DadAs the dream started to fadehe rememberedhis father was deadso quicklyhe turned to him, saying “Give me a hug”They kind of hugged […]
What’s True
Note: This poem was written shortly before the birth of my oldest daughter What’s true in this warm and rowing cave I move I see quite far despite the darkness The light I feel is strange to this tightness and constriction growing in me I moved once so freely all around danced and wound and […]
Games
My Baltic house may be seedyNot up to your blue BoardwalkSince I don’t charge you rentYou can judge my intentBut now you own my whole block we play games My right foot Twists to blueYou rise with a hand on greenI counter. You lean.I wonder: Are we falling?Red, and both of us are sprawling I […]
The Room is Quiet Now
& Backstory
I sit on the patio where thefine delicate scent of her flowersdrifts in the airThe hospice nurse’s hand on my shouldertells me the machines and tubeshave been removedWhen I entershe is lying quietlybut her eyes seek me outIt is time I don’t want to get the ring past the knuckleBut she opens her eyes, insistingI […]
The Shape of Death
What the shadow line leaves behindlingers, leaving shapes now defined I wander among the curved thoughtsPush gently on the rounded memoriesand watch their surfaces distortStanding still, I wait to be impaledby the sharp points of regret My mistakes cloud the evening skybringing the rain pouring down my faceBut the kindness in the windrouses my feet […]
The Judge Wore Pumps
& Backstory
It’s hard to look people in the eye whenyour hand and foot shackles drag youdown but you see plenty on the scuffedlinoleum of the corridors checked inschoolroom patterns of light anddark not white or blue anymore becausenothing here is the way it started but isworn by the passing of the prison chanclason your feet and […]
Rocky Peak
Nice to earn the viewfrom my favorite peak againWriting this from one ofmy sitting rocksThis one is at the topIt’s JulyFirst time I’ve pushed itsince April Every time I call my youngestdaughtera few rings go bybefore she answersThere was thatearly morning phone callThe one her fingers remembereven when her brain forgets“Sweetie, I had a heart […]
The Ballad of Bushmeat and Roadkill [explicit]
& Backstory
THE BALLAD OF BUSHMEAT AND ROADKILL orA Treatise on Ecological Disaster Bushmeat and Roadkill walk into a barToasting with sour bourbon they savor the burn and belly fire which lights up their dwindling eyes then slam their bar glasses down for another oneRoadkill plays Rampage on the jukebox she splinters a pool cue picking her teeth with the shardsBushmeat runs his tongue through the card reader gumming up […]
Culvert and Copse
I walk a serpentine paththrough the culvertThe concrete planking extendsfirst from one side, then the otherto slow rushing waterIt’s dry and dark nowas I wind my way through I come out into a wide expanseof close-cut grassHundreds of yards to either sideare newish housestheir trees still small, but growing Every hundred yards or sothere is […]
Flowing
& Backstory
Dedicated to Kris Kristofferson. An homage to Me and Bobby McGee FLOWING Cold, wet, dusk Hitchhiking in the rain Lost in the Willamette Valley in LA clothes He didn’t know why she stopped but she did The truck heater was a meal sending life back to his wet denim legs “A year in LA was […]