Thursday, May 30, 2013

HHH

First of the hot days
A chimi for lunch
Two men sing loudly
Along with the music
Whooping it up at mid-day

Merengue, is it?
Don't know for sure, but it's Dominican
And it sounds good
Even in this quiet place I'm staying
Miles below

My nature wants to feel the music
Without the men
I'm apparently annoyed by expressions of joy
Now in this pale man's drowse

On his way out, one of the singers wishes
Good Day, my friend
Making me realize, gently,
That I am the real problem.

And so tonight
The purple air, thick and lilac-sweet,
Is heavy with frogs, and silent thunder clouds
Take advantage of the darkness to mass
For war.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Compadre

Crackling lightning illuminates the hopping frog
mistaking the rain soaked road for water's body
eagerly on toward doom, like me.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

May Flowers

How green this world at dusk
punctuated with purple flowers
a chill in the air and rain
only a few degrees from snow

Anything can happen
and it does, all the time

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Documentary

Joked that it doesn't matter much
because we'll be dead soon enough
knowing and uneasy all at once.

I'll never make a film, let's face it,
with this fine and visible tremor in
my hands, it's OK to call it terminal

I've accepted it.

Probably it's your punishment
for watching your grandmother reading
the newspaper so many years ago

Her hands shaking so hard you wondered
disgustedly how she could even focus
her eyes on the print

Some thought they could cure that in you
with love, a calming touch,
but that wasn't to be

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A Single Step

All day drowsy and apparently entitled
only to more and more madness
you think it might be time to leave
and begin some where new without
this head and what it contains

Windmills Of Your Mind


Monday, May 13, 2013

400

Parts per million
well beyond safe now
quantities dwindling
and expanding exponentially
the template seems useless
now, a departure is called for
I think, but not clearly

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Mother's Day Afternoon

sniff the air for exported
earthquakes, a status change,
shifting perspective, listen to the boy read,
task mastering his unfinished school work
while the piling up of excess toys makes the room unlivable and
the continuous grass greening, reaching for the sun
growing beyond my control

I am a father on Mother's Day
the tulips' pinched stems, a cold latte,
a thousand small sins and misinterpreted gestures,
poor timing and non-synchronized rhythms,
redemption is for someone else.
 

Thursday, May 9, 2013

I Was Thinking There Is A Need For This, But It Already Is.

Grass And Stuff

The grass keeps growing
and the lawn mower is out there
where I left it in frustration last
summer, just an example of things
undone or things not done right
that chip away at me as though
they were important.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Armour Against Nightmares


Bubbles Into Tiny Heads

The details of his night terror
stay with me, surreal in the
mind of a 7 year old, a scream
in absolute terror, run to him
as fast as I can, he holds me with his
entire body as I try with all my might
to scatter those ghosts away from him

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Parable

I'm quiet in the sun
pale and pushing a manual
reel-style mower finding
the task manageable in short grass
let it slide for a week though
and it's a different ordeal entirely

Thursday, May 2, 2013

My Son, Benny Goodman

Best costume on the stage
knew his lines cold
background singing and
he can dance too
in prop glasses, he looks
just like his pop

I see him smiling
watching me watch him.
 

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