Grunts and groans
Sighs and moans
Stiff-legged walk—
Cold water to face
Toothbrush in a race
Don’t forget to cough
And yank the hot & cold
Beyond the window wide
The birds gather with pride
All the answer have I none
Stick a fork in me I’m done
Maybe you’re good & fleet
But I am dead under foot
There goes the wifely shuffle
The days begin with usual hustle
Don’t say there’s no pain
Like Chinese torture
Out in the rain
One more drop to the brain.
Note publication of my poem on Monhegan Commons for Dec. 9, 2009: click on poetry tab, poem entitled, “Island Pond Has Frozen”.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
Please…
Don’t raise the shade
My eyes are asleep
In their caverns
Silent in darkness
With no images
But my mind
Awakening in fear
Of a full day
Of scorching lamps
High in the sky
Or over my left shoulder
Bringing to light
A reality much debated
Where no one agrees
And everyone cheats
To make it right again.
Twas no excuse
You weren’t the center
Nor the margin even now.
The rains came
And washed the snow,
Evidence of winter,
Into premature spring
And doubters quaked
Like Colorado aspens,
While time slipped
Gearless through fog,
And no mind left
An impression of life.
I winked at the conceit
Of ignoring as lesson—
Is that a cold front?
Don we now
Our parkas yet,
Again?
Ice and fog
And thaw
Drip the landscape.
Mystery, it must be,
With detectives
Prowling in hip boots,
Their flashlights darting
Into crevices—
For what lost soul
Or now…body:
Decomposing into hideous grin,
A front tooth with diamond.
Clearly not a crime of property,
Observes a cocksure eye.
Note well, the indefinable fading:
Bloodless white tissue of frost.
Snow, sleet, ice
Thawed, frozen again
Into sheets bubbled
With air from last week—
Dusted lightly
With snow confection
Upon which the booted foot
Flies without resistance
To moon surface heights
While the padded coat
Wheels horizontal
The hooded head
Cranes forward
In the instant flash
Between sky and ground
The concussion follows
With the shock of pain.
Convention dictates
He began…
And then lost his way.
Reprehensible, his buddy said,
Have you no respect?
Given the sacrifices
You’re an ungrateful
Despicable aspersion—
All good words.
The blinking customer said,
So don’t push me.
Reporting you as you are
Will bring repercussions
That may scar eardrums.
You don’t listen, do you?
The damage is already done.
A piece of sky
Cut by a diamond
Dropped on a plate
Blessed by a goddess
Whose kisses press
My nodding head
Till awake & fresh
The meal is eaten
In calm realms
Far above the play
Knocking at the world
An embrace of arms
Collisions unknown
While ignorance avoids
The scripted future
My celestial meal
Saves me from harm.
Who’s in charge here?
What’s with bedlam
And broken bones—
Look,
Do I have to—?
No,
I didn’t think so
Okay let’s pick up
And make the adults happy—
After all,
They’re feeding us—
And please stand still—
We’re all in crises here
Don’t make matters—
Hey, put that down—
Help,
We’ve got a problem here.
Against this sleet
Have you no hope?
Why the cower?
Why the limp?
Cripple in retreat
Even now as bombs burst—
Is this Earth
Not a green white Hell?
And you a subject,
A victim of random
Horrors dripping
Into frame after frame—
Your fear is justified—
You are a target
And your hiding place
Is only a flimsy hut
Against today’s attack.
Put it this way
He didn’t have a clue
Foppish lad in open air
Celestial blue sky
Chromatic angel harps
Quicksilver fingering
And joy was possibility
Even high probability
Attesting to honors earned
The frozen earth held firm
And was remained in hand
Like bank assets seized—
Fear had flown
Into insubstantiality
He lived in Roman order
His cohorts awaited command
While he dreamed of spring.
