Hallway to Nowhere

  • The Perfect Joy of Summer Squash (Poem)

    how can I not remember you? how can I forget?

    at the market you would gently pick through summer squash

    to find the ones that were just the color of the sun

    and hold a blueberry to the sky before tasting it for sweetness,

    then at home, you would spread all we bought in riotous display

    and circle it talking aloud to yourself of the delicious possibilites.

    sometimes when we cooked, you’d dance around the kitchen

    and grab my hands to pull me in until I joined you.

    you said I was too serious always and your job was to make me laugh.

    oh love, long ago and too soon gone love, you did that so well

    that still I remember your lessons and the beauty of your smile.

    did I hold you enough? no, never enough, yet I tried to the very end.

    though you slipped away to wander the unknown fields of death,

    you remain with me in unexpected ways, forever my abiding joy;

    forever my happiness; forever my heart.

  • Dangerous Things (Poem)

    when I was young, I knew so many dangerous things

    boys risk their lives for chance

    in brief suicidal encounters with other boys

    girls buzz their hair in swagger

    for langorous forbidden dances with other girls

    bodies hide different meanings

    with changes and revisions often unseen

    words and stones hurled from car windows

    are equally capable of inflicting bloody wounds

    queer fag dyke tranny used on us like knives

    to carve their imagined shame into our very being

    but

    the most dangerous thing I knew is what I still know

    we are here, have always been, will never not be

    our risk brave, and we pay love’s cost

    our swagger pride, and we openly embrace

    we have taught each other magic

    made our scars into marks of beauty

    transformed their scornful terms into rallying cries

    when we look at you with clear unafraid eyes

    we see who you really are, so that you turn away

    because you know, have always known:

    we are the dangerous things

  • Wonder On A Blue Ridge Platter(Poem)

    what can I offer on a day that begins

    with a walk down the street

    in the company of a small dog and a small duck?

    sometimes the world presents whimsy

    wrapped in thick mountain fog

    and the wing-beat of swallows rising in the clouds.

    this is enough to fill my heart;

    just this, reason to breathe.

  • Ariadne, Mistress of The Labyrinth (Poem)

    I am no maiden

    to be approached with shining countenance

    or offers of love and wealth

    I will laugh and show you my empty hands

    only the foolish think that another can give them

    a charmed red thread to lead them to safety

    I know the secret of the labyrinth-

    have always known- and will freely share:

    no key, no secret, no hidden escape

    we each stand in the center of a self-created maze

    you alone know your way through the twists of your heart

    go and walk

  • Lotus Cushion Of Main Street (Poem)

    I sit within the silence of distraction held by the noise of morning’s rush

    rumble of trains and shriek of car alarms

    industrial counterpoint to ongoing birdsong and chatter of squirrels

    louder than any of these the clangor of mind

    bang and buzz of thoughts going here there off in every direction

    follow me follow me follow me each one cries

    I pay every due a brief nod of acceptance bid farewell continue to sit

    aware in the swirl of cacophony

    not yet gone beyond but here and here and here

  • Hidden Lands (Poem)

    as a child I moved so easily between this world and hidden lands

    that I did not realize that this was not a usual thing

    one step was all I needed, one breath

    and the noise of streets and people fell away

    into a great vast quietude in a shadowed realm

    I sat in silence within a fellowship of ancient trees

    where they shared stories from worlds yet to be

    in a language that I had always known

    eventually I would return to the flash and hum of this-born life

    subtly altered each time by forgetting who I was

    though when the wind blew through the leaves, I heard

    remember remember remember

  • Late Harvest (Poem)

    in the field behind the house I find a hole

    deep enough to hold grief hidden behind unshed tears

    I fill it with all the sorrows the world has known

    walk back to await dreams in the night

    in the morning I dip my hands into the new dirt

    bring them muddy to my face

    inhale the scent of deep sown happiness

    then spread my fingers so that laughter trickles to the ground

  • Elemental (Poem)

    body made of dirt and rocks

    mouth filled with bones and feathers

    heart dug into a hole in the field

    mind weighted with rain-filled clouds

    such fundamental knowledge

  • Break Your Heart Open (Poem)

    not a stranger

    someone whose days I do not know

    journeying to another shore

    my heart breaks with this knowledge

    so should yours though you do not see

    her smile filling her eyes

    her face mapped by life still being lived

    let it touch you nonetheless

    this is how we love each other

    our hearts fractured by beautiful sadness

    our hearts broken open

    (for Beryl)

  • The Crows (Poem)

    air so heavy with moisture that every breath begs for rain

    vain hopes that the sky would empty at least for a time

    and walking would be easier without the hot wet drape

    clouds could return to above where once they belonged

    the crows know something, as they throw their cawing back and forth

    doomsayers on chimneys, sentinels on powerlines, guardians in fields

    they wait but in anticipation of storm break? a murder, a murder, a murder