wind with hint of tears
cutting through the alleyway
your smile near my heart
-
Dies Irae (Poem)
there among the stinking ruins
in fallen ash and drifting flame
you search for something lost
around you the Erinyes flicker in the air
hair like tangled wisps of smoke
their snakes’ hiss joining that of the fire
each grim visage darker than char
look up look up before too late
but it is too late, your thread already cut
not just cut, it burns it burns
you failed to pay attention
-
Severe Weather Watch (Poem)
sky lowering with cold bruised clouds
air heavy with all the dread we carry
the uncertainty in which we live everyday
extreme storms unpredictable events
the niggling doubt remains
that someone somewhere once knew could know
does know more than we about their course
now we are no longer privy to such things
another loss of a public service a common good
there’s an app for this coming soon
but only if you pay
-
The Drawers Of Who Knows (Poem)
looking for that one lost glove that missing sock
that fork that disappeared last week
I opened the drawer in the cabinet
no not that one it holds all the random letters
addressed to previous occupants
kept in case they one day knock on the door
you never know that car warranty could be important
the other one the one that contains all the odd items
from all the years that have ever gone astray
can openers number one pencils even a few yellowed baby teeth
not mine but from some child who lived here before
who knows when but they might want them
just joking about all of this none of the above is true
maybe could be I don’t know
-
Aunt Ida (Poem)
because I remember her hoeing the garden
alone in her eighties in her small wood-framed house
how she left that behind to accompany her sister
who was my great grandmother in her dying days
and the kindness in her faded gray eyes
as she wrapped her wrinkled hands around mine
and told me she too would follow soon
with this sort of history woven into my bones
fierce love that disregards common norms
but pursues a deeper decency instead
I cannot be afraid
she went beyond again and again
showed me how this can be done
one gentle implacable step after another
-
The Color Of A Mississippi Sky (Poem)
the question that I posed once long ago
what sky do you see and how do you know
stays with me still after all these years
he did not dismiss it not even then
sat down beside me and aimed his gaze with mine
so that we both looked upwards
Into the endless shimmer of a hot afternoon
the horizon melting into forever
time itself turned liquid by the burning sun
our shared silence hung heavy in the air
not rent even by a mosquito’s buzz
we shrugged and went inside for a cold drink
unwilling to climb such a high brick wall
in the humid weather of a Mississippi summer
-
The Door Closed Gently (Poem)
we did not say goodbye
did not know this time to be the last
so we did not linger over tea
pausing between each sip
to look over the cup at each other
we did not let our hands clasp
even briefly as to register dear kinship
a touch of thanks for time spent deeply
a felt recognition of common ground
in the end this does not matter
the moments themselves have passed beyond
their taste their flavor their faint perfume
remain and I am grateful
-
Legacy (Poem)
I walked the fields with my father every year
learned the rise and fall of hills and fences
where the streams and rain would run
I knew the houses and the barns
the stories of who built them and burned them
why the one small cabin stood alone
I sat in warm kitchens with elderly neighbors
listened to their yarning of who what and where
marked their passing when they died and mourned
yet I knew these stories would die with me
though grafted into my very core
I’ve walked too lightly to leave much behind
only a few words collecting dust on the table
-
Salt To Water (Poem)
once I thought to offer you the stars
cupped in my hands so they glowed like fireflies
I saw them reflected in the glints of your eyes
I found instead I had handfuls of tears
flowing through my fingers like dirty rain
they were mine and you were gone
I flung them to the sky
streaky rivulets that obscured the lights
only briefly then dried to fall again as salt
and I remembered the waves washing against the beach
the air warmed by the summer sun
the endless blue expanse of sky
-
Winter’s Offering (Poem)
stark against a hiemal sky
moving slightly to whisper in the chill
words pulled up from roots almost dead
given only to the crows
whatever stories the fell birds fashion
fantasies of bark and pith and crawling things
are their concern and theirs alone
neither the branch upon which they sit
nor the tree of that branch
give regard to such things
the gift once given is in the wind