June 29

how long
until I fail
to see through the blue glass
a window into your hazel
is breaking and now the world sinks
under water visions
where all is not
so clear

Friends on the Lam

Skipping:
the yellow school
bus, a lunch box on wheels,
goes ’round and ’round to the rulers.
Protractors of freedom begin
unctuous announcements,
but we’re away
giggling.

For Matt

we walk
the wooded path
each day a new journey
trees lean into our space, sharing
bird gossip about our aging
comfort, as wind wraps us
intimately
we walk

full circle

it is
moon's turn to take
special effects to new
horizons, moaning horror at
earth's tremulous vision
imploding dark--
empty

The New Dress

for Virginia Woolf

she wore

with smile and frown

she entertained the lance

it glanced from mirrored corner, there

looking glass breaks, and flies

drink the milky

saucer

lip service

spittle
my lips open
that I may praise, yet once
again, from these lips spew curses
abjure your spit and leave
me dumb to all
the spew

Bucked Still

aware
soft grass crinkles
underfoot, earth tremors
the crown, velvet brown tilts up. My!
heart palpates its bone cage
stillness reigns, our
eyes meet

At the Pond

reading
understanding
swaps of poesy-toesies
Basho's leapfrog topsy-turvies
intertwining tendrils
musing leafy
writing

Venus

she weeds
the shells, burly
beards of muscular mouths
molluscs biding tides, and seaweed
hides the mouths of muscles
burly, she weeds
the shells

Day 2

For Patrick

one year
shy, the quarter
a century watches
your life, which came to clumsy our
knowledge, and increase it
it is a gift
your life

the old one

handles
drawers with care;
opens a heart with lace--
presentation is everything--
but the scent works its way
best with eyes closed,
nose pressed

Memorizing Memories

I watch
my beloved
try on his father's shirt
unroll photos from both World Wars
palm a dismantled grenade and
ponder homemade puzzles
drawers of knickknacks
revive

Waterpony Express

nickers
knowledge drops down
from clouded manes entail
thunderous stampedes spreading sounds
wild abandon; ocean's
mist... quiets to
listen

Museum of Science + Industry: Chicago

ajar
my mouth open
wide to see the fetus
collection on the shelf--babies
hold my wonder at life
carefully stored
in jars

extract of snow

sleeping
snow white's fair face
placid, under onyx
hair, appled cheeks, strained with gauze, speak
innocently under
wisdom's pull, spell
broken

Gotta Light?

lately
I'm smoking dark
compelled to dip my dread
in depths, dredging hidden morsels
of my soul, sifting each
piece before it's
too late

Winter Reality

she hears

a baby cry

in her small room of one--

they said don't indulge delusions

but I "there-there" her arms

which hold what's in

her sight

Communion-Revision

I wish

I could collect

the lonely in my arms

expressing empty cells into

esconcements, plenary

pools to dissolve

longing

Writing on the Wall

writer

seeks mirror re:

flections re: fractions re:

tractions and re: actions

re: plies a face

odd me