1 > UNO Party! (03 04 2023)
2 > To
Thank You (03 06 2023)
3 > After
the rain (03 06 2023)
4 > “The
Joshua Parade” (03 19 2023)
5 > Alistair’s
Stare (03 19 2023)
6 > “Serious
Cloud Bank” (03 19 2023)
7 > Dynamic
Dawn (03 30 2023)
8 > Chile`
(04 21 2023)
9 > Carrie
the Cockroach (04 27 2023)
10 > Driveway
Garden (04 27 2023)
11 > Sonnet
for the Ekphrastic (05 06 2023)
12 > What
better way to eat on Mother’s Day… (05 14 2023)
13 > Living
in a world time… (05 19 2023)
14 > W.
I. F. E. (06 13 2023)
15 > I
will never live in a world without cars (06 13 2023)
The muffins
in the clear plastic
case on the
dining table look
like butter
and chocolate flowers
The cards my
wife deals out
are red, yellow,
green, and blue
like
rectangular flowers
I gaze up at
three birthday balloons
still
tethered to the curio stand
naturally
bunched like flowers
I turn to
the open blind window
notice buds
that will become lemons
sway because
they are flowers
And my
spouse is my favorite
flower to
water, thinking this as
she sits and
wins, munches and wins
I’m
distracted, inspired to poetry,
so I lose
the round like a wilted flower,
but gain a freshly budded poem
2 > To Thank You
I pull back the gauzy curtains
Step onto the white balcony
Hold on to a wooden post
Gaze upon the waves waving in
See the glorious sun setting
A few scattered clouds float like birds
Seagulls glide in the blue sky wind
And in the glowing distance
Oil tankers black silhouettes
Spoil the majestic view
Creating holes in the fabric
3 > After the rain
a partially
soaked dry
leaf on the wet welcome mat
wants to come inside
4 > “The Joshua Parade”
Inspired by Alexis Rhone Fancher’s photo
Could be an
extended family
of four
adults, three kids lagging,
marching off
to visit relatives.
Yet they do
not traipse at all,
except for
the wind in their spires.
They are
surrounded by like trees,
rooted in
place, groups, individuals,
just like
humans, save for faces
and fingers
and legs to walk.
So they
stay, living their positions
under the
shiny blue desert sky,
attached to
the soil of a vast planet,
dreaming of
humanity, some day
hope to saunter into complicated lives.
5 > Alistair’s Stare
One-year-old
takes an inadvertent selfie
looking down
into the cell phone seeing
what is up
and around in a young world.
Baby blue
pacifier complements his eyes,
secure the
brick chimney is not a human,
for there is
a hand holding a chair attached
to a
familiar grandfather face with gray hair
above, with
quizzical concerned expression.
All
dominated by the white beamed ceiling
which is the
fake sky in this room that hangs
a circular
light unswitched and out of reach.
If only he
could flip over, stand on the smooth
painted wood
as a reverse god overseeing,
everything
would still be beyond him for now.
6 > “Serious Cloud Bank”
A fluffy
white swath has grown
like a moist
wall towering over all
humans can
muster to build below:
tiny
bridges, buildings, freeways.
Cars, mere
toys carrying itsy bitsy
creations
navigating a designed world.
The massive
cloud covers everything,
temporarily
blinds drivers to use wipers,
as the
behemoth passes through, crying,
leaving
tears everywhere, on every ounce
of concrete
and rubber and glass, sinking
in to
surrounding soil, ready to reincarnate
as small
lives turning green, being eaten,
infesting,
investing in becoming again.
7 > Dynamic Dawn
Up in pastel
blue
sky clouds
swarm and
turn around
each other,
cause frayed
rolling edges.
Unseen sun
below is
a dragon
breathing orange
into warring
nimbus strands.
On the
surface, palm
trees and
power poles
reach high
but don't
communicate
with cool air.
It's the
opposite, wind
invisibly
swirls through wires
and fronds.
At street
level,
silent road cracks
and ages
under daily
heating and movement
down
into
darkness. Eyes close,
wait for
next morning's
display.
What shall we
sight
tomorrow? Traipse on
to gaze
horizon where
creatures
conjure models that
shadow imitate massive nature.
8 > Chile`
We bought
extremely
delicious
High Flavor
Candy Hearts
red grapes
from Chile`
at Costco
I listen
to a
hard rocking
instrumental
band
called
Octopus
from Chile`
on YouTube
Look on
my cellphone
find it’s
near
Argentina
Too bad
I’ll never
go there
I guess
I don’t
have to
I can
experience
Chile`
from here
Thanks trade
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9 > Carrie the Cockroach
I was born
inside a wall
Surrounded
by brothers and sisters
We eat
crumbs and drink puddles
Then a
terrible rumbling comes
The walls
break open
Smoke enters
every crevice
We choke to
breathe the ash
We wander
searching
We run out
of crumbs
Only chunks
of flesh
There are no
more puddles
Except dried
blood
A week goes
by
So thirsty
A month food
gone
Now we
The
survivors
Are wreckage
too
10 > Driveway Garden
trumpets of
white calla lilies
row of spires of green onion stalks
clusters of purple suns, pink suns
succulent heads with long stubbly necks
yellow "tree" flower rises off the same stem
weed push-thru concrete crack circle
birds of paradise crane spiky orange "hair"
glasses-wearing poet observes outside barred house
11 > Sonnet for the Ekphrastic
When the
penis fit the hole
We decided
to put on rings
Live in a
rectangular box together
Hold hands
until we become spirits
Watch the
sun rise and set every day
Wait for the
urge to mate to return
It always
does in at least one of us
So we couple
and uncouple an hour
Go back to
the need of sundry things
Wash up,
brush up, cook up, eat up
See the
golden glow on our faces
Laugh over
emerging lines and spots
Words
unspoken say more about two
Than
anything this poet can assemble
12 > What better thing to
eat on Mother's Day
than organic eggs
for buttered
French toast
with syrup
all made
from
underpaid labor
and nuts and
grapes
and raisins
and oranges
arduously
picked from trees
and mango
juice bought
from an
outlet store
run by a
woman
my wife
rouses from bed
to find a
man who loves her
cooked
breakfast because of she
13 > Living in a world time
That occasionally rhymes
Where you
learn easily
To love a
familial entity
Much bigger
than you
Who picks
you up and
Holds you tenderly
You become
larger
Until the
day comes
When you
step and wait
To live on a
planet
Where you
try to equate
Ultimately
the hour rounds
Where around
you watch
The frail
exist bedbound
As seconds
tick
Breaths
faint sound
Then release
from hell
Into a
non-existent spell
A plane
where life develops
Mouth, ears,
eyes in shell
That turns
and rots well
Feeds the
ground gain
Where new
creatures
Work along
the chain
To reach the
moment of
Inhale again
and again
Where intake
of water, milk
Apples, oranges,
bananas
Rice,
noodles, buns, fun
Hugs,
kisses, copulation
Nurture
self-replication
All made
possible where fraught
The gift of
movement
Language and
thought
Examination
of being sought
Implements innate desires
14 > W. I. F. E.
Pretty lady
in Wendy's munches French fries one by one and looks out the plate glass
windows with smoky big sunglasses perched above her forehead
Frame arms tucked into the waterfall of her long straight smooth silky black hair raised a little by a small tortoise shell colored spider clip
She's wearing a slim black stretchy fabric unzipped black jacket (with Hurley printed in white down the left sleeve) to reveal a line of cleavage dividing the smiling edge of her black low-cut tee shirt
A stylish stripe stitched Nautica embossed between two lines black cellphone purse is slung over one shoulder to lay on her lap
Where tight black jeans conform to her legs and end with new shiny black vinyl low-rise boots whose rubber heels rest on the restaurant high stool tiny brass bar footrest
15 > I will never live in a world without cars
My wife
didn't feel like cooking tonight because she hurt her pinky playing basketball
with me at the park in the morning
So we stopped shooting and I drove her to the nearby Ross to shop for cool clothes since it was Senior Tuesday
While we were waiting in line I saw an old girlfriend in the next aisle looking at merchandise
I immediately turned and said nothing
Here we are now at the Wendy's where my ex-wife liked to dispense Diet Dr. Pepper from the self-serve machine
I drink the same formula and look out the windows at autos passing briskly to get home
Maybe we should go too
