Free As Air

***

090720

NAILS

My thumbs' and fingers'
are painted pink.
Those on my toes are rose.


090719

VISITATION (for Ado)

You lived and died so gracefully.
Please, be here now with me.
Every way you did and were—
I want to do and be.


090718

RESPITE

Life seems funny lately.
Everything brings a smile.
This won't last forever;
just for a blessed while.


090717

ASHES AND DUST

Away around the world somewhere
people like me are fighting—
for something that should be free as air;
for life to be a little more fair.
That’s why people are fighting.


090716

AMASSING HEALTH

“I’m hungry—
for food,” I used to say,
and far too often.

It’s a phrase I’ve learned
to soften—or redirect into
a weapon of mass destruction
that requires no stealth.
Now I say, “I’m hungry—
for health.”


090715

TWO TO ONE

Feathered and furred:
one, cat; one, bird.

For one brief moment,
neither one stirred.


090714

GATEKEEPER

Don't push yer luck,
growled my muse,
getting all irate.
Seven clues is enough fer youse—
don't hang around my gate
fer eight.


090713

SLEEP THERAPY

My dreams—the kind that come
when you lay your body down,
close your eyes, and nod off;
not the idealized, unrealized
versions of a proposed future—
are more compelling than my current life.

Today, I drowsed after lunch,
started to rouse near suppertime,
compared sleeping-dream to waking-dream,
nestled back into the covers,
and blissfully slipped away.
My mind recalls not a single detail,
but my body is grinning.


090712

WHO’S IN CHARGE, HERE?

God—let’s call you that—
when I look at the world, or it intrudes,
I can’t block out the unhappiness—
no; the agony.
And where does it come from?
From you! If not directly, effectively.

People clobber each other in your name—
your names, rather,
Your names are legion
and their clashes diabolical.

Are you aware? Do you care?
Regardless,
your reputation needs an overhaul.
Somebody’s doing a terrible job of P.R.!


090711

POME PALS

Potes! Who open minds
and hearts and throats,
I stuff my ballot box for you!
You have my votes!


ON CALL

Whenever writing lays its claim—
no matter how conveniently,
and whether early or late—
my response is always the same:
humbly, gladly, steadfastly,
I capitulate.


CONTRARY TO APPEARANCES

Reality is ecstasy,
as mystics comprehend.
There is no hell, they contend:
all is well all is well.


TAKING LIBERTY

Freedom’s highest glory
and freedom’s greatest shame,
paradoxically,
are one and the same—
freedom to take it for granted.


090710

TO SUCCEED, TAKE HEED:

Bills unpaid? Hair all mussed?
Cluttered desk? Cobwebs? Dust?
Here’s advice that you can trust.

“Do the things you ought to do!”
and you’ll neglect the things you must.


090709

INSISTENT

That cricket-chorus rhythm
rattles through my brain,
like railcars entrained,
settling in for the long haul.

Its cadence is a call:
Let me punch your ticket.
Let me punch your ticket.
Let me punch your ticket.


FADING AWAY

So amazingly designed
is this body going blind
and this ever-dimming mind.
When death comes, I won't care.
I won't even be aware.


FOXY MORON

My mind is mad,
but I don't mind.
I'm too lazy to go crazy.


090708

CAST OUT

Your Eden has ended.
You cannot pretend.

You know
where your meat comes from
and where your garbage goes.

You know.

You can only pretend
to pretend.


INEFFICIENCY BREAK (for Ginnie)

It’s nearing end of day,
and I haven’t earned my play.
Go ahead and call me crook;
I’m stealing time with a book.


LESSON: GROW!

Being phototropic,
plants send up their shoots.
Being geotropic,
they send down their roots.

When oppositely attracted,
don't become retracted,
settling for an either-or.

Like the plants,
choose more-and-more.


090707

PROFUSION OF CONFUSION

Religions explain
inscrutable things like war.

No wonder they are
equally bizarre.


CARD FOR VICKI

For your birthday, happily,
I send you pearl and ivory
(these rose bouquets and filigree).
Also, words of poetry
and boundless love to you from me.


090706

WORLD.WIRED.WEB

Such a day, such a day—
all the world’s atrocities
shared at vast velocities!
Healing, too, twitters through;
no more than a touch away.


***