Fall and All

***


090924

ALARM

My clock (tock, tock)
and brain (thought, thought)
relentlessly go on,
anticipating dawn.


090923

SUNFLOWERS IN AUTUMN

shower-stall
shower-heads

old monks
in saffron robes
contemplating their navels


090922

LESSON OF THE DREAM

Death is not reality.
Death is just belief.

Love brings life to everything.
Love brings everything to life.

[ASIDE: DREAM -- I shooed some kittens away from underfoot.
Later, I found one killed, thoroughly dead and dehydrated, with a
crushed-in place at the base of the skull. Later, my mother and sisters
also discovered the body, wondring how such a thing could have
happened. I wanted to disown my part; after all, I had done
nothing violent, it was an accident. But, sorrowfully, I admitted
my carelessness. Later, when I caressed its broken body,
holding it against my chest, the kitten revived.]


090921

HORSE FLY

Big to the ears,
big to the eyes,
that fly buzzed near,
Clydesdale-sized.


090920

NINE TWENTY

9:20 on 9/20

it’s then
or thereabouts

or rather
it was then

when
this came about


090919

DOUBLE SURPRISE

Near some steps below the eaves,
underneath a drift of leaves—
ANTS on the deck; there shouldn't be any!
ANTS on the deck; way, way, WAY too many!


090918

DAZZLER

Trailing veils of misty night,
dawn arises pastel-bright;
a nameless color, almost white.


090917

SEPTEMBER SHOWERS

Overcast again; spitting rain
for seven/eight days straight;
nothing to bewail; no one to berate.
IS just is — and gray is great.


090916

NATURAL WONDERS

beside the highway,
some novelties;
each a stunning sight—

pair of hawks
on a power-pole bar,
stationed left and right

peacock at its ease

raccoon in frozen fright


090915

MERE PLOYS

Life keeps changing;
we can't hold on.
I guess we never could.

It doesn't help to be wealthy,
or influential.
It does no good to be good.


090914

SIDELINER

They're playing—
hear them laugh and shout?

Though I don't much
like the game,
I don't like being left out.


090913

AUTONOMOUS

The one you hate
(the only one you can hate)
is inside your skin.

It's a theory at least,
and means at least:
the one who hates you, doesn't.


090912

HIGH SOCIETY (for Cat and Harry)

Words on lives sublime;
words on lives on skids;
words on words, for heavens sake;
words well placed, well paced, well said
make poets
high on poetry
light up like little kids.


090911

LIKABLE

like breath,
like thought,
like joy

in the wings,
on the wing

nature awaits notice

like nothing else,
like everything


090910

GLUM

I can’t giggle, grin or chortle—
I’m too busy being mortal.


090909

NUMBERSTITIOUS

Oh, nine! Oh, nine! Oh, nine!


A number near-sublime
to those many (or those few)
who are oh-so-eager to
put twenty-twelve out of mind.


090908

MULCHING IT OVER

Here's a thought, for what it's worth—
death won't cause a dearth of earth.


090907

ONE LAST CHORE

Well, I b’leeve I’ll rite a pome—
it’s jest that time o’ day

Hey. Play. Way. Nay.
Home. Loam. Comb. Roam.

That’s pretty good, I say.
An’ now I’ll take a time-out, Pard,
‘cuz makin’s pomes is wundrus hard.


ENTERTAINING QUESTIONS

For life, for death,
back and forth we yearn.
How does the one we crave
become the one we spurn?

Of death, of life,
there is much to learn.
Is each one a gift,
or something we must earn?


090906

RISE AND FALL

Do you see the sun?
Do you see the moon?

Do you know. . .
where she goes at night?
where he is at noon?

Across the summer sky,
one passes high; the other low.

Against the winter sky,
they reverse how high they go.

Do you know this slow,
entrancing dance;
more pas de deux than do-si-do?

[ASIDE: "Rise and Fall" - a controlled raising and lowering
of the body while dancing.]


090905

FINALE

1. Ray, 2. Charles, 3. Steve,
4. Martin, 5. James, 6. Taylor, 7. Hank,
8. Aaron, 9. Paul, 10. Harvey, 11. Bill,
“Hey, what are you doing?”
12. Clinton, 13. Roger, 14. Miller, 15. Cole,
16. Porter, 17. Bob, 18. Dylan, 19. Harrison,
20. Ford, 21. Eddie, 22. Murphy, 23. Dean,
24. Martin, 25 Howard, 26. Dean, 27. Michael,
“Huh? Oh, just putting my affairs in order.”
28. Jordan, 29. James, 30. Dean. “Done!”


RECOGNIZE

Everywhere,
they shrink, hide, stare;
they glance or glare—
the angry, lost, or lonely ones.

Be alert, aware. Compare.
We are not the only ones.


090905

PROFESSIONAL (for Rick)

"I'd be the last one to let you down,"
he said.

You know it's true, but still you wonder—
did he come up with that line on his own
or did he read it in a book of phrases for
undertakers?


DEAR FAIRY GODMOTHER

I would like to be in charge—
like Cleopatra on her barge.
And be as smart. And be as pretty.
But most of all, I want a kitty.


DIGITAL COMPUTER

Let me count your fingers.
Let me count your toes.
Five, ten. Five, ten.
Twenty digits, in two rows!


TRAITS

Shorts, not pants.
Intent on toys.
Thin legs.
Round bellies.
Mischief.
Noise.

The older men get,
the more they’re boys.


AN OTHER

My guide is named 13:7.
Do not ask me why.
It's the name I was given.
Do not ask me how.

Maybe it's a pseudonym.
Maybe it's a lie.
I expected Abe or Jim.
I expected, well, a him.
What I got was—wow!


090904

MORE THAN FAMOUS

Little me, little I—
what little hope
of fame have I!

Sun and moon,
earth and sky—
what little need
of fame have I!


VETERAN

I am calm
when hardships come;
partly strong,
partly numb.


BENEFACTOR

give me the gift I need

I don't know what it is
but I know that you know
and I know that you always

give me the gift I need


TABLES TURNED

We encroached on their domain,
snatching up their riches.
Now they've returned to do the same—
those frikkin-sunza-bichuz!


WARZ AND WURS

Alone, not one would hurt a flea—
but what we do collectively!


090904

PULSATIONS

The heart is an entrepreneur,
always love-networking—
circulating, seeking, serving;
always tending its needs.

The heart has twin needs.
It needs to move.
It needs to be moved.


090903

AT THEIR MERCY

Fluorescent-lit:

- chrome
- porcelain
- plastics
- electronics
- crucifixes
- nurses

[ASIDE: Part of the hospital was greenery and warm colors.
Part was gray and sterile and physically cold.]


090902

TRAGICTORY

Childhood:
short, fast rocket-ride.

Adulthood:
long, slow suicide.


090901

POSITIVELY

Life. Beauty. Joy.

Once you remove
impediments,
that's all there is—

Life! Beauty! Joy!


LOST POMES FOUND

090810

CURIOUS

When I was young, I wanted to explore—
learn this and that, see more and more.
I wanted to know the name of each star;
what things were, what things were for.

I never considered how it might be
to be old and poor. Old. Poor. Me.


HOME ALONE

The house is mine
and mine alone—
how I love the feeling!

If I want,
I can—and will—
dance upon the ceiling!


***