Love, Like, Life

* * *


110421

DOUBLE-TAKE

“Odd,” he said.
He was the passenger in my car,
so I wanted to know.

“Well, when I was younger,
I used to think of Death
as some entity I would occasionally
glance at in my rear-view mirror
as I zoomed down life’s highway,
so to speak.”

Okay, a little odd.

“Anyway, today it hit me:
‘Objects in mirror may be
closer than they appear.’”

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: second thoughts.]


110420

MESSAGE
IN A BOTTLE

Hello
to a fellow
castaway,
from myself
on this beach.

Today
(who knows why?)
this bottle
dropped
from a hazy
sky.

What can I say?

The gods
must be crazy.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: message in a bottle.]


110419

LOVE IS KIND

I called to love.

It didn't come.
I haven't known it yet.
Not yet.

Love
doesn't mind.

So if you come to me
for love,
here is what you'll get—

my efforts to be kind.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: love or anti-love poem.]


THIS IS LOVE?

Why can’t a spouse
be considerate?
Or at least consider it?

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: love or anti-love poem.]


110418

LIKE: A HOW-TO

like like new
under sun—

like like life
just begun—

like like coo
of turtledove—

like like you—
like like love

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: like _____.]


110417

'TIS! 'TISN'T!

nothing
is bigger
than
everything

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: big picture.]


110416

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS

Cameras may take snapshots,
but snapshots don’t take cameras.

Case in point:
this abruptly encountered
rural Oklahoma scene—
stoppedvehicles,blueflashinglights,
policecruiser,brokenfence,wanderingbulls,
highbluff,enormouswhitewindturbines.

The shock of any shock
is its snap back to ordinary—
in this case, Oklahoma redefined.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: snapshot.]


TWO-LANE TRIP

I didn't take a camera
to Oklahoma,
but I got a snapshot:

police car lights, broken fence,
escaped bulls, bluff just beyond
crowned by a row of white wind turbines

Not the Oklahoma I remembered.

[ASIDE: Our trip lasted from 5:30am to 11:30pm. Thankfully,
I got the poem prompt at an OKC Starbucks. The poem has already
morphed but this is the pre-midnight version.]


110415

UN PROFIL “CLASSIQUE”

Nom: Hercule-Savinien
Pseudo: Dartagnan
Date de Naissance: Mars 6
Résidence: Près de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris
Education: Collège de Beauvais

Profession:
Musicien; écrivain; scientifique; mathematician;
cavalier; et l'auteur de la littérature, la "science-
fiction," et la poésie

Favoris:
- Restaurant: Rageuneau Patisserie
- Alimentation: Raisins, macarons
- Pièces de Théâtre: La Clorise, Roméo et Juliette
- Musique: Les ballads

Je Déteste:
Les mensonges, les préjugés, la lâcheté, la bêtise,
et de compromise

J’Aime:
L'intégrité, l'esprit, l'impétuosité, le courage,
et la gloire (et, bien sûr, Roxane)

Signe Particulier:
Mon nez, ce qui est "Magnifique!"

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: a profile.]


110414

TAKE YOUR MEDICINE

Medical therapies invite controversy—
What works? What doesn’t? Who decides?

Pharmaceutical ads have taken a new tack.
It’s no longer “Take this for your malady,”
but “Take this so your malady will not
disturb others.” On the horizon is
“Have family members take this medicine
so they will not be a disturbance either.”

…Regardless of the rationale,
“Take this medicine.”

This week, a case was battled out in court,
in the press, and in opinion polls.
A financially strapped mom was found guilty
of attempted murder for withholding
chemotherapy drugs from her autistic son
who died at the age of nine of leukemia.
The therapy was too painful, she testified.
All in all, it’s a great case for speculation.

It’s enlightening to discover
how established medicine defines
successful cancer treatment:
a very short-term extension
of a sufferer’s projected demise;
Suzanne Somers mentions this in
“Knockout,” the book about her own
cancer-related tangle with chemotherapists.
It may be a case where she got it all wrong.

Medical therapies invite controversy—
What works? What doesn’t? Who decides?


SHANTYMAN

Oh, my will is weak,
but my swill is strong
and I do love
a silly-sung song.


RUNNING, OUT OF TIME

“What a fiasco!
How will I ever redeem myself
with the committee?
I must have missed something
the client said; I’ll have to
look through my notes tomorrow.
But when? When? Let’s see…
right after the staff meeting
should work, provided—
Huh? Did you say something?”

“Yes, you look a little lost.
When are you?”


WORK? NOT MY BUSINESS

"A Day's Work,"
I named my business,
but didn't work
a single one.

"Grand Poobah"
was my title.
Mission Statement:
"Just Have Fun."

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: none of my business.]


110413

FRIENDSHIP AND CHALLENGE

First, his father died.

When his mother was taken to
a permanent nursing facility,
that left him home alone.
He went through money then
(all of it) and friends.

We did what we could.

He was just enough mentally
un-challenged to hold down
a short series of janitorial jobs.
Then he fell into the safety net
of the homeless.

For him, it worked.

Once, during his home-alone days,
I went with him to visit a sick friend;
he drove.

He drove serenely through the worst parts
of town, oblivious (unlike nervous me)
to littered sidewalks, broken-out windows,
graffiti, and tough-looking residents.

I examined his face, watched his eyes,
noted his easy talking, and realized—
he was as thoroughly in his own world
as I was in mine; further, nothing
prevented me from ease like his
except my own interpretations.

Today,
as doomsday reports come in
and safety nets erode,
I deliberately adopt my friend’s ease
to reinterpret the world.

I say, this earth is my home—
and I am not home alone.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: remembering an old relationship.]


110412

BUSTED

“Withdraw? Oh, yeah? Well, draw a blank!”
My drive-by teller’s such a crank
(the muse who minds my data bank).
“You never thank! You never thank!”

“You don’t deposit the amount
to prime the pump that fills my fount.
You give me grief I can’t surmount.
You no-account! You no-account!”

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: a form or anti-form poem (this is monotetra).]


* * *

Yours, Mine, Hours

* * *


100831

LOVE ME, LOVE MY

Books, movies,
restaurants,
car shows, lectures,
favorite haunts.

Yours and mine,
mine and yours—
hours and hours
have made these ours.


LET IT FALL

September,
please
do.

Do not refrain.

Please,
September,
bring us rain.


HIATUS

A change of pace,
a time of grace—
a day with no
“to do” to do.
Except refresh.
Except renew.


100830

HELP! HELP!

“Here I come
to save the day!”

That means
that Mighty Muse
is on the way.


100829

FRISCO FEST

An August Saturday
with a touch of breeze;
a taste of fall.

We walk and walk
without regard to knees.
It’s a car show, after all.


100828

ENOUGH

Here I am.
Stopped.
Empty.
Alone with everything.
Understanding nothing.

Pain, puzzlement,
pleasure, peace—
indistinguishable.

To whom
do I sing
my death song?


100827

A PRINCE
OF A FRIEND (for Mike)

Spirit unbroken,
as body allowed
he ran his life’s course.

Now,
there’s a hole
in the world
in the shape
of a horse.


QUIT

To live:
to die
to death.


100826

RX: R&R

My brain
has lost its head
of steam.

Let it rest.
Let it dream.


“COMPLETE” JOY

Frisky as a kitten,
happy as a pup—
at least on this work item,
I’m at last caught up!


MIDDLE WHITTLE

Life keeps getting harder;
tougher day by day.
Some keep busy working
while others take their pay.


100825

WACKY WHACK

Summer heat got out of whack—
then, like some mad and mythic cat
that arched so high it broke its back,
it lost its power to attack.


100824

THIS TUESDAY

Days are like friends.
You have to know ‘em.
Be attentive; show it.

Here’s a day
that calls for a poem,
if you happen to be a poet.


100823

LIFE TIME

It’s all a gift.

No need or reason
to deserve it.

No way to save it
or reserve it.

No means to keep it
or conserve it.

Just enjoy it
and observe it.


* * *

Alien Seditions

* * *


100523

THE POSSIBLE DREAM

Imagination or reality
(what I’m enamored of)?

How everything—
everything!—
only offers love.


SPRING THRILL

Window open.
Day borning.
Warm under covers
on a cool morning.


100522

NO RETREAT

Enlightenment rebirths us—
each insight, a debut;
each last exhale of old life,
the first inhale of new.


100521

DIFFERENT DATE,
DIFFERENT FATE

Evicted by rain,
worms mounted the roadbed
yesterday
and headed north—
or simply traveled in tandem
away from where they’d been.

I ferried them across.

Today’s refugees
are being escorted by a crow
to a different destination.


[TIDBIT]

Yesterday,
hawk in small tree.
Today, two hawks.


100521

COUNT ME IN

Ten million people are writing
(ten million people or more),
all wanting your attention
(ten-million-one or more).


ABOUT MY CAT

To my touch,
she was at first resistant,
so I took care—
was gentle and persistent.
Now she comes to my caress;
in fact, she is insistent.


CHORES

There’s nothing like
having something to do
to make you want to do
something else.


DEATH’S DEMEANOR

Will it be—
a long surmise?
a quick surprise?

or, as I suspect—
some grand disguise?


CLOWN

I thank God
for sight and smell,
and sound,
and sense—

but, most of all,
for irreverence.


UNFIT FOR SERVICE

Would a poet laureate
write about snot,
or boogers or cooties?
I think not!

Well, cross that off
my list of ambitions—
I have too many alien seditions.


THE WAY OF PLAY

My work
is as a poet
and is,
as it should be,
a work
to work aversive—
a work of truancy.


TAUNTRESS

My muse
is showing off tonight,
strutting her strange stuff—
daring, daring, daring me
to say, enough, enough!


100520

I AM GOING TO THE ZOO (for Lauren)

What I say is truly true:
I have nothing better to do.
I am going to the zoo.
To the zoo — Woo hoo! Woo hoo!!!


100519

ANTS IN YOUR PANTS

Spring rains
have driven ants inside
seeking places to abide.

They’re made to move—
and don’t move slowly.
They’ll hop a toe and take a ride,
then mountaineer a person’s hide.

The lowly ant
is not so lowly!


100518

WRESTLING

Pain has taken a
toe-hold on my body—
well,
a thumb-lock.


100517

THE BETTER PART

Martha—Mary
(prosaic—poetic, earthy—airy).

One weighted with work,
when work would wait.

One who chose a buoyant fate.


100516

BRITISH ACCENT

My partner's in the kitchen
making a pot of tea.

I'd applauded his suggestion:
"taking a spot of tea."


* * *

Out of Time

* * *

100228

SUPPOSE NO ROSE (for Cory)

Strip it from all referents.
Eliminate its liaison to love.
Erase its scent.
Remove all that it does.

Suppose it never was.

The question this will pose:
“What is ode to rose?”


100227

TSUNAMI, TRIVIA

Time keeps everything
from happening at once;
prevents collapse, disaster.

To judge by Twitter’s
speed and range—time’s
running out, and faster.


EPITAPH 2

Genesis.
Exodus.
Acts.
Lamentations.
Revelation.
Proverbs.


100226

EPITAPH 1

Crayon.
Pencil.
Pen.
Typewriter.
Computer.
Tombstone.

[ASIDE: This is a variation of a poem I wrote awhile back.
This one is for a publisher’s contest: write your life story in 6 words.]


DDUUEETT

Cross-eyed, I have
four hands, so that—
solo on my keyboard—
I can play duet.


* * *