We laugh.You makecrooked smilesat nine weeksgive or takea day.We meet the morning,enter a flowfamiliarto the newlyborn,in a newtimemeanderfromsleep to sleep,wakefulawakenings.Rest isfuel forthe milestonesyoureach right beforeour eyes:You smileat my smile.We aremirrorspassing in time.Maybe I growyounger asyou grow up.Take my finger.Lead on, babychild,I’m alongfor the ride.Teach meto lovethe shadows of late afternoonleaves again,light beamson a crackedwall, the … Continue reading Delight
Be Light
Widor's Toccata, fr. Symphony for Organ No. 5, generally lasts around 6 minutes.Longer than it takesto readthispoem (I promise)A well- wornRecessional featured atRoyal weddings,Funerals n-such -itspeaks tothe vitality- some might say-freneticism of walkinginto the light.Go forth, it says.Be brilliance,stamina,be the orderedrepetitionand deep basspulse of lifeCelebrate.It’s a showcase for organists and,I hear, notan insurmountabletask to learn. … Continue reading Be Light
Blood Song
Years ago,we listened behind the closed door to our high- school -aged daughters, working onthe Wailin Jenny’s tune, Beautiful Dawn. We smiled knowing they shared some tingly good blood harmonies & were finding a flow and a feeling. There’s a thrill in meeting one another in a room, on a porch, on hillsideto sing the … Continue reading Blood Song
Junkyard Song
All the singing we did in carstrails behind us.Cartoon notesflutter from open windowsin the time beforeair conditioningandtape decks.An old brown Ramblermay still be rusting somewherealongside an aquamarineFord station wagonbusted seat cushions hummingthe harmonies.When we were violinsHornsDrumsClarinetsgoingdoodle doodle doodle doodle det
Not I
The day they lined us up,siblings 1,2,3, and interrogatedthe vandalism of our father’s lunch box twinkies, one-by-onewe claimed innocence and no one cracked under the cracklingglare of the grownups accusing silenceNot I, I swore, and it was truththat time. In fact, the culpritwas a mouse and all the littleliars went free, hoping forreward later. Sadly, … Continue reading Not I
I’m Talkin to You, Julius
Isn’t it enough you eat your sister’sfood before she gets a single bite,and you cry like a wounded bansheeand slink around all day like a kohl-eyed teenager in a phase, and rideour shoulders like Cleopatra, and hog the chaise like a recliningModigliani nude, then wretch upa hairball cocktail, and walk away like it’s nothing, leaving … Continue reading I’m Talkin to You, Julius
Sweet Woodruff
Under leaves mulched many inches thickI uncover stepping stones pressed withImprints of our children’s hands, their seaglassand shells foraged on the shores of greatlakes and warm oceans, wherewe crouched and gathered inbaskets long ago when we werelimber and sun-browned, and as yet unbothered by frailtiesto come. Their little hands bringback to life springtimes past, alongwith … Continue reading Sweet Woodruff
Tall Tale
A smoke-grey cat with long legsshowed up at our house long ago.One of many wayward strays tuckedunder the rafters of our littlebrick colonial with the pink bathroom, dusty chandeliereddining room, where childrenpracticed piano in the corner and stretched the phone cord aroundfrom the kitchen to conductthe business of adolescencefor anyone to hear. Mothertaught school then … Continue reading Tall Tale
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Everything
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Everything has started a movement to compel cooks to put their vegetables into boiling water as this kills them quicker than the barbarous method of putting them into the cold and letting the water come to a boil.Lewiston Evening Journal Maine, January 20,1917.A late joiner of the … Continue reading The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Everything
To The Leftovers
To the LeftoversPickled red oniontucked behind what’s left of orzo saladThai Basil, a futurefuzzy tangle plastic-wrapped and rolled,and yet, a balladto be sung for the miscellany of humble carrot sticks celery, cruciferousgalore in the stir-frywe’re sure to maketoo much of inthe story of we two again after companydeparts. There’sbutter lettuce,fontina, a thimble-full of curried greens,pea … Continue reading To The Leftovers
Early Morning Poems 