From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
In a Maze of Lives
The place is haunted
good chance for a little detective work
said the skinny sleepwalker
deep in a dream of a tottery four-story house
where he once spent a week when he was seven
He opened the closet door
began rearranging
the shelves of his wife’s shoes
opening the lid of each shoebox
peering into the haunted darkness
occasionally lifting out a shoe by its heel and sniffing
4/25/19
Here are a couple of short poems I wrote today. I feel a bit groggy after my second vaccine shot yesterday and that prompted me to write a couple of poems about the idea of being groggy and dreams and lying on the sofa. Which is something I hardly ever do. Lie on the sofa and doze, I mean.
I hope tomorrow to be back in action. Anyway, here were are for this week.
Gosh, I hope I counted the syllables right.
Tanka 253
In a dull headache
I lie on the gray sofa
I doze. Wake. Doze. Wake.
The promised rain does not fall.
Unrested, I cook dinner.
4/16/21
Tanka 254
Doze on the sofa
Dream the same sequence three times
The repetition
Does not make it real it does
not I tell you it does not.
4/16/21
From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
The Prodigal Descendent Drops In
Leaned on the counter
a snag in her thin white sweater
paint-spattered hands
spread out flat
said
Hello, stranger
and I do mean stranger
Don’t call me by my nickname
Don’t ask how my cat is
and by the way he died
some time back.
Now get to the point
what is it that you want
or should I say
how much?
4/11/19
From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
When It Was Almost Over
It was the last time the left hand
worried
catching a glimpse into the
fingertips
skin
thumb
hair
the body in front of the bathroom mirror
put on notice
ready
but trying not to answer
4/25/19
4/28/19
blackout poem (source? I didn’t record it) and then amended
From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
Mesh
Something soft and scandalous
about your feelings
I was narrower about things back then
I was lonely but
not lonely enough.
4/18/19
New Little Vines. Here is this week’s array.
4812.
souls this morning on this earth
inhabitants of an immense prison
burned red by the frenzied sunrise
4813.
the mirror has been deactivated –
in other words
I dropped it on the tile floor. Oops.
4814.
Careful. If we were to fail
think of
all of that depravity wasted
4815.
an escape route
to my dreams –
the strength of a starry night
4816.
shoelace rum and green apple pie
fish in a gold daze swimming in the surf
how I long to be home again
4817.
you chose one of the two an hour ago:
dead
or anonymous
4818.
the victim’s cornsilk hair
cut in a
neat pageboy hairstyle
4819.
I seriously doubt
he feared embarrassment
or in fact that he’d even heard of it
4820.
a funeral in this small sour rain
the aroma of a just-peeled tangerine
the soul walks away from the body
4821.
the pump of merry-go-round music
twirls the cotton candy machine
wraps the paper cone with a pink mist
carries the aroma to the highest seat on the Ferris wheel
4822.
prayers resented condolences rejected
I hated the old creep and
I am one-hundred percent glad he’s stone-cold dead
4823.
Did she really have such wrinkled old lace skin
Was her face this garish shade of sepia?
Wait. No. The photo is creased and
someone has spilled coffee on it.
4824.
Excuse me but I do not recognize this saint
stamping on a toothbrush in her fluffy neon slippers
that you have depicted so wonderfully in stained glass?
4825.
why am I traveling
into the mist
why do I enter this underwater countryside?
4826.
the sphinx
glowed purple in the haze
a stray dog barked once and was silent
4827.
the interior
of the eggshell
a purity
4828.
breathe in chlorine,
white Oxford cloth shirts,
immerse yourselves in the baptism of bleach
and be renewed.
4829.
His teeth. And a certain tell-tale pallor.
The bridegroom is a vampire.
A much more likely story than wedding jitters.
Has anyone mentioned it to Cheryl?
4830.
the waitress coughed
the mosquito hit the plate glass window
Recovered. Went for her fleshy upper arm.
Dishes hit the floor. Always even the score.
4831.
bodies jangle on the dance floor
the soles of their feet start to smoke
the disco ball glows grape and shatters
From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
Unsolvable
The two of them
ran toward the solution
knocked heads
fell to the ground
concussed
Poor x and y
it never works out for them
I don’t know why they don’t say
we just can’t do this anymore
4/18/19
From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
Surgical Consult
A complex mathematical language
was brought into play
to explain
the expert care that ran to lots of zeros
none of them being at the front of the number
and you do understand the difficulties?
oh that’s good.
It’s nothing to worry about
It’s quite an ordinary situation
but not exactly
and wouldn’t it have been nice
if I’d brought the right parts with me
parts are always coming in late –
but I didn’t
I apologize, madam,
but your gall bladder
will be fine.
Just not today. Don’t worry.
I will be back with you
in four days
from next Monday. I promise.
Just relax in the waiting room.
The nurse will call you.
4/18/19
From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
Registrar
I watch the gray-haired woman
hunched at the desk
fold the paper lengthwise
press a crease in it with her finger
set the paper on the pile.
4/11/19
From the collection published in 2020, Use All Your Eyes to See.
The Indications Are
Right this minute
I look at her and know:
She is twenty years old
Hair dyed matte-black
arranged Cleopatra-style
Evidencing a liking for body art
tight shorts
sugary coffee drinks
Can’t see a thing without her
au courant big-framed glasses and
no idea that
one day
not soon
but sooner than she thinks
She will be dyeing that hair
to cover up the gray
She will consider and reject
removal techniques
for the sagging and discolored tattoos
Out of lifelong habit
she will always buy her clothes a size too small
She will get reading glasses
and never know where they are.
4/18/19
4/23/19
