Shadorma 336, Shadorma 337, Shadorma 338

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

Shadorma 336
10/22/20

trilogy
of toothbrushes chat
about love
and money
The pink-tiled bathroom echoes
with their bright laughter

Shadorma 337
10/22/20

Physics tale.
You may have read it.
Stray atom
reaches out
for a unifying word.
The universe forms.

Shadorma 338
10/22/20

The sun moves:
your brassy escort
roundabout
over and
beyond. The empire gossips.
A gnome breathes out leaves.

Shadorma 333, Shadorma 334, Shadorma 335

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

Shadorma 333
10/22/20

Will the ghosts
mock the medium
successful
up to now
corralling ectoplasm
for a nice profit?

Shadorma 334
10/22/20

The dollars
sigh on their tired trudge
out of the
thin billfold
into the cash register
at the pharmacy

Shadorma 335
10/22/20

trilogy
of dinner plates chat
Stray ladle
reaches out
for a unifying word.
A pot breathes out steam.
 

Shadorma 330, Shadorma 331, Shadorma 332

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

Shadorma 330
10/12/20

shipping tags:
blank manila card
reinforced
hole for string –
this box of one thousand for
as many journeys

Shadorma 331
10/12/20

Springed Out
and now gone Disrolled.
Busted off
too-tight Tight
for Detwistification
and then Laid-Out Flat.

Shadorma 332
10/12/20

Guillotine:
Cardboard awaits. You
are hungry
for a slice.
Corrugated cellulose.
Your favorite meal.
 

A Few New: Tanka 277; Last Seen Wearing a Green Flowered T-Shirt

Here are a couple of recent poems. In fact, from today.

Tanka 277

near the portly man
in the peculiar jacket
and his warts asthma
clogged arteries sniffles and
heel spurs– there she is! Hey, Ann!

10/20/21

*******

Last Seen Wearing a Green Flowered T-Shirt

She has a taste for dangerous pursuits
as well as qualities of adaptation that
in better times I’d like to think
she gets from me but
not right now
My toddler daughter
has penned me up in the
portable play fence and while I
struggle to untangle my hair
from the mesh she
dismantles the baby gate
jimmies the back door
and now
she and her toy cow
stalk a feral cat in the back yard

A blur of motion then
Spine-tingling frantic yowls
Not from her
or the cow.

Silence.
Oh dear.

10/20/21

Tanka 212, Tanka 213, Shadorma 329

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

Tanka 212
10/12/20

The orange twist-cap.
The rounded contoured body.
The bottle of glue
and how well it fits my hand.
I squeeze. Watch the first drops fall.

Tanka 213
10/12/20

His rounded shoulders.
His jaunty orange ribbed cap.
Friend since my childhood.
My sticky fingers grasp tight.
I squeeze him in affection.
10/12/20

Shadorma 329
10/12/20

spool of white
unwinds its last turns
The machine
pulls the thread
the greedy needle consumes
beyond the last inch

How It Came to Be

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

How It Came to Be

cotton cloth
where threads intersect
gray and white
columns cross
gray and white rows. The colors
flow through the fabric

endless grids
yards and yards of it
a fabric
to be cut
sewn hemmed wrapped sold and defined:
gray checked dish towel.

10/12/20
shadorma chain

Haiku 865, Tanka 211, Haiku 866, Haiku 867

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

Haiku 865
10/9/20

The patterned pillow
tells off the cool gray sofa
The romance breaks up

Tanka 211
10/9/20

byzantine plot twists
hectic loves and wild intrigues
the book you’ve hidden
under the sofa cushion
quick! when your mother walks in

Haiku 866
10/12/20

one bite of the pear
the fall-in-love spell is cast
a crisp sweet voice speaks

Haiku 867
10/12/20

the orange ridged cap
great traction for my fingers
twisting out glue drops

A few new: Sleek White Sneak; Eye Exam at the End of September

How about a couple of recent poems? The first one, well, it’s a cat poem. The second one, it is an eye poem. These are two subjects that are often on my mind these days. And that’s why these poems were written. Enough said! Thank you for reading.

Sleek White Sneak

air glides the baseboard
southsides the door frame
cross slides the dining room
low tides the table leg
skew-eyes the end chair
kick strides the jump up
topside and stop

this ample cat
joyrides a fast nap
you catch him out cold
sprawled on place mat
king of the household
lullibied and lazy fat
sleeping big and dreaming bold

10/13/21

*********

Eye Exam at the End of September

Ten or so of us
we sit in the plastic chairs
pupils dilating.
We wait. The doctor will trace
sight’s path into our brains when

squinting, one by one
we are led off to rooms where
we sit in the dark
a pencil of light shines in –
To glimpse thoughts? To sense visions?

tanka chain
10/7/21

Shadorma 326, 327, 328

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

Shadorma 326
10/5/20

cream blouse and
tan-white patterned-dot
pencil skirt
your face young
painfully eager to please.
Sketch: first job first day

Shadorma 327
10/5/20

Cake batter
Mixer whirls the bowl
Flour sashays
butter skips
Sugar hops! Cake in oven –
Let’s lick the beaters!

Shadorma 328
10/5/20

The ranks of
tall skinny and short
stubby and
the ones that
fall in between – who will be
the mediator?
 

In the Autumn

From the poetry collection published in 2021 containing poems written in 2020, The Immediate and No Sooner.

Two laundry baskets
sit empty on the high shelf
elderly ladies
wearing shapeless shirt-dresses
settled comfortably close

on a bench. They talk,
or not – worn hands clasped in laps –
arthritic knuckles
hold in place loose wedding rings
of a style fifty years old

10/5/20
tanka chain