Awake

No sheets or covers

Open windows but no breeze

Still in the darkness

Now

The sky is growing darker

More quickly than it should at eight o’clock

At the end of May

The wind is picking up too

I am raking gobs of smelly dirt and seedlings

Out from the gutters

As fast as I can

Without really falling off of the ladder

It has rained a lot over the last few weeks and

The trees in the gutter didn’t just appear but

Now

This rain on the horizon

Is one rain too many

I have to clean the gutters

Now

Inside I can hear my son

Demanding the phone

He lost three months ago

Now

I feel water drop on my arms

But it is only my own sweat

You

A picture of Shasta daisies hangs above my toilet

Purchased for two dollars at the thrift shop

Now they are in my garden too

Purchased for three dollars from the discount rack at Lowes

I bought the picture because

It made me think of Mount Shasta and

The first real camping trip I ever took  

With you

I bought the flower because they were on sale and

Not dead and

I like daisies

I wrote this poem

Shortly after midnight

Shortly after I realized that the daisies in the picture

Were the daisies in my garden and

Twelve years after our first date

Because I needed to write a poem on Monday and

I can’t go to the thrift store

Lowes or

To bed

Without thinking about you

Of culture and perspective

There is a silly band in the shape of a princess on my desk

It’s pink

Of course and

Every way I turn it

It is still pink and

It still looks like a princess

Even upside down

But

If I put it on its side

Head on the left

Dress bottom on the right and

Stare at it

With one eye closed and

My head tilted to the right

Then it looks like a hippopotamus

Wearing a princess dress

No Coaching Through The Glass

The sign says

No coaching through the glass

The sign that I ignore since

Ambition is not reality

I’m not Bela Karolyi and

It’s not a police interrogation room

At least not for me or

Her

No one is watching

For weaknesses to exploit

No one is waiting

At least not her or

Me

Even if there is

No coaching through the glass

Summer Hours

Bed at ten thirty
Rise at forty to seven
Its summer hours

We Shall Overcome

Hand in hand

Is how we used to sing

The ‘hand In hand’ verse of

We Shall Overcome

Under the artificial stars

Generated by the battery powered turtle night light

In blue

Always blue

We would join our hands

For the whole verse

After which he would continue to hold my hand

While he asked whether this was indeed what hand in hand meant

He still asks the same question

Yesterday he asked

After he took my hand back in his

After having dripped it

In order to make a diamond shape

With both of his hands

Today he just asked

Tomorrow

We’ll still sing the song

But maybe we’ll go with the

I am not afraid verse