Friday, January 30, 2015

growing assymetry

assymetrical for sure
more hair on her right
(my left)
eye more open over there too
ear only showing on her left
(my right)
and the whole thing
floating up there in mottled dark blue
bounded on all sides with silver
is
out of touch and
very much the equivalent of the
lesser hair or the
missing ear
stuck on the wrong side of assumetrical
more and more
Every single day


Thursday, January 29, 2015

Snowflake

Falling
One at a time
At a time
At a time
At a time
At a time
At a time
At so many times
That you forget the one

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Ever After Begins Somewhere

After
I lurch to my feet
Bones clicking and
Joints sticking
Cat howling expectantly in the hallway
Clock ticking away ceaselessly in my mind
Which has already raced right past lunchtime and back
Twice

After the world has returned to focus sufficiently
That I can identify a pair of pants almost warm enough
To allow me to brave the unheated basement

After each of those forty or so seconds have passed and

Before I leave the room

I always look back
To the tangle of pillows and sheets
For an elbow or
A lock of hair

Even now

After almost fifteen years

That is still how my day has to start

After
All

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Taking in the Moonlight

I wonder
If 
On that 
Cold
Dark and 
Snowy 
Evening when my daughter
Pants and underwear around her ankles
Presented her bottom and 
Pulled her cheeks back
A half foot from the cat's face
It appreciated
The timing or
The irony
More than I did

Monday, January 26, 2015

Forty One Year Old Stay At Home Dad

There is awake 
There is asleep
There is whatever you call the 
Five or ten minutes
A six year old can spend
Still on the bed
Five minutes after verbally acknowledging both
Morning and
Dad
With one leg hanging out and
Only the top of his head peeking out from under the covers
Muttering 
In the dark
In an increasingly whiny tone and 
Then
If you extrapolate that over the course of an entire day
You have 
The state where I now dwell




electric stasis

cat stretched out on lap
me scared to dislodge wedgies
Stuck in fear of static

Of Families and Noisy Dirty Laundry

I heard the breathing and
Talked out loud about my astonishment at discovering that mom's shirts could breathe
While hanging in the closet
Then 
After a fifteen to twenty second pause to allow 
Maximum happiness for all involved
I pushed apart the shirts to find that
Nothing
Was still breathing
All through the closet
Everywhere I went
Everywhere I looked
Even near the hamper
The big
Newly emptied 
Wicker hamper
In front of which I finally paused
Long enough to appreciate
The trials
Tribulations and
Blessings
Involved with
having a family and
A life
That is so busy and
So young
That I can
Still
Hear my dirty laundry


Friday, January 23, 2015

Of Time and Props

I want to bring home an antique pie safe 
A butter churn
A spinning wheel and
A cider press
For starters
So I can look at them all
While I warm up food in the microwave or 
Create stiff peaks out of egg whites with power tools
At least theoretically
I could close my eyes and
Even step away
To do some laying on of hands
Working a deception on time or 
Myself or 
The egg whites
Kind of like a drive through wild woods and 
Dormant farm land
On a dirt road 
In my 2006 Mazda 5
With a chamber pot in the back



in and out and ...

Every night
Regardless of weather or season
I retreat 
Inviting in the darkness
One room at a time
Never knowing for sure
That it will 
Leave

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Aging Perspective

My son's milk is taunting me
From its smudgy glass
It knows
That I don't want to get up until
I am ready to go to bed and
We both know
That by the time I get up
I will have forgotten all about it
So
Underneath its slowly congealing surface
It laughs at me
A one time
Would be
Statesman
Secret agent and
Hero
Who now
Can't act fast enough to stop yogurt from happening


Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The Best Poem

The best poem
Is the one that falls down upon you
When you are in the shower or
About to fall asleep or
Herding the kids out of the door and off to school
Five minutes late and
Which
You don't write down before
It slips past your fingers and
Runs away
Somewhere beneath your feet

Hope Alley

By the time the ten pin finished with its five second weeble wobble impersonation and
Did actually fall down
I had talked myself into believing that what I had just witnessed and
More
Was possible
For
If an eight year old girl and
An old pink bowling ball
Can find their way
From side to side
Bumper to bumper
Down the lane
At a pace that tests one's patience and
Still find all of the pins
Well
Then
Maybe
After forty years
There is still
Hope

Monday, January 19, 2015

Up and Out of a Long Day

In the basement
It is one in the morning
The space heater is off
My paid work is done and
I have only a poem to write
Before I can escape the encroaching cold and
Make my way to bed
Up and
Out
Of the basement

Saturday, January 17, 2015

context

thirty degrees is
pracically shorts weather
after the new year

Friday, January 16, 2015

Olives, Fruit or Vegetable

This morning
It appears as if
A taco exploded in our dining room
The blast field of cheese and taco shell bits extending into the living room
Olive slices strewn about
Like body parts
I hope they weren't muslim olives
Because we'd be pushing it to get the funeral over in time
Those olives may well still be there tomorrow
Afterall
The kids still have to eat tonight
Besides
They were black olives
And I'm not well versed in
Human
Animal
Fruit or
Vegetable
Numerology
I wonder whether soldiers who survive battle ever sit among the corpses and
Haggle over whether the fallen were were enemies or friends
Heroes or
Not
I wouldn't want to do that
It's a mess that isn't so easy to understand or
Clean up
Even if you are so inclined and
To be honest
This morning
I'm not and
This morning
I'm not even  sure whether olives are
Fruit or
Vegetable

Thursday, January 15, 2015

the inevitability of winter

there's always a chance
that it will be your next step
will break through the ice

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Walls

In my mind
The woods
Where the two paths diverge
Is the one surrounding the tennis courts
Just up the hill from my house
Just the other side of the golf course
Just a little bit past the club house
Woods on three sides
Littered with tennis balls and
Paths diverging everywhere
Into backyards and
Parks
Everywhere
In a one mile radius
Just
In my life
In my mind

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Clouds

Clouds are a canvas
A ceiling
A comfort 
A barrier
A threat and
A lot like people
Love them
Hate them
Transfigure them in your mind into bunnies and busses
They aren't going anywhere

Monday, January 12, 2015

Check Out Anomalies

Black high heel boots
Black leggings
Black sweater
Black beanie
Black purse
Three gallon tub of rainbow sherbert

Friday, January 09, 2015

He's Six

He's six
He was just arguing with me and his mother about whether or not he was going to eat half a strawberry
And now
He's lying on  me
On the couch
Cuddling
At his request
In a moment he'll be up again and fighting with his sister over whether the lights can be turned off while they brush their teeth
Then he'll be
Falling into sleep
While I sing
Falling
Out of reach
Again
Until morning comes
And then
He can stare at the wall and spin in space while I run around turning off lights, gathering shoes and coats, and barking out commands 
Forgetting
Just for a moment
His smile
The touch of his little hand on mine
And that 
Even when he tells me he has both bags in the back seat but it turns out he only had one and we have to go back home to get the other
A hug or a cuddle might 
Serve to remind me
That he'll soon be out of reach
And now
He's six



Bigger Questions

If
God says
To kill
Why
Do you listen

Authorship

My words
Or yours
Or
Shakespeare's
Or
God's
Or
The big bang's
Or
Does it matter
Isn't possession nine tenths of the law
Of
Any law
Oh
It is true that I might not be the first
Or
The last
But
I am planting my flag
In the middle of this word
this sentence
this poem
this mess
Claiming
That it will be someone else's to clean up
But it;s mine now and
If it;s not
Then
I
Myself
Am just a myth of someone else's creation and
In that case
It is their will
That I assert my own
That I claim my voice
So
We all should agree
That these
And all the rest
Are my words
And
Or
So I believe



Radio Mash-Up Two: Three Words Have Two Meanings

Three words have two meanings
The trouble is knowing which is which
I mean, suppose I'm just a photograph on your floor
It makes sense
So, then would you let me see beneath your beautiful
I'm bound to stumble and fall
Trust me
And I'm not afraid to fall
How can I love when I'm afraid to fall
How can I be afraid to fall
If right before I drown you resuscitate me and
I know that you will love me all the same
Of course that's the big if
Or one of them
For the poet in the overcoat looking for a suntan
I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly
Really I just hope that you spend your days and they all add up
That is the only real meaning
For those three words
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah 


Thursday, January 08, 2015

radio mash-up one

You are my inspiration and 
Love is the reason why
We can live beside the ocean
You can't always get what you want but
I'll be alright
Playing my music in the sun
I know I'm not the only one
I will wait for you because
You've put these questions in my mind

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Mailing In Moments

I did not leave enough Rice Chex in the box for a full bowl
Even for a child
I could have eaten a bit and then poured the rest in
I could have thrown out the remainder
I could have done a lot of things other than
Leave that pittance sitting there in the box
Neatly closed and
Sitting on the shelf
With the other cereal boxes
Another moment
For another time

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

the age of the blizzard

give me a blizzard
snow flurries are for the young
who have time to wait

Sunday, January 04, 2015

Boo Ya

Reading on ESPN.com
About the death of Stuart Scott
Has made me wonder
If 
Only the sunniest days 
Get to have
Yellow
Orange and
Pink
Spread liberally across the horizon
When they come to an end
Or whether
The memory of a beautiful day
Follows in the wake of its exit and
Exultation 

New Years Resolution

a resolution
should start and end in the cold
holding its own hands

Saturday, January 03, 2015

Of memory and will

Memory creates the cracks in the foundation
But you recognize them as a given
Before you ever choose to pour the water in 
Pour the water in yourself and
Wait for it to freeze
Knowing full well
You don't live in Mexico
But apparently not knowing
That people can move and
Cracks can be filled



Friday, January 02, 2015

Blast It

Lightsabers might be
An elegant weapon for a more civilized age
But I'm not sure six
Is ever a civilized age
And it is highly unlikely that anything wielded by a six year old can be 
Elegant
Charming ... perhaps
Entertaining ... absolutely
But I'm not buying elegant
Of course
I did buy a lightsaber
For a six year old
With Visions of battles in a dark basement in my mind
As I typed in my credit card information and
Verified my shipping address
While wearing sweatpants and a hoodie
So 
Maybe I should have bought a blaster


Thursday, January 01, 2015