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

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

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

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

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

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

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

context

thirty degrees is
pracically shorts weather
after the new year

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

the inevitability of winter

there's always a chance

that it will be your next step

will break through the ice

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

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

Check Out Anomalies

Black high heel boots

Black leggings

Black sweater

Black beanie

Black purse

Three gallon tub of rainbow sherbert

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 

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

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

the age of the blizzard

give me a blizzard

snow flurries are for the young

who have time to wait

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

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

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

New Year

One day ends

And

Another begins

And

Ends

And 

Begins

And ...

Pop Song Wisdom

Baby you could swing by my room around ten

Cinderellas gone to New York City and 

I didn't know where to turn to

This is my homewtown and

I'm just sitting out here watching airoplanes take off and fly

Waste it if you want

It's the bond that we tie up and over and under and

I only want to be with you

how far this all goes

how far this goes

today

every day

is hard to see

hear

smell

touch

besides

tomorrow I'll be gone

I suppose I could come to jesus in prayer and he would take it all away and

bring the good news 

which is

It will all get taken away 

with or without Jesus

no matter 

how far it goes

the smell of freedom these days

when chestnuts are roasting on an open fire

how open does the fire

have to be

to be able to

breath life

into

the moment

and 

how open and 

free 

do i have to be

in ordet to breathe

the smell of chestnuts and 

celebration

into 

my lungs and

my life

the white emerges

sprinkles of the white
laced across oceans of green
garland foreshadow

Paper Context

When you need a tissue
Tears
Snot or
Something else
I don't suppose it matters
To the
Tissue

Presentation Matters

It's not the

Quantity or

Quality

Of your words that matter

It's just 

How

They are

Arranged

A Long Winter

Empty lives are not always like empty trees

Buds hidden under a dusting of snow

Even if they seem that way

Even if the snow does conceal leaves

Strewn about in every direction

Trees seldom stand alone and

Once a leaf falls

Who can say where it fell from

Who wants to admit that they know the difference

Between and empty tree and

The alternative

line of sight

when the pretty leaves

go, the view improves ... wonder

what your'e looking at

life seems long

the leaves fall off the
trees and grow back every
year, until they don't

Where to start?

America is a big house

A big dusty house 

Garbage overflowing in all the cans

The sink full of dishes

Spider webs in the corners

Streaks on the wonderful s

Clothing lying about

And you 

And me

Standing in the middle

Wondering where we should start

Pretending the roof isn't leaking and the foundation isn't cracked

all are welcomed me ... but Ebola scares me

it is cold out so

drink of his blood and pass the

cup but not to him

there's stupid and then there's ...

a broken sandal

a sore ankle makes less sense

in two feet of snow

what is in a month

roofs littered with leaves

on February thirty

first is scarier

thanks to us they'll last a million years

it's just a bit too

cold to roll down windows so

bugs are safe inside

still fall day

the orange leaves betray

a slight movement in the wind

the clouds hunker down

life is short

life  is nothing but

autumnal haiku, false hope

... fancy packaging

anything is possible

you'll never sleep well

If you think leaves might just

jump bAckup on trees

Private Parts

Apple core hidden in a napkin
Banana peel obscured behind my laptop computer
And a good thing too
If someone has just tapped into my laptop's built in camera to spy on me
They won't have any idea what I eat
When I'm using my computer
Naked

autumn, pooh, and you

when a leaf falls here

does one also fall 

in the hundred acre wood

wet color

the color of leaves 

through scattered beads of water

doesn't change at all

Never Letting Go

At age forty one
Nothing anymore is like standing in the back of a pickup truck
Hands in the air
As it passes out of a tunnel and onto a bridge
At night
The air clear
And punctured with a song that moves you
The very first time you hear it
And
Unfortunately
Outside of a movie script
The same is usually true of
Fifteen
Seventeen
Twenty one and
Thirty nine

Addicted

He never did heroine

Or dated one 

But

He told me he didn't need to

Because

At fifteen years old

Watching a movie with friends

She grabbed his hand underneath the pillow

Where no one could see

And held it

Fleeting

The second time I looked up

The face I saw in the clouds

Was still there

And

That was the moment I should have savored

Instead

Distracted by a fly passing in one open car window and out the other

I looked away

And

Now

I am staring at the clouds

Hoping for a face to emerge 

Somewhere in between 

The pistol and the mouse

Made in China

What isn't

What wasn't

Nothing

Everything

You can get for a dollar or

Two or

Three and 

Later 

A yen or 

Two  

Or

San

Breathe In Breathe Out

Bee flies in open

Window with the cool fall breeze

Go ahead ... exhale

The Fall

A perfect blue sky 

Hints of red and orange abound

Ebola is here

Where Did You Fall?

Raindrops only have delusions of grandeur

After they fall from the sky

When they fall on

Streams 

Rivers 

Lakes

Oceans

Even puddles

The ones that fall onto concrete

Can't afford to be delusional

Two sides to a blade of grass

Joy is like grass

Cut it down

Rip it out

Cover it in concrete

If you must

But know

There will always be a little bit somewhere

If you change your mind

Separating

Apparently

General Sherman is still despised in some parts of the south

Meanwhile 

In the north people still appreciate his tank

Which makes me wonder

Why a man and a woman getting a divorce

Bother arguing with one another

Patriotic

I only love my mother

Because she is perfect

She looks just like she did when she was twenty

She never yells

She spells every word correctly when she writes and types

She has never burned rice

She has never been sick or sad

He hair never out of place

Her house always spotless

Her people free

Happy

Faithful

Industrious

Law abiding

Patriotic

Blinded by love

Rinse and Repeat

Wake

Dress 

Feed 

Maybe eat

Drop off

Grade papers

Paint walls

Wash clothes

Wash dishes

Clean

Pause

Pick up 

Homework

Play

Use the bathroom

Cook

Eat

Clean

Put to bed

Teach some more

Write a poem

Go to sleep

Sleep

Rinse

Repeat

Interpreting our low ranking in infant mortality

Beets can make your urine red

So

Before you panic and

Drink a lot of water on your way out the door

To wait in your car in line 

To pick up your son from school

For fifty minutes

Think about what you had for dinner

You may have had 

Pasta

Brussel Sprouts and 

Fresh bread

seasons

the older I get
the less I feel like a bottle of wine
any bottle of wine
and the more I look like a leaf
any leaf
that is more than a few days removed from the tree
and the outside
sitting on the kitchen counter
still colorful
but ...
waiting

warm fall day

sweat and sunburn framed

by yellow, orange and green leaves

in the waning light

Moment

When you yell at her for forgetting her homework
You hope that the moment is just a moment
Set aside
Contained
When  she says you are the best daddy ever
You
Want
It
To
Contaminate
Every
Part
Of
Your
Life
Forward
And
Backward
Of
The
Moment
Itself

then and NOW

She is but a link in the chain

When 

Standing under the basketball hoop

Ball in hand

She turns back towards me and says

I could dribble better

If this

Dress 

Wasn't in my way

Packing

As I look across the living room to the dining room and

See the empty boxes  and
The would be contents
I feel like a photographer for National Geographic

Standing on the prairie in Yellowstone

In August

Watching the male Bison posture and bellow
As the females look on

All of them
Contestants in a much too familiar rite

My Guinea Pig

If you’ve heard the one about the tree in the woods

You’ll understand that I have to be off

It’s hard to know for sure when your patient is sick

If you aren’t there to listen to the cough

It’s almost time for dinner now

And carrots, parsley and grapes
They will not ever chop themselves

And jump up onto the plate

My little friend, he eats and he sleeps

He squeaks and he eats quite frequently

And between the three it’s safe to say

Eating is his speciality

When I appear at the top of the stairs

The gymnastics and theatrics begin

If it wasn’t for all of his eating

He’d really be very very very very very  thin

He jumps, he chews, he squeals with rage

Gripping the bars of his rectangular cage

Being small must not seem so fair

Especially not when he’s trapped inside there

Does he save this show just for me

Or does the cat stop by

And politely offer to serve

A homemade carrot pie

All that I know for certain

Is that when I put his bowl next to his hay

He empties it completely

That is all he ever really has to say

So I’ll be going now

See you later this week

I have a tree at home

That is about to squeak

By: Seren Alexia Angus

the second nice day of the season

a watermelon,

corn on the cob, a dirty

striped picnic blanket

Cat Naps

I know that Carpe Diem is American
Hell it's even the name of a blog on the American Enterprise Institute's website but
I've been on a see saw recently
With a five year old and
I experienced the knee pain and
Calf strain and
Right at this moment
At barely six thirty in the morning
Nothing hurts but
I am uneasy because
A cat is sitting silently next to my chair
Not wailing or
Chewing plastic bags
As he has been known to do but
Simply staring off into the distance
Waiting
Waiting
Not like a leopard in a tree watching a troop of monkeys forage for fruit but
Waiting
Like a businessman standing in front of the doors of a subway train
If subway train doors had to be approached like antelope and
Businessmen had the patience of cats
Waiting
With the knowledge that
Sometimes
Days are
Like
Antelope and
Subway train doors and
Five year olds on see saws and
That's why cat's pounce and
Nap

second grade in may

little desks huddled
together like emperor
penguins with no eggs

Antique Plates

Check for rust
Look for wear and tear
Everywhere
Listen to the engine
Ask about mileage
Get up and go
Reliability and
Whatever else you want
Ask away
The answers don't matter anymore
Because
I've long been eligible for a
Antique plates

First World Problems

Land mine
Sand mine
The difference is just an L
Yet
While one sends you off to council meetings
The other sends you straight to hell

Impatience

The warm sun, the blue

Sky, the white clouds, the light breeze

The next station is

New Jersey Transit and wishful thinking

Stopped in the station

Rocks bathed in the warm sunlight

No litter in sight

Gardener on Sabbatical

I am clothed in short sleeves and blue skies and

Stillness

Hands folded in my lap

As everything rushes by outside my window

Buildings

Cars

Trees 

Graffiti and

Presumably 

Weeds

Although

At this speed

Mood and

Level of detachment

I can't or

Won't

Be 

Sure

there's always an after

sand in the bath tub
aloe spread thickly on arms
seasonal fallout

Of Fenton, the Pharaohs, and the letter K

In the mid 1970s
Fenton, Michigan leveled its historic downtown
A building or two
Survived
Like a photo of a tall skinny girl
Standing on the beach in the shape of the letter K
Smiling
Buried in a box of old slides and baseball cards
Now
They have some great strip malls
But even if they had built another small town movie theater
On top of the old one
There would still be that earlier building
On the edge of town
Poking its facade up to the top of an old shoe box and
Probably
Even
An old wall in the basement
Waiting
Like the earlier tomb waits
Under the more recent one
Waiting
To be rediscovered
Remembered
At least until
We need to buy some bottled water or
Watch a movie

Hell Yes

Your life
Is a three and a half minute song
...
Be sure you
Scream and
Flail
Through the
Chorus
Each and
Every
Time

Making Yourself Invisible

You have superpowers

For real

Because

You can drive by a

Deer

Squirrel

Skunk

Even a

Cat

Lying on the side of the road

In any and 

Every 

State of disrepair

With little more than a twinge of regret

That the roadside isn't all daisies and long grass

Iron your cape and put it on

Because

You can transform 

Even a cat or a dog

Into 

A ten year old ford taurus

Without 

Looking into the vanity mirror and

Seeing a 1973 levis edition amc gremlin

all mammals named sam are clammy

Sonic dissonance
Sweeps over me
Like a wave
In a bathtub
Rubber ducky
Shooting over my head
As visions of my feet fly up in the air and
I want to grab for them
But the sound is all around
Me
And I can't move
Trapped in a cacophony cocoon
Until
Three minutes an thirty two second pass
And the drain plug is pulled and
All of it and
All of me
Goes swirling down the drain
Into
Sonic consonance

Connect Four

Connect
Four
With
Seven
Almost
Eight
After
First win
And
Latest loss
Eyes meet
Connect

The Tyrannies, Proclamations, and Investigations of a Grumpy Five Year Old

I'm not going to school
I will not play the piano
You can't take me on walks
Ever again
No long car rides
No family pictures
No board games
No naps
Not anymore and
I'll never eat chicken or
Fish and
Once I'm fifteen
No more snacks

Art Appreciation

Today
Standing on the porch
Kleenex in hand
Staring out at blue skies
Fluffy clouds
Increasingly green grass
Flowers of every color and
Short sleeved  shirts
I feel like a blind man
Who has just inherited a Picasso
Tomorrow
Staring out at the rain
From the kitchen window
Box of kleenex on the counter
It will be Picasso
Circa 1903
That I won't be able to appreciate

Quote

Before you react to a few words
It is helpful
To think of yourself and
The rest of us
As termites and
The sum of your words
Our words
As the mound and
To remember that
Termite mounds are spectacular
Even though they are equal bits
Earth and
Shit

a different snow is falling

the wind still has bite
but it also spreads yellow
blue, pink, purple, white

Freedom

Freedom is an empty room
Windows open
White walls
Adorned only by the shadows cast by
The sheer curtains
Fluttering in the breeze
Wide plank pine floors
Painted with shadows and
Light and
All of it
Always
Waiting
Yearning
To be less perfect
Less empty
Less
Free

Wish You Were Here

Remember postcards

Having a great time

Wish you were here

And such

Well now

Now

With text and

Twitter and

Facebook

You're basically in the room and

I suppose

Regardless of how much I wish and

Which star I wish upon

That's about all

I can guarantee

Elephants For Grandma

Stampeding

Through a formerly quiet glade

Trumpeting on the way in and

On the way out

Breaking branches

Breaking trees

Stepping on toes and

Talons and

Hooves

Trampleling down

Everything and 

Anything and

Vanishing

With smiles all around

Realtor

The mums I planted last year
On the advice of the Realtor we had yet to hire
Are poking up through the mulch
That I melted snow in order to lay in February
To help our new Realtor
Sell our house and
While I am not sure about the decision to capitalize Realtor
I am sure
As I sit here typing
In the same office I was typing in at this tome last year
That I have no interest
In seeing the mums bloom again this fall
Regardless of who our
realtor
Is

I'm Here

Parenthood is about 

Prescience and 

Presents

The most 

Precious of which is

Presence

Seasonal Impatience

flowers everywhere
green grass and buds on the trees
where's eighty degrees

Nothingness

Emptiness I know
I've been in the house
When the monitors aren't just silent
They're off and
I can hear the wind and
The hum of the computer and
My own elbow knocking against the table
I've lain in bed questioning
Every relationship
Every opportunity
Every decision
Every question
I've run through an abandoned military base
Barracks
Commissaries
Air strips
All empty but
All still there
Even if only in memory
I've never
However
Been nowhere
But
I will
Know nothingness too and
That scares me most of all

Hello Jo-Jo Kitty

Hello Jo–Jo Kitty

Are you asleep?

You look so comfy cozy

Your head buried between your paws

What are you dreaming about?

Me?

Catnip mice?

Flying feathers?

A door left open a second too long?

Or maybe

These days

A few seconds too long?

Your favorite food?

The wet kind?

Tuna?

A plastic bag?

You do love to chew plastic

Don’t you?

Don’t you?

Sorry

I didn’t mean to say that out loud

But now that your eyes are open

I know what else you like

Let me pet you under your neck

You can just sit and purr

And close those eyes again

Just settle all that matted fur back into the chair

And relax

Little hands and little old heads

We’e a good combination

Aren’t we?

Aren’t we Jo-Jo Kitty?

By: Wyeth and Daddy

A Shortened Perspective

Childhood is rhyme
Parenthood is prose
Although
The system can be shaken up
From time to time
I suppose

Slow Down and Ketchup

To you
The slower life might have some pop
But for me
Unfortunately
It's slow down and
Ketchup

Selective Vision

yellow. green, blue, white
you don't remember when it's
grey, windy, and wet

Snot

When a person picks his nose and
Flicks the piece of snot off of his finger with his thumb
It disappears only from his vision and
His mind but
Not from the world
For whatever it's worth
The same is true of
Me and
You

Transitions

The sun now brings warmth
Nap time now brings
One song after another
Down through the monitor
To me
Who needs a radio
Anyway

Transformation and Disguise

Forget the cover
I'm not even a book
Not always
Today
In the park
I was and
I was as advertised
You only had to ask my son to know
It was warm and bright
Jackets were unnecessary
Flowers were poking through the dirt
Fisherman were knee deep in the water
Dogs and
Horses and
People were out in droves and
There was no need at all to whine
Not today
Not with so much to talk about
Hand in hand
Skipping
Sitting
Strolling
Side by side
Like the trash cans
Two nights ago
Out on the curb were I had placed them
Where I was standing
Under a star filled sky
Transformed
In an instant
From short story or epic poem
Now
Back
Mid sentence
Interested in
What
Has already been written
Light years away and
What
Might come next
After me

Of waffles and pancakes and where they all end up

I doubt they will remember individual pancakes
Last week was applesauce
We've had
Blueberry funfetti
Lemon poppy-seed
Lemon-ricotta
Carrot cake
Cinnamon bun
Oatmeal cookie
Spiced buttermilk banana
Maple walnut and flaxseed
Banana, raisin, and oatmeal
Johnny cakes
Peanut butter
Parsnip
Eggnog
Cinnamon-peach cottage cheese
Gingerbread
Old fashioned potato
Sweet potato
And even
Golden
And
There will be more to come
Even though
All they will remember is
That we ate pancakes
Almost every week
I suppose that's why
Sometimes
When I really think about it
I almost understand the folks who spend their money and time trying to stop other people from getting married
But not today
Today
I made
Gluten free coconut
Waffles