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