poem

you dried a bundle of rosemary
and lay it on a dish.

you plucked a blood orange

from the tree outside our window

and made old fashioneds from the peels.

you are in the other room 

writing a song.

you say you don't understand poetry
but you mean so much to me

and you move like a poem.

i have to notice your reality

to make half the poetry you make. 

Hope

Jeffrey's sock is all the way up,

his pantleg goes down over the other,

his shirt is untucked and his hair is messy,

he's the cutest thing I ever saw

and his eyes have a friendly depth

like a deep pond in the backyard.

He just ran into the room

and gave the top of my head a kiss.

Every evening I walk up a steep hill

to see if the sunset will be pretty.

I check the clouds like a fisherman 

checks his lines and his nets. Ooh, I say, pointing,

those could be good. We're gonna have a good one.

At the top of the hill we wait. 

Pinks streak and a dark black helicopter

descends onto the roof of the Children's Hospital. 

It's not so beautiful, and it's noisy,

but I believe a child's life is being saved,

or chilled organs are in a rush to be saving.

The clouds don't pay off exactly. We hike back down.

On the last turn, I stop beside a house with giant windchimes

hung high in a second, really third, story window. 

I want to hear them sound, and the wind perks up,

but the loud cars are hurrying home

and there's another helicopter overhead.

I run to catch up to Jeffrey and take his hand. Maybe tomorrow 

there will be a really good sunset

and I will hear the windchimes.

At home I hold onto Jeffrey tight 

and we examine each other constantly, 

hoping the other is not too sad. 

haiku for #8

Peyton Watson down
on the floor with his arm out
like a beached mermaid

you never know

aries grinning,
taurus groaning,
gemini thinking,
cancer moaning. 
leo loving,
virgo adjusting,
libra adorning,
scorpio entrusting.
sagittarius connecting.
capricorn rejecting.
aquarius resurrecting.
pisces indirecting.

aries grounding,
taurus changing,
gemini feeling,
cancer glowing.
leo serving,
virgo receiving,
libra deepening,
scorpio knowing.
sagittarius building.
capricorn bending.
aquarius caring.
pisces intending. 

new friend haiku

A black and white cat
came down the path right up to
my open front door

Mom's retirement party haiku

Wearing her beret
My mom sends her food back at
Cafe Beaujolais

Haiku

We drew a still life.

Grapes emerged out of the bell

Of a saxophone.

WHEN YOU ARE SAD

after William Butler Yeats

When you are sad and lost and full of pain,
and huddled in your bed, scroll through your phone,
and play a clip, and dream of the sweet song
your voice sang once, and of its sweet refrain;

How many loved your smart and measured style,
And loved your mind with a love wise or dumb, 
But someone loved your clownish heart of fun, 
and loved the strangeness of your honest smile.

And staring at the harsh and glowing screen,
Search, a little guilty, for the page
You know is locked, the past behind a cage,
and hidden by what's happened inbetween. 

THE FERVENT PRAYER

Oh! Keep me in the glow of heaven, won't you?

No, don't turn away, help,

I need your approval,

If you adore me, I'll live forever.

Hold me in your perfect vision 

so I may never get a bad haircut.

Fill your eyes with love for me

so I may never fall off of my bicycle 

and get hit by a bus. 

Love me beyond measure,

so my car won't break down

in the middle of the highway

at the darkest hour with no street lamps,

and a circle of wolves won't draw toward me 

like a tightening noose. 

PLEASE! Keep me out of the grave,

it's all up to you to adore me,

Eternalize me,

Ascend me,

I CANNOT CRAWL with bugs under the ground.

I just don't have the technology!

Keep it simple. Keep me alive. 

Keep loving me. Keep loving me. 

HARD!

The darkness approaches. 

I have to close my eyes. 

But you keep yours open. 

You got this! Thanks,

and rest in peace,

HARD.