So you can pay
half a week’s groceries
for a carton
with government seals
and health warnings
or
for twenty bucks
you can get a plastic bag
holding enough smokes
for a family (more…)
engine idle just beyond the
ancient boathouse
river calm and waiting silent
to the weed beds
and the spaces vast, beyond
ease the throttle slowly forward
hear the engine twist (more…)
The rolling expanse of green lawns
sculpted flower beds and lollipop trees
spreads sweetly along the river at the
foot of our city
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .until the geese arrive
with their little green and black cigars
that they excrete like giant parentheses (more…)
I wish I could use
a mountain-climbing image:
it would describe the feeling
all hanging by my fingernails
over a gaping inevitability.
But I have never climbed a mountain
of any consequence; any attempt
to use a mountain-climbing image
would fall short, just as I (more…)
The wood planks of the dock
bask in the warm autumn sun.
The water drifting by this lee shore
is lazy, glassy calm.
A willow leaf flutters down,
tips onto the stillness,
sends a ripple that spreads,
diminishing, leaving.
Crashing upon me like (more…)