season opener
I wheel my father
into the shade
Month: April 2013
baseball in the distance
a metronome keeping
the slow time of summer
still some swagger
in his white linen trousers
the summer wind
no fences . . .
the spirit of a wild horse
in the gusting wind
old carousel horse
a gleam of wildness
in the painted eye
grass blades
edged with frost
his apology
snowflakes all the places she was childless
gathering
dark-red roses
I trim the thorns
cutting off regrets
before a petal falls
still life class
she pours her heart
into the skeleton
clinging to work
clinging to home
cicadas
unexpectedly warm
I take off my summer jacket
feeling as if
I were back
in Saigon
ghetto building
in every window
the rest of the world
ghetto building
in every window
the rest of the world
Old men in a park
bitching about the world.
A little kid beside
dances to no music.
city loneliness
a sparrow drops
into its shadow
in this white hour
between deep night and dawn
even the wren stares
planting delphiniums
in dark soil —
the taste of rain water
foot massage
the creek gurgles
between my toes
this April morning
even the fly
primps and preens
what the crows are doing
louder and more important
our marriage
or what’s left of it . . .
fireflies
spring blues–
the flower notes
in my tea
prom night
a petal clings
to the strawberry