The Last Buffalo
When you’re down
to your last buffalo
you know you’ve hit bottom.
The good life had dried up
wind-blown to the four directions.
gone forever blue skies dotted with eagles…
Ode to an Ammonite
You lived.
You swam.
You were buoyant.
You were rapacious.
Fern-like suture lines
divide your coiled chambers…
Anticipation Abandoned
The anticipation of meeting you
on a Tuesday turned to disappointment.
First, I did not know if you would be blue
or green or yellow, a dream, a moment…
Thetis and Amphitrite, Lounging in Poseidon’s Lair
What art is this, this burnished scene
that draws me in,
bids me come inside the frame, frolic there
among these glowing nymphs?
My body tingles at the sight; I wish to swim…
Directions to Oak Grove
Turn left, then wait one hundred years.
There on that eastern slope where sky presses
Earth into dusty mulch, you'll see
A grove of twisted messiahs. Fifty,
Sixty feet high, mostly leafless now…
Salt & Pepper
Bombs away
Here come the peppercorns
Why you always gotta stand out, pepper
Be like your good friend, salt, blend
But no, you come rolling in with your mile-long missile shadows “ Grind me,” you say….
When Water Becomes Stars
Beneath the snowy mantel cold and clean
The unborn grass is waiting for its summer coat of green
The snowbird sings the song he always sings
And speaks to me of flowers that will bloom again in spring.
When I was young my heart was young then too…
From a Canine Point of View
Miss Fancy Pants, saucy lady,
you look so smug,
but you only go for small prey:
moles, voles, mice.
I run with the big dogs…
Bear Fox Woman
I will hold you in my hands
Raise claws against monsters
You are safe within my dream
I see you
Even in my sleep I am awake…
Skateboard Dreams
Father - Son trip to Europe
2001
I dream of Art in Paris,
Gaudi architecture in Barcelona,
Roman ruins in Aix-en-Provence, France,
Showing Mathew where I once lived in Torino.
Mathew dreams of…
Grace Within the Lines or Out
The figure stands before you faceless
from a chapel-like frame,
with sets of lines in twisting coils
like plant leaves or possible ropes…
Nightmare Dreamer Speaks
Nightmare Dreamer Speaks:
Tonight I feel gutted
he shot her
in her pale round knitted-winter-hat-framed face
then he yelled fuckin' bitch as he turned and walked away…
Daisys & Roses
It was the frame I noticed first,
I have one similar that holds a photo
of my three year old mother so long ago,
another kind of flower about to bloom…
My Friend My Love
My friend my love, I see you are gutted.
Hope lost in the jetsam of a murky shore.
I, too, am stained from wounds of these times.
But look what our strong hearts reveal.
Cut open, your humanity exposed…
