-
On the Bridge
There is time enough in the day
to be perfectly still:
inhale carcinogens
exhale exuberance. -
How It Began
How it began,
I still can’t say.
Just a quiet September morning,
light thinning early,
your laughter catching
like it had always known my name. -
Fall Asleep
Reason floods in with dawn light,
tips into the place I deserted
only hours before,
and overturns the breakfast table
I shared with a famous actress
as well as the many treasure chests
I had ducked in and out of brambles to secure,
but they did not spill their glittering contents on the cobblestones
but rather gave way to birdsong. -
Every Morning and Afternoon
Misery where joy once lived,
The fun of friendship gone wrong,
A life of worship turned hollow,
The spark of work now fading. -
Dissolution
We were taught to extol
the sparkling bridge
and how the pilgrims crossed
the sea and saw the sparkles
in the snow. -
Into the Sunset
And now I remember how unfair
it seemed, Theseus abandoning Ariadne
on Naxos, simply because she was no longer
useful to him— -
Evaporation
Life being so long
and all those relatives on the verge of death,
I did not notice I had counted on you
to continue your misery with me. -
Choices
Civilization changes
hurried by technology.
Hand held devices
allow instant contact
anytime
with friends, business,
entertainment,
social media
pervading all. -
Prayers to Dada
re-read anna karenina so––
what is it about?
trains, from the cape to
cairo. Dada
died you did so what?
no one dies
like a shoe––
dachau is your fist
who gave you that peaked cap?
that totalitarian
timbre? Hooded eyes as
red as the heart
of the nile where the corpse–– still seditious
bleeds for all your people, dada.
for school-children and fishers-of-men.
to see. -
American Lodgings
The children stood outside the door
of the pay by the hour room
of the decrepit motel,
put out to wait in the cold
and neither of them seemed to care
what might happen to them there
alone in a dangerous place. -
Quiet Poet
He is a quiet poet, she told me, and knows
how to dequill a porcupine without gloves.
His mother sent him to his uncle’s farm
every other week-end and for a month
each summer to learn how to make do
with little or no amenities of modern living,
like eye-patches and complete alphabets. -
Diagnosis
I was thirteen when I got diagnosed.
My thighs stuck to a cold plastic chair,
I snapped a rubber band against my wrist,
The walls of the office were bare, -
Presence
Last night, no searching, no symbols—
just her,
steady as breath,
warm as morning light before the world wakes. -
A Second Home
Here, where the walls seem to breathe in quiet rhythm,
you did not simply find work.
You stepped into a living spirit,
a place that met you gently
and opened itself like a hand waiting to be held. -
The Button
I don’t remember the first body. I remember the first time I stopped noticing them. That’s what stayed with me. Not shock — the absence of it.
-
Fathers in Quiet Rooms
They don’t talk much.
They sit with newspapers they don’t read, chairs they don’t leave, clocks they don’t reset.
The rooms are quiet.
Even the floorboards know to keep their voices down. -
The Mind Gets Some Exposure
It’s my first time in a large museum.
I don’t know what to expect.
I find myself in gallery after gallery
of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.
It makes me think of my mother,
her devotion to the two -
Ink and Ash
I wrote all my pain,
hid it in pretty writing,
hoping that dread dressed well,
Would hide the fears I’m fighting. -
Seascapes
Rise and fall—
waves, wind, gulls.Steady and strong,
The cliffs,
My mind. -
Epiphany at Sunset
The light grows dim on memory lane.
Spiders rule the attic.It’s time to let the fog roll in;
to set aside perspective
