Space Putter
Draw the curtains
The dog and pony show is over
Gold filigree of youth sold
Copper plumbing of health stolen
Lighten the load
Ready for casita blast off
Wall clock ticking countdown
A consolidation consolation
To timeless constellations
The yawning maw of forever
A desultory dance among stars
Blown like leaves across pavement
Like vehicles flooding highways
To endless horizons
No punch in, punch out
No calendar bondage
Of birthdays and appointments
The new amorphous voyage
Ties to nothing
Live the mantra
Hasta manana
Mucho de nada
No hay problema
Man, oh mana
Where have you gone?
Sleep like peanut shells and popcorn
Swept under the stands
When the tent comes down
Death Witch
She blew in like a dust devil
Tumult of emotion, tears lashing out
Lightning bolt youth
Short raven hair, crimsoned cheeks
Tenderness not yet numbed by time
Told me her woes on the tarmac
Break ups, lies by ones she trusted
Seat belts fastened, a long flight ahead
I was her dry weatherman
No longer in the field
We spoke of endings and beginnings
Tethered to earth, flights of fancy
She confided her witchery
Near death experience, saw the light
Thereafter an ambassador to hereafter
I sprinkled wisdom
Like one who salts beef
Enhancing the flavor of loss,
Ardent entities of love and life
Feed off the carcass of what has passed
She felt better, smiled
Put on a shawl, played a game on her phone
I went back to a book I read before
The story the same
But I enjoy nonetheless
Bitter Sweet
For days
I felt my dog and pony show was over
Going through motions without emotion
The world in shambles
My world seemed a farce
Until the boy on the caster trike saved me
At the softball field before the game
The boy wheeled around passing time
He looked like Pugsley from the Addams Family
His father came to play, the boy was in tow
I was in a miserable mood, only thinking of myself
Not caring for myself, not caring
Until I noticed the boy all by himself
It was past sundown but still hot
I thought all that wheeling would make him thirsty
I offered him the Gatorades in my cooler
He said thank you and spun away
The other team didn’t show
So we had batting practice and goofed around
I was reminded how my skills have degenerated
Bitter sweet, all life is bitter sweet
Wrapping up practice the boy swung up to me
Said he had a Gatorade, I asked what flavor
He said pink then added he also had orange
It made me smile and I told him purple is good too
He was a window to another time, another place
Another place I sorely missed
He whirled away as the field lights blinked off
Bitter sweet, I thought, bitter sweet
But I felt a little better
Port and Voyage
The well with crumbled plywood lid
The webs thick underneath
Spiders scatter to creviced walls
Unseen bottom
Dropped stones splash
Dark ripples echo to daylight
Dear lilac
Centerpiece of home
Pedaling back from the lakes
Descending from the mountains
Calves knotted, lungs full
Purple and white blossoms
Flag us in windward calls
Your ambrosia welcome
Sailed our souls safely to sea
I woke to remembrance
Days my hands picked wild berries
Days barn swallows strafed the black cat
Fox in the field, minnows in a bucket
Plump grapes drooped the vine
When parents were solid and not dream
Moving about, creaking floorboards
Their weight entering and leaving rooms
Warm Gods, a well-lit harbor
Their presence large as a freighter
Heavy with cargo
Steaming across oceans
Too deep to fathom
Off the Rainbow
I drink your voice
Effervescent words refresh
Like a wellspring
I found as a child
In winter breaking woods
Brown musk leaves
From last year’s fall
Frame your mouth
Cling to slick stones
Chilled by receding snow
You have lived as I
Through decades of groundswell
Undulations of random seismic shifts
That whittled living joy
Undertowed lost loves
How I love your voice
Reminds me of youth’s wellspring
Before the push off the rainbow
The pot of gold merely vapor
All spectrums seep in dirt
Our dear psychedelic friends
Now earth toned with collared shirts
Seek colors from a million pills
In somber hues of Medicare
Your mountain runoff wisdom
Chimes a merry tune
Crystal sparkle laughter, sunlit eyes
Youth was not lost to you
Your voice
Redemptive like coins under a pillow
Compensation from parents
Disguised as fairies
Long, long gone
Who couldn’t stand their children
To lose a single tooth
Mountain Village
Razor edge rock face perch
Bright colored homes on stilts
Like sedentary circus clowns
Shops of art and whimsy
Haunted saloons, gift shop brothels
At its peak the first state hospital
Now a converted motel
West facing windows glow
Charred yellow from the sinking sun
As if orbs of history shine within
Cumulative miners, whores, artisans
Hollow trod in creaking rooms
Each historic day pried
Like a babies’ tooth
By the tongue conspirator
Time wiggles away
Wisdom rises, incisors tear
The red meat of dawn