Why Bother?

1.
Mountains of stories
Floor to ceiling thoughts
Food for worms
Rooms full of
tired legs and
tired eyes in
spider worlds
that weave through
corners and covers
with dew-dabbled blood-thirst

2.
Strings of bodies
Lives that line the streets
Riding escalators elevators incubators
Up and Down, Up and Down
Round and round
Swings and see-saws and tilt-a-whirls
Cotton candy
Spilled ice cream
Torn ticket stubs
Street-sweepers sorting confetti
after the parade

3.
sand and waves and drops and grains
galaxies and ants and seeds
scattered in well-tilled fields
of scorched earth
and parched corn
awaiting sobbing clouds

4.
Photographs
shoe boxes in thrift stores
children and families and
grandmothers' rings and things
albums worn thin at their velveteen edges
lacy water stains grin from leather-bound covers
fifty cents a piece or five for a dollar

5.
artifacts
flints and pottery and
mud-caked bodies clasping each other close
at the moment of annihilation
preservation
inhalation
excavation
exhumation
Pompeii goes boom.

6.
Three trees full of thieves
and a savior
under the thundercloud skies
ten thousand soldiers died
no one knows their names
holds their shrouds
leads their crowds
puffs of dust on long-gone
sandals
snuffed
out

7.
One-two-three
A-B-C
Every new mind steps up
with visions of sugar-plums
and one sour grape
waiting to burst its skin
and squirt its juice
into the mouths of babes

8.
So we ordered Chinese food
basked in electricity
shot up our veins
with a thousand insanities
and stood in Costco
selling ourselves
in bulk

Election 2016: Good Enough for Government Work

There is a place where we are good enough.
In that place we can let go of folded sheets and oil of olay
and bathroom scales.
In that place dust gathers without consequences
and Mr. Clean and the Brawny Towel Man hide in a bottle
while I-Dream-of-Jeannie wreaks havoc at sea
like Puck set free.
In that place, hair styles change every second
like a mood ring on your head
and psychedelic colors cavort across bodies of every gender
with no hidden meaning.
In that place a pantsuit is a miniskirt is a burka is
culottes capri pants cut-offs low-risers hip-huggers
bikini brief knock-offs
and clothing is the same as going nude.
In that place where we are good enough
we speak bravely to the boss
and sleep the sleep of the just
just because we
choose.
And in that place
And in that place
And in THAT place
women
are good enough for government work.

Garden Epiphany

Life defies housekeeping.
It spills over edges,
reaches for the sun,
topples itself,
messy and uncontained,
   demanding and delicate,
          diverse, entangling,,
                 unpredictable -

The riotous spikes of a rosemary bush
The crocosmia leaves' refined swoosh
The potted hydrangea's fat purple blooms
The yellow roses' buttery swoons
A single bird that tweedles its tune

And the counterpoint caw
of a death-hued crow.

future past perfect: a prophecy

when you get lost in the forest
you will be
barefoot
you will have
no armor
you will
strip naked
and enter the darkest of caves
with nothing
but a flickering torch

Auntie Duchess

Auntie Duchess,
cool as cotton sheets in summer,
her smooth fingers dancing
with acrobat grace through nested hair
to leave behind a trail
of tightly braided rows,
whispers
"Hush now, hush now.
It's all the ashes of a burnt up day."

Chainsaw on Cherry Wood

I find nothing beautiful
In the shredding sound
Of chainsaw on cherry wood.
Why do machines always seem
Angry?

By the end of the day
Another hole has opened in the sky.
No shelter -
No shelter -
No shelter from the blistering sun
Of this new age.

Even to trees death must come.

Are these the things
  that help old women
    lay down their arms and say
     
Good night?

On the Eve of Beginnings and Endings

Pause
Pause on the edge
Pause on the edge and look

Look
Look below
Look below to the valleys
Valleys and vistas
Valleys and vistas and winding rivers
Rivers that teem
Teem with the life of a thousand suns
A thousand suns and a thousand worlds
     and the moon as a compass

Now look up
Up to the heavens
The heavens that teem
Teem with the light of endless stars
Stars and clouds and the colors of space

Where numbers are meaningless
Only the infinite counts

Now pause
Pause and breathe
Breathe the valleys and vistas
Breathe the teeming rivers the thousand stars the cream of clouds

Carry the world in your heart
Carry the skies in your lungs

Now step into space