Underneath
hey …
‘ya busy
I know but
take a walk
with me
won’t take long
wanna show ‘ya
something
grab a coat
it’s windy
here’s your hat
might rain
you can drive
turn here
and park
we gotta cross
that street
and walk down
that path
yeah, I knew you’d like it
the leaves have a certain
edge
and the bark has a fresh
shave
and it has a story
behind it
and I know how ‘ya love
a good story
TL
The Bed
they put
a stake
in the ground
where your bo
dy
will be
lower
ed
tomorrow
morn
before supper
and goodnight
at the headboard
on your side
next to
her
muddy
and
mowed
the rain
will turn it
green
before long
a matching cover
to hide
the hole
TL
Raindrops
a moment
of silence
is like a drop
that falls
to earth
and finds
the flower
bowed
TL
Beholder
photos
on the floor
bound in books
with hard covers
pages in the middle
like dried petals
like insect shells
lie formless
in the sand
only in
a stranger’s
hands
TL
Fall
the shed of leaves
leap and spin
and fill the air
in prima form
the memory of
attachment
this little leaf
on the ground
that once was waving
from on high
TL
Cuts Both Ways
never did she
factor this
only saw the steps
away …
no presence did
she feel
as if nobody
hurt but her
and there were times
aplenty
that should have
made it plain
how different
we would see
the same
and maybe I’m
to blame
but some things remain
… unchanged
those things
that change us all
in a matter of a second
a minute more
regardless of when
questioned my resolve
so distance called
a way to bear
the inevitable
loss for loss
the scale
which weighs less
a shield
or a sword
TL
“Be Still …”
it was
a night
when the lights
went out
and we sat there seven
in the dark
without our faces
on
and talked
and didn’t talk
and time did what time does
right there
in that brick box
we sat in
where the collection
of things
are kept
under lock and key
and in the pitch
we could not see
any of it
and we could breathe
a baby’s breath
a sigh of bliss
for all we miss
and I reach for this
when the lights go out
TL
Back Again
the plane
flew low
in this
small town
I know
where the
mall
was small
when i was
and they called it
Village
for years
and years
and years
then somebody
had a bright idea
to call it
Colonial …
and I forget the rest
but it never
took
so they changed it
back to
Village
but it didn’t stick
so they came up with …
Auburn
as in the university
and now
it’s big and bright
catalog stripes
but still
no books
like it used to be
across from toys
next to Sears
gone is Sears
got the toys back
and took the Dollar out
but left the books
to Millions and Hastings
maybe they jest
haven’t gotten around
to restoring
lost and found
in The Village
TL
“Across the Border”
if you’re looking
you won’t find her
there
turn around
and go
the other way
and when the road
runs out
into the sea
you won’t need
a sign
a compass
or a key
end of strands
will tell
which way
she went
TL
Truth
if you stop
loving her
tell her
don’t sell her
if you stop
loving him
tell him
don’t sell him
it’s what
I would have
said to you
but you told me
too late
or too early
or too much
and it tarnished
the truth
of what
I thought
of you
from public
positions
to church and state
to friends
and family
this blind belief
couldn’t be
not him, not her
and the cynic says,
yes, oh yes, it can be
“it is what it is”
TL
Cracked
there were
three blue shells
that made it
on the way down
but didn’t make it
on the way up
and the mother bird
was a speck of pepper
on the cloud
TL
The Soul
in the
center
of your being
there is
something
of long ago
a place you’ve been
where you were
then
a butterfly’s wing
all of it
in a day
every moment
that was
that could be
that can be
that won’t be
that may be
and the eyes
don’t change
when everything else
and I saw you
as I see you
we are the same
TL
Sight Unseen
a petal
before it falls
a raindrop
before it catches
a dandelion
before it scatters
a snowflake
before it hits
a leaf
before it lifts
a sky
before it clouds
a morning
before it mists
a shadow
before it drips
TL
Life and Death
for some
reason
beyond reasoning
I had this idea
this unspoken idea
that I carried around
through grade school
through high school
through that Freshman year
that somehow
he held all the answers
that if I could just sit down
with him
face-to-face
with my questions
I’d be all right
I’d be able to go on with my life
move past it
like a force
a gravitational force
pulling at me
across the map
into one frame
and I remember feeling
so clear about it
like it wasn’t a choice
I had to go
I didn’t have to come back
but I had to go
I had to know
I had to ask
I had to try
to get something back
that had been taken from me
but he died
at the end of the day
before I could
ask
or try
I got to know
though
accepting this
would take two decades
marriage and motherhood
to understand
I am
the way I am
TL
Salt
maybe if
I didn’t know
maybe I could get
some sleep
and dream again
of something
soft
deeply down
not a surface scratch
of daylight dozing
a zombie stare
into the middle of nowhere
I see my peers there
in pretense
they, too, are disappointed
for Christmas lasts
but a day
when you first believed
there wasn’t a receipt
time I believe
time is what I know
to be true
maybe the only truth
you have this time
this time given to you
in a glass bottle
handspun
and you take it
and chunk it
into the bluest sea
and hope for the best
as you step bare
across all that sand
there
spilt into a glassy sea
that shimmers
and looms at night
now, they sit
at traffic lights
moving in mechanic waves
across a dark abyss
where the moon moans
and grapples with gravity
retreat
and return
TL
The Hours
we live
a long distance
a short turn
a middle mile
and the history books tell
the stories
of how people were
the times they lived in
died in
what they faced
what they had to overcome
war and famine
persecution and property
the selling of someone
the judgment of belief
or disbelief
the taking of a life
were it not your own
men
women
and children
too much to atone
there is no present
the past has not provided
“a small world …
after all”
TL
Tiger Woods
champions
are
a different breed
you never
rule out
a champion
ever
TL
Forward
remember when
walking backwards
was something new
and you showed it off
to blue
but he already knew
was way ahead of you
now his back’s against the wall
and he won’t move
TL
Cup in Saucer
there is
a pond
of glass
the mist
figure eights
broken by the sip
of a stained lip
pressed into
the rim
of a heated kiss
in need
of cooling
TL
Letting Go
think my
window
‘s down
can’t close
to remember
‘til it rains
un-warn
and then
everything inside
gets good
and wet
and floats on out
the crack
in the ceiling
to a place
I never needed
after all
TL