late night poem

late night
early morning
(2am)

a bottle of beer
the sounds of
'Trane & Monk
spill out of my
radio speakers

the light from
a fat white candle
flickers as a
soft subtle winter
breeze blows
through my opened
window

& my cat watches the
shadows dance
on the wall

DWC

waiting

part i

there is no wish like
the wish for people

no disappointment
like those who never come

like christmas, years ago,
waiting for a knock at the door

"he'll be there around 1"
they said to me

"make sure you're home"

and so i waited for the knock
and opened my door

not to a man, but a mattress,
a gift without presence

(the irony of all cruel
ironies)

part ii
and i think about that now,
the disappointment,

seeing you last night
in the middle of sleep:

coming home from home
to spend our holy day

(the new year)

together

i wake up on that same,
once new mattress

alone

(the irony of my
ironies)

still waiting for you

part iii

bleary-eyed
i reach for my glasses

and wait for the world

to focus

in

i have waited my life away

Ode to Science

Every time I count my coins
and roll them into fodder
some are too dirty to spill through the modern counter
I take them to the kitchen
and mix them in a jar
of vinegar and baking soda
and I am transcended
science class
fourth grade
spectacular and naive
homemade bombs in a jar

why the mustard just blew up all over my breakfast

I don't
know, something
about
science.

Fool Moon Solstice

On the shortest day of the year
and the longest night
under a luminous ball of quicksilver and secrets
two old lovers escape to the edges of the earth
Where dolphin pray and crustaceans gather to listen in the waves
She is feverish and mourn-full, the darkness always does this to her
He is taken by the sound of the dolphins, the crashing of the waves
He throws a line into the breakers and tries to hold on,
to the edge of the earth
She undresses under the veil of darkness
and like a slippery skate sails into the song of the dolphin
naked and numb
unseen

What the boy said

This is the song they taught us -

I honor the fast and my hair is
dark. When I am old enough my beard
Will sleep on my chest. Mother cooks bread
in the morning and stew in the evening.
Father does not drink or smoke.
All my brothers have done as they were told.
All my sisters will have many children.
I visit my uncles in the spring.

I lean numbers from school and
words from the book.

I honor the fast and my hair is
dark. Follow the road out
of town and past the wells. Go beyond the
date palms. On the left is the plot where they
dry dates. Turn there. Over the
hills is the place of the Godless men.
I will know the place when I
see it. Take the heavy car to the gate
and God will be with me.

I learn numbers from school and
words from the book.

I honor the fast and my hair is
dark. God will keep me.
There will be no pain. Do not
have fears. I do not do this for me;
it is for God and the world.
I will gaze upon the face of God
eternally. My people will sing verses
about me. The men will mourn me and the
women will lament me. I will sit on the
eternal side of God, the place without
numbers or words.

responding to the girl from the galaxy

I would say and you
would know that
away's the place to
go. fasten the
fastens on your coat. just think -
all the other places
you could sip warm water
and blow your breath across the surface.
we
blow across the surface.
we
are snow that
doesn't stick
to other snow.
the
most plentiful kind.


but without sticking,
never know.

then another season
with its weather. all
the growing things will
come back.
the giant things will
show their greens

while we
wait in
another hemisphere.

now we have forgotten them; then
they us. but
this place is so small
we can do nothing but follow,

and trail.

it's over coat

part i
listen, i remember the stories:
the kids scuttling up snow-spotted
hills,

barefoot,

slipping through the mud
where cold had turned to
slush.

silent,

he carried them to the hospital
where doctors trimmed
away

dead toes.

part ii
but i am cold now too
sheltered as i am in this
compress

of steel

bare legs and all
i feel sick some days
ashamed

others

shivering when behind
me hangs all that's required
to button up

and walk away

the truth from

hey
I haven't said anything
lately because
I got a dog and
his name
is Rummy.
Things
were rough
a little now it's
better. Not
because the
dog, just
because it's better.

And I
tried to rearrange my
life. You do
that every so
often or
you don't.
The computer is out of the cold
room and somewhere
accessible. So I will
reappear more here.
And maybe where you are when I
have time.

There was ice outside today and the light from the
lights spread and cracked. The
bricks were slick.

I never wrote more
poems about my trip to
see the girl we burned.
It's
still tied up in my
head.

I am very afraid that
Rummy will be the
best dog I have ever
had. Two previous dogs
saved my life. Once literally
and the other actually.
I am afraid to think
it, but it may be true.