My room was a house on fire a room — aglow in the red REM disappearing embers dimming into night It was a room of my own preparation kindling split and stacked over yesterday news papers I’d spark It wasn’t a games room it wasn’t a Sunday afternoon…
Pops
Wrapped in grey overcast the sweet wind of spring clad in the sallow thatch spun upon the air puppy feet a naked belly my one my only holds my shoulders with calm against a conspiracy of idiocy of sit and stay closing eyes diving into…
Shoot the Birds
For my father, always as a child, the morning hour had gold in its mouth — and so roused of my bed, hot coffee in his thermos and hot chocolate in mine, he’d drive me up Black Mountain, tell me as we flew the nest, “Keep your eagle eyes peeled for the grouse” speckled in…
My Gift to You …
My childhood’s eyes a world swallowed in a mint multiplication of every deed suddenly I can master anything just like my superhero Pop I’m a star, I’m hero, I’m singer every hum a single that brings tingles a sunset arranged upon my plate a half-eaten grilled cheese a fish-tail if you please a skyscraper of…
Wanderlust
I knew but a house — for most of my childhood it was one. The only refuge I knew — it was safe and boring … it never moved, no matter how many books I devoured when all had gone to bed — I couldn’t cast away a spell onto a far away island, no…
What did the Grouse Hear?
What did the grouse hear as the Father talked to his Son — what did it hear in the reassuring speech, practiced over a glass of rye, in the repetition of “I will always love you”? Walking among the thin ground cover, random and haphazard, the mottled markings passed on from grouse to grouse as…
School-Day Mornings
6:30 — Mom wakes me — I love Mommy and Mommy loves Me 6:31 — Pull the covers over my head and wait for her to remind me at 6:35 6:35 — Reminder 6:36 — Lights are turned on and curtains flung open — sun unfairly attacks my head 6:36 — Pillow over head for…
A Wish for a Time
I wish for a sunkiss to lay in a beam upon the thick pile of a green shag carpet catch the tail of my cat who sweeps it into my face bends an ear into mine then lays in a beam purring up my lips. I wish for a fire’s dance to lay in its…
A Child’s Lament
Oh god — it’s not fair, you rip the seam and rend my dream oh brother — it’s not fair the creaking door, the footsteps upon the floor oh mother — it’s not fair your tender voice that breaks the silent noise oh father — it’s not fair, the smells you make, that homemade pancake…
you remember when
I awoke … Asleep with a weight upon my upper lip and a hush upon my ear. My unconscious mind was struggling with a conscious world of pain the torments and disappointments of my memories tearing at my being. A mother who wept when I was born a father away much of the time and…