Poet
Singer
Husband
Father
Philosopher
Worker
Provider
Destroyer
Loud
Silent
Aggressive
Docile
Lover
Fighter
Natural
Synthetic
Bold
Afraid
Tough
Soft
Broken
Recovered
Addicted
Free
A thousand voices
Call to me from
The darkness — yet
None, tells the story of
Who I Am…
Why are
Poetry books
So short?
Are these
Unbearable thoughts
For your
Pleasantly
Silent
Society?
Do we dare
to challenge
More
These foundations
That you
Adore?
That only
In tiny
Packages
Will you
allow for
these Diversions?
Is it that
I cannot
Keep you
In these
pages without
Paying Dues
To the
Coffee Club Clutches
of Consumer Culture?
Cars roll by monotonously
— A long trip, swoosh after swoosh
Numbing rhythm won’t let you sleep
Car after truck after car a
Pulsing circulatory system
Of Human consciousness
But each day is a car
As we stay home for
The sixth month in a row
How could we know that
We should have packed a snack
For this longest of journeys
No end in sight to this
Trip down Covid Lane.
The River Never Thinks To ask?
“Where are We going?”
The Rocks Firmly Saying “STAY!”
Caught Between,
In this Eddy
Choice The Sole Task
None Ever Seem Ready
Hold Your Ground Or
Let This Pass
“Every action has an
opposite and equal reaction”
Her curves cut through him
She is the center of his life
All roads in his city
End upon her shores; Her Mountains
–Earthquakes, Time and her origins–
Embrace him Day and Night
Wind and heat; parch and monsoon
She drinks from the sky
to bring his thirst to an end
He lights Her nights and
bridges her spans
They form this imperfect circle
One man, called by many names
Beeʼeldííl Dahsinil; Arawageeki; Vakêêke;
Alo:ke:k’ya; Gołgéeki’yé — now AL-bə-kur-kee
One woman, loved by the people
mets’ichi chena, posoge, paslápaane
hañapakwa, Tó Baʼáadi, Female River, Great Waters, Rio Grande
So much potential
Sewn up in the soil
A spring menagerie
Ready to burst
First green
Then yellow
Flaming orange
And of course
Violet
Fuchsia flowers
Pour out like
Bundles of Grapes from
Harvest baskets
And the promise
Of the feast
That awaits us
At summer’s
End
I sit with pen
Open Third Eye
Let go this “my”
And let loose
My mind
From pre-meditated
Preoccupation
Lose the I
Let go desires
Open up your ears
To the rhythm
And pace
That surrounds you
As it goes about
Its own business
Pays you
No thought —
Mindfulness
Begins with
Mindlessness
You must empty
The chalice
To receive new
Prophecy
So far The Distance The Atlantic To The Rio Grande
So Long The Time We’ve spent Drifting apart
The Arts We’ve slipped Away the years
Last Grains To come No chance To turn The Glass
Again Until small smiles Renew our Promise for Potential
Songs are to be written By Old Men Yet sung By the Young
What gifts might the distance bring
As we age and sing with growing wisdom
Life’s hard enough
On a wintering Eagle
A war to fight for
Every meal
But when this girl
Gets determined
A brutish male makes
No successful appeal
Stands her frosty
Ground again and again
Until one talon slips in-
to the chest
Of her challenger…
Razor requisite
To back away
Assessing mortal
Potential of this
Violent affair
To our mother,
We must most humbly apologize
We have been bad children. You have provided for us all these good years.
And, we have torn up the
backyard, dug up or
Cut down all the trees;
Stripped out all the copper
Wiring in the house and
Took a crap on your dinner
Table. We’re sorry…hopefully
Our children will treat you better.
PS – Hey, I’m glad at least
One of us is recovering
From the Coronavirus.