pink flower

you save my mind

you breathe for me

when I am overwhelmed

by dad cancer

by money, unfunny

by a little Havanese

who wants attention

paws on pad such that

I have difficulty writing

anxiety parasitic

freeloading off of

thought and behavior

but you save my mind

pink flower on the tree

you open my eyes

you breathe for me

your river gets sweeter

unlike
the rivers
polluted by acts of greed
by inflated ego's seed
the downstream, saturated
with waste and insoluble excuses

your river
gets sweeter, my love
the closer it gets
to the ocean
of phileo-
of agape-
of romantic-
of puppy-
of Platonic-
Honey

in limbo (travel poem)

nothing much to say
in limbo
in between cities
in between home
away
in between states
in between space and earth
in between tomorrow and today
in between sorrow and expectancy
in between a sense of loss
and a sense of me
in between utter collapse
and the best of me
in between books
off the ground a foot
nowhere to lay my head
little sleep last night
craving bed
craving bread
losing my mind
losing my father
why bother
an uncanny calm
and illusion of self-mastery
an unconscious dread
and acknowledged disaster meet

border shift

counter to mind
and ulterior lines
the borders to this country
are drawn with fine
markers and pencils
they shift
as the population swells
and we are fuller
for the grace we give
to the people
who live now,
in the bosom
of our fractious family

nothing new

nothing new
under the bleeding sun
stricken orange
speared in side
her life trickling out
and we find our own
pushing up
rising
from inside

king of rocks

"the provocative, irresolvable arena of relationship...", Bruce Tift


51 and I've barely started
to jump into the fray
relationship I don't do well
I mostly stay away

with people at recovery groups
and 4 or 5 friends from childhood
with my family and my coworkers
I get along rather good

but seek outside those circles
or deepen with those I know
I feel like an alien with beak and flippers
a strange and jittery joke

relationship, like enlightenment
continues to remain elusive
I opt for time spent reading alone
in my apartment, my castle, reclusive

do her deed

please, no more
squeezing this brittle-boned
shrivel-hearted miser

the heart will expand on its own
the skeleton become pliable
the mind blown away
along with the brown leaves
nature will do her deed

still, I cannot conceive
this birthing
of a new me