Poem Tails

In times of daffodils (who know the goal of living is to grow)

forgetting why, remember how

In time of all sweet things beyond

whatever mind may comprehend

remember seek (forgetting find)

                                                                                                        ee cummings

READY OR NOT, HEAR THEY COME

The children have taken your place

Running up and down the slide

Clambering for popsicles

Jumping over dirty jump-ropes

And hiding each other under sand with cigarette butts and candy wrappers

But like you they imagine only that they will never be found

And yet are ecstatic when they are uncovered and revealed as themselves

They demand notice in the grocery store line

Throwing themselves on the tiled floor

Until their mother hands them

Something to hold

It might be an apple or sticky muffin

This will assuage them as it did you

If the mother is wise enough to make the

Giving and receiving important.

Do they fear the world’s global warming?

Are those the monsters of their times?

Or are they already planning solutions

In their dreams of peacock feathers

And elves who whisper the way home?

They have given up pretty pink dresses 

But not the lovely sassy smile 

As if they always were and always will be little big girls.

a me

The Riddle of Our Inheritance

If Eve never ate the apple

how could we ever hope

without savoring the seed of life

to be God like?

If Eve tasted the forbidden apple

unable to enjoy its succulence

would she accept the current condition

which neither sustains the apple tree

nor the unborn child

accepting to sin, is only human?

If Eve tasted the luscious apple

truly

she'd  know

that sustenance is no sin

refusing to bear and eat fruit

with gratitude

may be?

a me

Swimming at Sea

Knowing tomorrow you will be there,  just as you are

sunny or cloudy or gray

I can feel the texture of my own vulnerability

and imagine safe docking

despite the waves that crash.

Our connection is like a buoy

to a tired swimmer or a

lightening house to a lost ship.

We are safe because

together we make one

another float in the

raucous sea of life.

a me

Trespass

We are like a circle of young shamans playing with fire  

until we discover that the elemental nature of the fire moves us to feel more alive,

the spaciousness of air to feel more possibility,

the flow of the water to extend our journey inward

beyond crossroads we once feared trespassing.

We are not alone now,

nor are we the sole holders of our fate but held within it.  

Dancing like praying mantises at the first sign of spring.  

we are lover and loved at once,

For we are all in this together,

you, me the octopus, the lily and the star.  

As is the little girl balancing on the stones just outside my window,

talking non-stop nonsense rhymes that almost make her lose balance.

And her father says “Watch out honey” 

and she says “Ice tea, out of town.” 

The care and the nonsense,

the fear and the potential exist side by side,

as do we.

a me

Knead


My chest feels like
Dough rising.


When will it
Rise up to
Nourish my voice?


When will it
be pounded down
again?

ame

10/11