memo

I want to write fables for my grandchildren and their daughters and sons, but I won’t. They will have difficulty understanding them. The trees I planted didn’t come with instruction manuals and the lines of code for the outdated machines had worn away. Pen ink leaves permanent marks on palms and graphite wears away too fast. Voices crack and falter. They wouldn’t understand anyway.

virgil

Your spine cracked

like the binding of the books

you stretched upon

asking me to read you

like lines of Virgil

and I know you

watched that man

wearing the dirty trench coat

and like a blind man

your hesitant palm to mine

reading into the future

talking of things to come

flocks of grey geese

born with knowledge of ponds and lakes

of where they are supposed to be

but some don’t follow

black sheep

with feathers

your smile

falters.

okay

I remember

the worn cotton feel

bitter chocolate taste

story-telling sound

But

I also remember

the rainy day memory

the tip of your tongue speech

painful procedure face

clueless frightened smile

So yes

I think

I’m okay

after all.

detour

I watched
you crack open
redemption
from your chest
as if it
were your heart. My
sleeves were soaked
with chicken broth
from sick
Sundays. When I
smiled, smoke
escaped through
my teeth. Your
iron lung coughed
then sputtered
before
you took
a sharp breath
of smoke.

free-wheelin' 1

sun drum soup cans and
feather weight collars adorned
with graduated chicken leeks inside
boxed wood grate baskets and
gravy red bracelets
with Mercedes sun airline
over the fielded
white elephants.

Teague

bruises blossom a

most beautiful shade

of pomegranate

on her skin

while

underneath my

fingertips

i dance while

not even

moving

save for

the opening

of

petals.

darker black

in my mouth forms
the shapes of mountains
but my hands grasp cotton
and Judge Judy is on
so i breathe in apathy
to release
i want to hold you
and not to love you, perhaps
but to feel eternity
with the folicles of your skin
and to trace the battle lines
to call cease fire
at least until we finish
our earl gray tea
in your mouth
a seed
i water.