Category: Family
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Barefoot on my daughter’s front porch
Tired and hungry from the night Mustapha whines at the back porch screen. It is my daughter’s house so I won’t let him in I want to listen to birds and sip my coffee quietly before the sun and grand kids rise. I tell him to hush, go somewhere else. He continues his mewling high…
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for Marie
Marie lived in the big house she was born in. She had a baby grand in the parlor and cookies in the kitchen. She was my mother’s friend. She was the pianist for the Masonic hall. She told me I had a good voice. There was a picture on her mantle, of a young woman…
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The Couch
Change your filthy clothes Before you sit on the sofa Don’t put your feet on the couch If you want to sleep go to your bedroom Sit up straight, so three people can sit down Those cushions don’t belong on the floor You two keep your hands to yourself This ain’t no whorehouse When your…
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Oh, hell no!
After the storm, in the middle of the night I awoke from dream Telling my wife the baby was hungry and needs nursing That ship sailed long ago with a vasectomy in 1986 She said wake up You’re talking in your sleep, again 5-25-20
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for Dan
I don’t know why but tonight I wondered what became of your ashes after the state paid for your cremation Is there a field made holy where the indigent recline with last years leaves? I am waiting for Siri to call out from my GPS “Your destination is on the right” so I can speak…
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and I think it’s going to rain today
(stream of consciousness poem) On my sixty-eighth birthday a tropical depression spins offshore and the forecast is for rain all week and I worry about whole beaches being torn from the shore and the song ‘And I Think It’s Going To Rain Today’ is caught in the riptide in my head and I curse Randy…
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no anesthesia
Spiraled black-speckled flypaper waves in the wind from the porch For family summer picnic fun on the farm flies trapped in glue, struggle till they die Chickens, a pig and a cow are slaughtered deviled eggs, tomatoes and green beans prepared Rocky mountain oysters sit fried in a bowl on the table Harvested from ball…
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Who our Mother was
On this day after Mothers Day I remember how a couple of years before mom died my siblings almost killed her They hired a cleaning lady to come once a week to clean my parents’ house and mom exhausted herself Moving the refrigerator and furniture to sweep climbing on a step stool to dust getting…
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Waking From Dreaming with a Stream of Consciousness Prose Poem Stuck in My Head that I Scribbled Down in the Dark on a Notebook I Keep on a Table by the Bed for Those Nights When I Wake with a Stream of Consciousness Prose Poem Stuck in My Head
Yesterday, I ate the last garlic stuffed olive in the jar and wondered if they make some mixed drink with garlic stuffed olives, but it sounds gross, but I don’t drink alcohol and maybe it would make a great martini and I think back to summers, as a kid and my sisters and I would…
My husband's poetry 