Category: Family
-
The end is the beginning, is the middle, is the end
My father was always concerned with the now, with what I’m doing with today with not wasting time in pursuit of frivolous things. When my first book of poetry came out, he told me on the phone that he read my book and he didn’t think much of it. At the end he spoke of…
-
Sun day
“Because you are alive, everything is possible.” — Thich Nhat Hanh light reflected in a mirror takes nothing from the sun our shadows walk across the ground but cannot diminish our bodies in their journeys our physical perfections and imperfections have no impact on the spirit and so it goes I am responsible for my…
-
Don’t overeat
tomorrow is Thanksgiving I am thankful – just not the usual way no false narrative of kind Pilgrims and happy contented Indians our two daughters are gathering in Raleigh my siblings, nieces and nephews and an old aunt or two are gathering in my Indiana home ground I wish we could teleport instantaneously between locations,…
-
Last night
Last night I dreamed a dream I did not want to dream ___ I dreamed family and friends were mean and petty to me no matter where I fled they followed and ridiculed me for seeking solitude ___ I woke up angry at my dreaming self for dreaming mean and petty dreams of others and…
-
Indiana Winter Sundays on Greenbush Street
(09/08 – 1950’s memory poems) Under a doily covered table with a lamp, two African violets, and a half-filled ashtray; among claw-footed legs lay an out-of-round coconut, its outer husk intact, a large yellow conch shell with pink inner lips, Florida souvenirs from my aunt. Grandad said hold it to your ear, listen to the…
-
(no title)
Before our parents died and my brother bought their house an old flour sifter lay under the cabinet on a shelf next to a hand cranked egg beater Now they exist only in dreams of cake batter bowls waiting to be licked clean before momma demands I share 9-4-24
-
Twenty Floors Up, Peering Out a Window
08/22 In the window of my dream high above the street I see my father float by in an aquamarine 1957 Desoto. Tailfins like a shark red brake lights shining as he stops to wave. I forgot that before I knew him he had hair and friends called him Red. I wonder if somewhere in…
-
Harrison Butker
or The Somnambulant Man in the middle of the night (comatose for decades) View Post he woke up struggled to feed himself left his dirty underwear on the bathroom floor everyone and everything had gone on without him his kids had grown up his wife had grown independent his mother had died while inside he…
-
The Archaeologist
Inspired by morning coffee with a friend: Boxing up mother’s life for an estate sale, he wondered if all the perfume and cologne still smelled cheap or if they improved with age. He wondered, if there was a way to save unburned candles from the glass votive series that lined a shelf behind her chair.…
-
Joy’s messenger
twilight’s grace, shadows creep, beauty lies in death’s embrace, silent slumber, souls sleep. whispered sighs, secrets keep, fields of stars, a tranquil space, twilight’s grace, shadows creep. autumn leaves, a gentle sweep, vibrant hues, a final trace, silent slumber, souls sleep. veils of time, memories leap, eternal dance, through time and space, twilight’s grace, shadows…