Category: Family

  • 4 poems on 1-22-23

    01/22 – today is a day for reading and daydreams and capturing short unnamed snippets of poems that swirl around me #1 A young boy never sees a tree he doesn’t want to climb in his neighbor’s yard, the county courthouse grounds, grandma’s house, the gorilla enclosure at the zoo An old man looks for…

  • QAnon childhood inoculation

    squinting into nightfall pink/orange on gray clouds eyelids tired of trying gum grows tasteless throw it out the window mom said, Albert, if a bird eats your gum, it will expand in their belly and explode for a silly moment I feel remorse and then tell myself I’ve never seen a bird drop from the…

  • at our daughter’s house in Locust Grove, GA

    Daffodils bloom in January, a dozen cardinals gather on the lawn. When the back door opens, take flight and chatter in the woods. Mom would like it here. Dad would like anywhere he can watch the football playoffs undisturbed and fall asleep by halftime in a comfortable chair. I wait to be happy doing what…

  • A Double kind of negative morning

    In the creek behind our daughter’s house greening undergrowth, hyperactive birds, tree frog choral sound track. In a distant somewhere, a fleeing train calls out it has room for one more. Me…I sit on our daughter’s patio adrift in an ambience of now not going no where 1-31-23

  • Seven questions

    When did you stop looking up to find shapes in the clouds? When did you stop imagining heaven peeking through as light showers? When did you stop seeing who could swing highest in the backyard swing? When did you stop talking for hours with friends about your dreams? When did you stop calling in requests…

  • Birthday morning

    watch water glisten just before it boils stir blue berries into a bowl of oat meal drink your morning coffee from a large blue mug put dishes in the sink take a shower sit on the porch listen to bird calls and wait for family to arrive 5-18-25

  • Estranged

    morning prayers in the park anole in bright green bush steps out on fence rail turns brown waits for breakfast to walk by you answer the phone “Hello” – anole freezes, turns, scurries back into the bush, disappears into green belated happy birthday wishes talk of life and poetry he reads you a poem he…

  • Tippy

    When mom fell at home and broke her leg, she was moved to a rehab facility. We knew at 92 she’d never return home and suspect dad knew, too. He insisted we move them into a facility where he lived on one floor and mom on another. Their little dog, Tippy, went to live with…

  • Voices

    When I was a child my conscience would talk in my father’s voice I didn’t recognize self-hate as my own Now I argue with the voices, take ownership and try to change 4-15-25

  • haiku from our daughter’s back porch

    squirrels twerk on fence chickens cackle good morning voyeur sun in trees 2-21-23