Category: friends
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poem for a friend
On a log pile by a fire pit On a log with lichen clings a lone cicada husk Split in the back for you to flee A life that’s grown too small you flee into green canopy And sing incessantly to be found To be loved before a change of seasons 7-20-20
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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 Iranian
because the wind came always from the west he thought he could smell his future on the wind he left his home moved across the sea went to school, married, had children sought his future in the west it was not waiting in California he moved to China sometimes, he flies east visits family and…
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hand-made chocolate shakes
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by
For the surgical nurse who I worked with when I was drafted I remember sneaking out the service door in the alley behind the hospital Jogging to an ice cream shop for hand-made chocolate shakes while you stood guard at the door We would sit in the nurses’ lounge – you would tell me your…
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Listening to Bob Dylan at 3am
I’ve heard Paul and Ringo say in interviews that the Beatles would’ve eventually played, again if John and George hadn’t died and talked of unfinished business things they would’ve said things they would’ve done A friend of mine lost her partner to COVID-19 but not thoughts of things she wishes she had said things they…
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for a friend who got furloughed yesterday
For all the unemployed fathers and mothers who have worked hard all their lives who worked two jobs and a side hustle who paid their taxes who send their kids to public schools who use public parks who believed in the American dream For all the children whose parents are putting their lives on the…
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star gazing
As a child I stared up at stars with a book of constellations connected all the dots thought the problem was me Last night I stared up at stars still couldn’t find Orion or his bow and realized ancient newscasters drank too much wine after dark This morning I stared up at stars only saw…
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a monk on fire (for John Prine)
because I heard he may be dying I listened to hours of John Prine before I went to bed My wife peeked her head in my office told me an owl was hooting in a tree I never understood a hooting owl why they warned the night they would be up and hunting my Uncle…
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Crystal halos
(for an old college friend, Terry – stay well, my friend; I will see you on the safe side of summer) ‘Crystal Halos’ This morning, a bird woke me with insistent calls of “Pick me, pick me,” outside my window I sat barefoot on the porch watched light shimmy down from tree tops to run…
My husband's poetry 