Another installment of poems still waiting in the archives to be heard. Finishing up loose ends.

If you want more details, here’s the Big Long Explanation. Otherwise, just read as many or few of these poems as you’d like. And thank you, as always!

These poems are all from Repairs, published 2017.

There Is No Map For This Road

The roar of the lawn mower as you pull the starter
the smell of chlorine in your soaked bathing suit
the rattle of knives against pots in the dishwasher
the tines of the comb scraping your scalp.
The cord of the blinds you let down
running through your fingers too fast
The words still fresh on the opening page
of the book you pick up to read again
The first turn in the road
when things start to look familiar
coming home

5/25/17

Desk and Sun

i.
Sun
stripes my papers
across the desk
These words here
highlighted
these ones
not.

ii.
Sun
across the desk
I lay my hand on the wood
taking its warm for myself

iii.
Sun
across the desk
I leave
gone just a few minutes
I return
The desk
in shadow.

5/17/17

The Business is Concluded

The house
burned to the ground and gone
scrape the lot clean and build a new house
Somebody else can do that.
While I won’t say I won’t look back
I won’t go back.

5/17/17

Society Do

The big party
it was full of people in fancy clothes
running out of patience
growing disillusioned
with the caterers
cross-referencing the information
among themselves
in a negative way
saying,
you can get better eats
at the supermarket, can’t you?
though at least one guest
was deciding to wrap up some of this shrimp
for breakfast
tomorrow.

5/17/17

It’s Getting Ideas

I don’t have your imagination
Explain to me why I found
a can of baby peas
creeping through the rocks
in the flowerbed
outside the garage. My goodness!
Throw the poor thing
into the river
and let it swim away.

5/17/17

Superwoman

She goes into the kitchen
straight from work
wearing too tight high-heeled shoes
scuffed up at the toes
stumbles and staggers
a split second to reach equilibrium
never stood a chance
the floor too slick
Dinner will be late.

5/17/17

Knowing Best

I am her mother and I will decide
if in the life of a girl
it’s even possible
that a sense of originality
can be of use
or is desirable

5/17/17

Separation

Now
the slap of the wake
against the dock pilings
The motorboat far out in the lake
long gone

5/25/17

Bad Cost/Benefit Ratio

Inside that low-grade angry
wrongly convinced of an interested audience
taking aim at the world
scattershot-style
there is an idea or two.
Once in a while
one hits the target
but I don’t like what I have to go through
waiting for it.

5/25/17

On the Nature of Gift-Giving

What is it about this gift here
perfectly appropriate
and from a very nice person
What is it about this gift
that it sings
on key
exactly
and with such insistence?

And why instead do I remember
the present you gave me
the one so wildly out of tune
why is it the one I laughed to receive
and that I hold so tight in memory?

5/25/17

Aria High Stakes

The choir is singing at top speed
pursued by the piano keys
tripping over themselves to catch up
You don’t know anything about music
but you love the thrill you’re getting
being a part of an audience
running for cover

5/25/17

The Bride and Her Mother

The bride said:
Mother, I have always dreamed
of my wedding day
and I so hoped to start off married life
with the good omen of
a perfect wedding day
including our relations and friends
in a nice ceremony and
elegant reception. It will cost some money,
yes,
but what a lovely memory
for all of us, including you,
of course.

The bride said:
Mother, you must understand
My wedding is everything. Every detail
must be exactly right. The expense is of such small account
when perfection is the object. I am sure
you agree. It’s that you haven’t thought about it
enough. When you do, you will surely
open your checkbook
a bit wider.

The bride said:
I must have more to spend
if I am to have the wedding I deserve.
Do you want our relatives and your friends
to think we are not up to it? That we
are too cheap to do things
right? That we don’t know how?

The bride said:
Give me more. I mean it.

6/1/17

Another installment of poems still waiting in the archives to be heard. Finishing up loose ends.

If you want more details, here’s the Big Long Explanation. Otherwise, just read as many or few of these poems as you’d like. And thank you, as always!

These poems are all from Repairs, published 2017.

Every One of Us

Dangerous lives
on the fifth floor
They eat bad food at their desks
consider it nothing
to spend an hour
or more
each day
placating a person with a made-up mind
who has a dozen good reasons
one of them always right
every last one of them.
They fix things
clean up payroll files
hand you a business card
follow the regulations
attend seminars on big-picture thinking.
They can’t leave the job
half-finished
when it has no end
Just call it a draw
and start again tomorrow

5/5/17

Not at Step One

They had red plastic cups but you
You drank straight from the bottle.
Next thing you know you have
spilled all over the dress
your credit card
had to go lie down and rest
after you paid for it.
A lot of howling
that you realize it’s coming from you
doesn’t fix the mess.
Maybe
a lot of dry cleaning
and maybe
slow down drinking
straight from bottles
and maybe
oh maybe nothing
it’s going to happen again and again
one way or another.

5/11/17

Sent In to Find

I peeled the apple
ate it
reached the core
filled with seeds
packed tight with information
like boxes in a file room
containing the plans for future trees
and more apples
and I knew just what to do

5/5/17

 
Hospital Case

Greenstick fracture of your reputation
required surgery. Notorious
the doctor noted on your chart.
You can wriggle out of this one
the voice of your survival instinct
told you
in the feeble glow of the nightlight
after the nurse went off
leaving the sheets on the bed
all bunched up.
No one likes you anymore but
cheer up they’ll put you back together
because they have to before they
throw you out the door into the parking lot
I’m an honest man
you told the doctor
in the emergency room
and she said
You display no symptoms of it that I can see.

5/11/17

Times Have Changed

See you later, cupcake
I knew you’d get a laugh out of it
it’s the shoes that give it away every time
or maybe the eyeglasses in that fashionable style
limited edition. High school isn’t ever over
is it? Not deep down. Come on, just laugh
again.

5/11/17

Long Suffering

crying all afternoon
standing in a puddle of tears
by dinner
knee-deep at bedtime
swimming the next morning
it’s time to send out a rescue boat
I guess
or we’re all going to drown.

5/11/17

Liberated

wearing black-rimmed glasses
and a dark suit
stunned by the music
it will be a big money-maker
this song
it hypnotizes everyone who hears it
and when the dust settles
everyone’s got new friends
and going out to dinner with them
staying out late
loosen that tie and sing!

5/11/17

Job Skills

driving a bus could be
among other things
entertaining
though you probably need a sense of humor to enjoy it
and that,
well,
you haven’t used it for years.

5/11/17

Fire Ants

Two million ants in the basement and
you leave me sitting on the sofa
and writing a list
it’s not poetry on the page
it’s just me and three counts of
so sorry for your sake
but I burned the house down
I couldn’t think of what else to do.

5/11/17

Coming Right Up At You

The best coffee this side of town
sold right here
slaps you right in the head
Apologies for that little bit of attitude
aren’t forthcoming
Normally people are grateful.

5/11/17

Start It Off

The alarm didn’t go off
again
The morning
it was a nightmare a stinking nightmare
I can’t afford to be late to work
again
Twenty-one stories up
the shattered window
the glass raining down on the sill
shinny down the drainpipe
I go
belting away down the sidewalk
swinging up into the bus
the door shutting on the two inches of air
I brought in behind me
again.
Monday.

5/11/17

Between

The dead tree
standing in its silver underskin
upright and tall
knotted and scarred
spattered with
insect holes dark and
from the ground up
through its twig tips
on borrowed time
waiting for the day
when the call comes
but for now
plenty of room to stretch
here in the sun
host a hawk along one
reached out
leafless
limb.

5/17/17