Little Vines written on 3/2/23.

6030.
My closed living room drapes.
Do I have a secret valuable enough that
I bother to conceal it?

 
6031.
Fleshy pod fingers pressed pink.
A handful of silver slimy change.
The cashier’s cross expression.

6032.
vinegar trimmed
onion skinned
her face glows

6033.
A crunch.
Not what I’d expected. More – visceral –
somehow. But yes, definitely –
She’d been swallowed up by the fog.

6034.
Stretched out gym shorts hanging off my butt
I clomp down the basement stairs
Guess it’s way past time to do some laundry

6035.
Lady – what heaves over?
Open personality. If the lady says.
Nonsense.
Drawings decide – I like size large.
 
6036.
with a very muscular pen
she signed her name
one hundred careful letters

6037.
Your heart depicted smaller than it really is,
in paint watered-down three times
and yet still the brightest color on the page –
Nothing can diminish you.

6038.
Today I waltz
in frills and feathers
My hopes open and expand

6039.
in this smorgasbord of friends
I think of myself as a generous slice
cut from a well-baked cake

6040.
the gym membership I use once
the greasy takeout dinners I eat every night
I have learned nothing
 
6041.
the rain stops. the clouds dissipate.
a black car passes on the road below.
the stars return. you will not.

6042.
salt tears and
sugar kisses and
I love you more than anything

How about a visit from the Vines? Say hello.

6014.
Two turquoise rings I inherited from my aunt
slipping around on my skinny fingers.
I wash dishes in a cloud of suds.

6015.
Standing in the rain
The sun
And it does exist
What would it look like to you now?
 
6016.
The radio blares out a melody
Someone shouts the words
to a whole different song –
Good enough.

6017.
Your brother
and his story.
Well-rehearsed. Dramatic. Festering.

6018.
Absolutely nothing could make me look.
I was sure.
I looked.

6019.
Not of the earth
this mist that is clearing
No, it fell from the stars.

6020.
the just-right tight
Sins + alchemy
black velvet gown
 
6021.
get inside the remarkable qualities of
sugar
and late in the day disobedience

6022.
It’s mad worship
what she requires.
Pay attention.
Like I didn’t.

6023.
you wonder if
even in the pouring rain
but I can’t tell which is which.

6024.
The sun
A turquoise circle
High in a yellow sky

6025.
A dim blue light.
Three eggplants? Three eggplants?
I was hoping for a beer.
I slam the fridge door shut.
 
6026.
the writer tired out from a day of
pushing nouns and verbs
into marriages of convenience

6027.
Winter separates them
Those who were here
Those who survived

6028.
We are simply a fellowship of round shapes
rolling free and easy on the open road but
You may know us better as “tires”.

6029.
being small and young
in flannel pajamas
five minutes from bedtime

Little Vines! I bet you can’t believe your eyes. Yes, it’s been a while. But they are back in my lineup again. I did a few while I was as the Montgomery County Community College’s library on this date. Take a look.

6006.
I think Buried may not be a permanent address:
Revenge is merely waiting
to crawl out of its grave.

6007.
Three red gumballs in a row
from the machine on my way out the diner door.
That’s enough of an omen for me.

6008.
I reached for my phone
Something terrible
clenched in my fingers

6009.
The people went home
thinking of nothing but the subject not discussed
wondering what it actually could be.

6010.
She looks good
The guy is attractive
The deep fluorescence of a mutual interest glows

 
6011.
Visiting a sick friend in the hospital
Snarky nurse flirting with the
jovial undertaker who just gave you his card –
It makes you wonder

6012.
The wolf asleep in bed
And just as dangerous as you think
Dreams of small pink seashells

6013.
Stacks of plates
the day after the wedding.
Waiting to be washed.

This week’s selection.

5986.
Middle manager with society connections
Underachieving but a good tennis game and
Keeps his car vacuumed.

5987.
An uncopied man in the
indelible ink style
You will never be able to forget him.

5988.
apologies to Louisa It was all my fault
what happened. And I hope
she will drop in again sometime
but not for lunch

5989.
The baby throws a handful of peas
and screams like a boiling teakettle
The crowd roars in appreciation

5990.
one bent-open link in the bracelet
the charm shaped like a tiny flying saucer
releases itself and whisks away

 
5991.
Just lunched in a carnival of a dining room
The food is now turning in my stomach
like a well-greased Ferris wheel

5992.
The question is Champagne
The answer is Singing Bumblebees Take Flight
and a Dry Throat is tickled

5993.
a whole crowd of small shadows
finding the night relentless
Tired out long before
the streetlights turned themselves off

5994.
Do a little Snooping Do Tension and Lying
Where have you been?
Remember it. It could be important.

5995.
the ground was dry
a train ticket torn in half
could lie there, legible, for weeks

 
5996.
Halfway there you sprinkle it on your hair
It bursts and fizzes. You rocket off.
The sunset explodes in your wake.

5997.
This way! Come one come all! Step right up!
The brusque voices of the carnival barkers
Cut sentences into small bites of cotton candy

5998.
As the moon sets itself down on the earth
the car headlights pale and fade out
giving over to the morning sun

5999.
What I wouldn’t give for
warped and soggy cardboard
and all these old photos ruined in the box

6000.
expensive purse gaping open in pleasurable shock
extravagant cake grinning through the window of its box
Friends stick together.

 
6001.
I get a picture in my mind
a squirrel skipping branch to branch
then I run up the stairs

6002.
The idle chatter stalls
The lovers risk gossip to dispel the boredom
Maybe it’s not just another desperate evening after all

6003.
fancy shoes slick leather soles
skid on the worn stone steps
a spin and a panic and nearly making other plans

6004.
a starched shirt situated on a corpulent bald man
gabbles out a misbuttoned sequence of
stretched too tight

6005.
matching facts to acts and today
oh dear, no, I am so sorry I can’t
Memory self-wiped as clean as if with a gallon
of bleach.

This week’s selection.

5980.
Sign on a gas station along a lonely road:
no clues no conjures no curios
no credit cards accepted

 
5981.
a row of washing machines
your pink bra flashing by the window
It’s like it’s signaling me

5982.
Engine revs Metal clangs expands and contracts
The beat of the shiny heart is relentless
The rocket ship takes off

5983.
how that hour
can be such a free-running sieve
that pre-dawn post-nightmare
talking in your sleep hour

5984.
The cold sunshine bears down on the open grave
The stiff breeze rattles the floral tributes
Their ribbons snap in a festive kind of way.
It seems disrespectful.

5985.
These quarrels. Their infernal high-pitched shrieks
Thud of thrown shoes. Smell of burning silk neckties.
Sizzle of a cell phone dropped in the bathtub. Again.
These quarrels.

This week’s selection.

5957.
The clang of shovel on rock
The bell struck
it Rings only once
Good-bye, it says. I hear it. Good-bye.

5958.
She discarded the price tag
picking it off with her plastic fingernails.
I did not feel I could intervene.

5959.
lemons
deafening yellow
fragrant acidity
a sparkle curled inside a rind

5960.
dishrags emerge
from the suds
wrung out from a hard day’s work
 
5961.
reputations
now so gracelessly extinct
lie in cracked ruins in the cemetery
scattered through the unmown grass

5962.
that moment in the warm kitchen
of bright unfettered hopes
eager that my efforts might please

5963.
in the living room so long ago a little girl
curled up asleep on the prickly red carpet
guarded by the heavy legs of the piano

5964.
Did I hear a faint echo
as I stood among the gravestones
in the manicured cemetery?

5965.
the heartbreaker continued in his ways
spackling the afterlife with
hard gravestone kisses

 
5966.
disappointed hearts retreating
a single word had broken the news:
the tickets are all sold out

5967.
The train stood in the station at midnight
full of people
knowing where but not always knowing why
they were going

5968.
I remember a lot of things about that time
but mostly trees
and feeling alone

5969.
the cloud overeats
the sky disappears
what’s left is a moon with a bite taken out of it

5970.
Eight years old
standing there laughing.
At me. Of course. My cat.

 
5971.
test booklet and pencil
a good view to the left and to the right
Yes, I’m ready for the exam now

5972.
what loud voices
even in winter in snow a foot deep
the dreaming daffodil bulbs have

5973.
You’re stupid stupid stupid
sang the valentines in their envelopes
trusting Cupid Cupid Cupid

5974.
Her eyes gleamed like polished acorns
elated at successfully evading a squirrel.
Possibly she is overconfident.

5975.
a tissue from the box
nothing to offer but anonymous comfort
but that was enough

 
5976.
a spin and a panic and making other plans
the vehicle shies away
U-turn and gone in a hurry

5977.
the ruined molecule
the corrosive stars
the discolored luminescent clouds
Now even fate has gone numb

5978.
Answer in a short paragraph. Discuss fully.
Are you anonymous or synonymous?
Polynomial or abdominal?
Molecular or follicular?

5979.
outside the window
winter plods past
methodical and petulant

This week’s selection.

5938.
looking for you
the irony cobbler is
wanting to fit you with some too-tight shoes

5939.
Let’s do some talking, Dad said
but what he thought was
if only we really could get some answers that way

5940.
you brought me this expensive orchid corsage
and me here in a red sweatshirt
with the tag still on it

 
5941.
a radioactive third flow event
warm statistics stream into the database
My right thumb pulses.
This time our rocket ship really is going to take off.

5942.
one descriptive curse
and things sure got out of hand
on this nondescript street

5943.
A lifelong some lover
disciplines herself to consider all
just once in a while

5944.
your gravestone with that RIP claptrap all over it
let’s not pretend I haven’t yanked it out of the ground
more than once

5945.
she’s a serious girl
even she’s hunting for a little light relief
inside these mind-blowingly pedantic results

 
5946.
as time went on, her two eyes
no longer wanted to work together –
A visual divorce

5947.
fifteen love she bellowed
you could have heard her a mile away
what a tennis racket

5948.
why not consider this
affordable flock of opportunities the salesman said –
but how can I when they are all clucking and
looking me right in the eye?

5949.
I listen
I check my emotional reservoir
I run through my inventory
I decide I can spare a shiver

5950.
until we know more let’s manipulate her
with a whirling and a twirling
of a shrug and a guilt

 
5951.
I got up early this morning again
skidded on the icy path again
Chapter 23 was just like Chapter 22
in my book

5952.
except for the damp bathmat
drying on the radiator
There’s no proof you were ever here

5953.
because she was that careless with the cake spices
a smelly error
turned into a citywide evacuation event

5954.
with a shudder
the fortuneteller turns pale
your heart vanishes

5955.
It’s a chicken feed casserole conversation
meaning
No one ever says anything at this dinner table
that amounts to more than

 
5956.
there was a large crowd yelling Be careful
but the foolish sentence just kept on rolling
running right smack-dab into the middle of the serious conversation

Here is this week’s selection.

5915.
the slithering progress
of her firstborn Inklings
delighted the mom Innuendo

 
5916.
I speak the truth into the jar.
I screw the lid on tight.
It’s never tried to get out. So far.

5917.
The sloping line of floral tiles.
The sink off-center. The mirror skewed.
A crooked grin at my reflection.
I part my hair in a wavering line.

5918.
Endure the subtle pinch of seldom-worn shoes
Mourn the discovery that your fancy dress
is now too tight to wear. Curse because
you have no other. Enjoy your cousin’s wedding.

5919.
a dainty stamp of a slime-sticky foot
a flirty wave of antennae
that darling debutante at her first ball
breaking snail hearts right and left

5920.
the white rose waits
its thorns as curved and sharp
as a mean cat’s claws

 
5921.
we work in the same office but never speak
we sit in silence at the same lunch table
we’re too busy watching the clock
ever to do anything else

5922.
She sits in Grandma’s Cafe
Look at her there, in that red coat
wolfing down a whole basket of goodies

5923.
Don’t expect a healthy seven
From a sickly three point nine
If you don’t feed it right

5924.
I’m all November ready
A marble arm’s reach
and I’m turning over the page

5925.
We’re forced friends
stepping off on the wrong foot
We’re like all you socks
wanting to run from a bad match

 
5926.
In pain the risk is forgotten
Grip the tip of the pointed personality
and ask for help

5927.
A haughty waiter speaks with them
They cringe
But the napkins are calico
And not threatening

5928.
A party of mustards discusses
a case of homicide by salt
Ouch and iodine

5929.
Are you a lard flat up on it
Are you a silent seventeen
and weighing piles of cups?
Apply now and receive a generous signing bonus.

5930.
the amused clocks
run down the reputation
of that poor helpless sundial on a sunny day

 
5931.
I hope someone warned you
I soaked my brain
in all kinds of coffee this morning

5932.
No shortage of morning
in this great big blue sky
The fried egg sun grins

5933.
the dishrag slips in the soap suds
trying to keep up while those jokers
the forks poke it in its knitted ribs

5934.
I used a wheelbarrow
is that ok? She nodded Yes
and then she asked the time.

5935.
Well, my lipstick
will fit around my smile
just fine

 
5936.
ants talking drivel
hornets pushing some stinging gossip
the cabbage scratches its head
How did I ever fall in with this crowd?

5937.
the music
trickled from the radio
thick and sweet

This week’s selection.

5893.
the buffer expands to protect them
these lies
they are guaranteed safe inside the closed mind

5894.
the piano is tuned
a dishonest continuum of sound
returned to truthful melody

5895.
a brilliant spring day
and
a swarm of gnats up your nose

 
5896.
Surely, I hope,
there is a marvelous year
underneath all this mud

5897.
our small one-eyed dark tabby cat
you are
just a great big sample of pure gold

5898.
I so envy you
that pale blue pair
of custom-fit oven mitts

5899.
The beer gladdens the tired crowd
of ill-matched coworkers
gamely socializing at the mandated after-work activity

5900.
The stomach gasps.
And then a greenish sludgy liquid
lies languid on the linoleum

 
5901.
If you think about it
it is possible to drink coffee
made by a dead man:
it’s all in the timing

5902.
one quick paper cut
one long day
of agony

5903.
the clouds are promising rain
but with no signature on the papers
I don’t consider it a done deal

5904.
on my calendar for the rest of this year:
forget everything that happened
after last Tuesday

5905.
the newborns emerge, squeaking –
and you know the story:
they will grow up fly away and return
when they run out of money

 
5906.
a waffle a sick man
a nurse in white
a burned-out light
and in this heat?

5907.
a pair of pale blue eyes
just visible through the dense foliage –
and the two now-empty chairs

5908.
I’ve always thought that
for a lot of reasons
a really nice set of teeth
is all you need in life

5909.
coy and vain
that’s the orchestra’s opinion
of every simpering note in this limping gavotte

5910.
that black sweatshirt
such a tight squeeze
no way he’s ever gonna squish all his atoms into it

 
5911.
The road is straight the scenery a snore and
just now you’ve realized you missed your turn
one humdrum miles ago

5912.
I saw him in the used car parking lot
Embarrassed for him, I was.
Who? Oh, George, our old Toyota.
I hope he didn’t see me.

5913.
the skull that conceals
the brain that reveals
the word that unreels
the whole string of squeals

5914.
there is something about
a steaming hot bucket of soapy water
that really cheers me up

This week’s assortment!

5869.
Deep pools
Of somber
Solitary
Thinking

5870.
the plum forgotten in the refrigerator
softens and dissolves.
I retrieve it. I grieve it. I toss it to the ants.
 
5871.
what a manicure job and I watch it perform a
discreet glissando
on the glass countertop of the jewelry display case

5872.
Her fingers on the keys of the flute strangle the tune
the dead weight of its corpse compresses the very air
Those lessons were a waste all right.

5873.
we hear the rasping voice of a knife in the kitchen
here in the dining room where we wait
dinner sits uneasy in our stomachs

5874.
The hope in saying goodbye is always
that in the next place
we will not have to do it again

5875.
the moon
in this drizzly night sky
wobbles in the streetlights’ glow

 
5876.
I am crying
behind my rain-streaked glasses
and no one knows

5877.
you click the clasp on the necklace
on the first try.
you are not a nervous bride.

5878.
I need to think
in small pieces
warily

5879.
I try out different voices.
Recognize none of them. Approve of all of them.
I let them loose. Revel in the fracas.

5880.
Appraising fingertips
intent
feel the shapes. hear the shapes. obey the shapes.
Paint.

 
5881.
Oh you impetuous laundromat mob of shiny
steel dryers
baking my bedsheets and shrinking my socks
burning out the elastic in every pair of
underwear I own

5882.
You are disappointed.
The bathtub and I watch you cry
in the mirror over the sink.

5883.
Do you think it’s a portent
or is it just a bad dream
coming to rest at last

5884.
Where did it come from
This big mess that suddenly we’re in –
Accident or luck?

5885.
Trembling, I approach the washer
I raise my offering of filthy clothes
before its unblinking Cyclops eye

 
5886.
the postcard forwarded to the trash
its message reads Dear Helen:
(ketchup smears) (coffee grounds) (grease spots)

5887.
Please wait. Room 1818.
Wait there. In Room 1818. Wait. There. Please.
Room 1818.

5888.
hidden in the dense foliage
the nest
holds four cracked and oozing eggs

5889.
the saturated jungle vegetation
the soft rotted soil it grows in
the heat the insects the alien cries
of my GPS in its bewildered distress

5890.
a man and a martini or two
who said they had car trouble
up on the highway

 
5891.
the ocean somersaults
across the sand
the beach giggles

5892.
the exclamation
smears the air
leaves a stain on my memory