Revisions

Magic Tricks (Revision)

Spring,

that conjuror,

proves illusions—deft

slight-of-hand distracts us

from realities.

Distance (Revision)

I invent their faces

Give them eyes

For invisible horizons

I, Too (Revision)

Quite,

He says

With a twist of the lips

That does little enough

To reassure.

Short Piece

The Daisy Quinn

Her namesake,

Prairie born

And living ever

Within sound of windswept shortgrass,

Only saw the ocean

In a photograph,

But knew the terror

Of encircling horizons

Blank and distant.

Short Pieces--Part 6

Magic Tricks

Like a conjuror,

Spring

Distracts our eyes

From mud

Covered

Reality

To prove illusions

After Easter

When

The mass of lilies smothering the altar

Has been removed,

The hangings

With quotations relevant

To the occasion

Have been hidden in the back closet,

Bulletins are printed

Not on pastel but

Again on plain

White

Paper

He still is risen

Distance

People

With no faces

Follow dusty paths

I cannot see.

What One Does with Philosophy

I met today

A monastery gardener

With a barrow

And the world in his mouth.

I Am Human, Too

Quite,

He says with

A twist of the lips

That does little enough

To reassure.

Resurrection Day Poem

Mary

To me,

Blessedness means gathered grief

From years

Of dying sons and weeping mothers,

Given

In the promise of redemption.

Short Pieces--Part 5

Untitled 1

What if

I told you that I threw your sneakers

(yellow, size ten, with neon green laces and a mud stain on the left heel)

In the back alley

Because I didn’t want to call you

And tell you they were still here?

Untitled 2

They assume

Too much

About my life

From the words I string together

And call poetry

Untitled 3
 

Patience

Is not a virtue

But survival

Short Pieces--Revisions

Revisions

Choices

Mud or ice

Clings or cuts

Drags or does not yield

Guitar

Taut strings fight

The caution of my soft fingers

Stinging

Snapping

Biting

Felling

Rushing

Cracking

Crashing

And the dull thud

As the trunk falls

Sonnet

Velociraptor Sonnet

I pray, my gentle reader, heed this word

Of caution, and then call forever law

This precept: Never be allured

By sparkling white velociraptor jaws.

The shining teeth, with sharp and shapely points,

Arranged in rows along the charming grin,

It snaps with mannerisms stately, coy,

Or filled with charity, quite mild and prim.

Beware the lizard! Do not trust its smile

Nor venture to befriend it though it seems

Beneficent, magnanimous, benign.

I caution you, it only wants a feast.

For if you think velociraptors kind,

Your education will bring your demise.