Category: Photo/Poem

Early Morning Mind

Early morning mind,
pristine, as sleep 
dissolves into sensation:
   the gentle tap-dance of rain,
   dogs stirring in their beds
      (the sleep of the just),
   summer breeze flowing through
      the screens, accompanied by
      a multifarious bouquet of
      birdsongs.


Pristine,
   before thought
   and a false certainty
   of attaching words
   to what appears
   and vanishes. 

Lost Capacity


 The lost capacity
 to foresee
 and to forestall.
 
 Margaux makes fresh eye contact,
 fibrous slivers,
 a sickly resemblance to
 scrambled eggs.
 
 Her plan to elude the elderly
 resembles the skeleton of
 a shark’s jaw;
 the rapidly accelerating collapse
 of the Great Dying,
 a sulphuric stew
 with somewhat more circumspection.
 
 The ice started a fire;
 there is no other evidence or 
 indicia of truth.
 
 She was fully aware of the power
 that came with being ill,
 and annexed over the future
 of the universe.
 
 Like a perpetual motion machine
 outside the threshold of
 the church,
 something has snapped inside,
 evil is not subsiding,
 an emptiness of the soul,
 irrevocable loss weighing
 on the heart.
 
 Irving is giving me
 a good spanking
 with a shoe.

Each New Day


 Each new day requires
 careful preparation,
 lest one be infected by
 the epidemic of imbecility,
 the decayed culture of
 the common,
 a loud cacophony
 of barking dogs,
 devoid of the reciprocity
 of balanced conversation or 
 the open grace of generosity. 

Portland, Maine