21 september

Tired of chasing or the shadow, even, of the feeling, I am making my own list. There were thoughts I had today that strained too hard to please but I shook my head and broke the breaths in half and half again then multiplied by self undivided against what isn’t and this is where we are as the clock goes by and the bluebirds kiss the rainbirds in what others look for sun and the darkness turned a corner as my words slid on without their pockets full of sense – who to be the wiser as the pages turn so slow? Quiet as the light goes out in separate scenes, apart and farther

20 september

adrift,

drafts craft their own

board their own shores

share ample openings –

open arms and answers

let’s admit one self only

(others as they

try as they might

as they come

as they may)

to your own be try

try your tribe on

sing songs

solid, and bright

gold is a color only

there is no weight to carry

easy to say

soft sounding certainly

set sentences straight

settling ruffled concerns

now lay lying to cease

turn tenderly to seek

18 september

when I hung up my pencil

she was still writing

I closed my eyes

she was still telling me stories

I was small, Easter egg hunting

the smell of the Florida room

my grandfather’s pipe on the porch

the organ – living room centerpiece

Toledo Zoo dressed for Christmas

turkey tetrazinni on Black Friday

clippings from the paper carefully sent

Canadian geese flying through the wall

frontyard willowtree climb

new fireplace chairs, hard to time

a year with two Septembers

17 september

It’s the third day in a row

I’ve fallen asleep

in the papazan

The third day with the oversized quilt

overtop my lap

(I am overdone)

as I try to get work done

Suddenwake, a neck jerk –

this is not the morning

Recognize the reprieve

Take stock and –

                                again?

16 september

I guess the whole time I had my

eyes closed I was imagining

this could probably work

there is no other way to go about

Go about your business, citizen!

Nothing to see here!

All the clues laid out, catalogued,

certainly didn’t help.

Plenty there to color by wrong number

Although who’s to say

which is right

Still, if you’re walking thataway

I better open my eyes,

check my pockets

see what I can spare

even as you pull—

more of the same for free

15 september

causes for alarm

and other stories

a bestseller loosely based

on observations I have made

throughout my own life

are you sure this is such a good—

someone else might be asking

but I would already be in it

let’s do that again, I’d be shouting

waking up tomorrow I will drive in

park at the wonderwhy job

hope after the whynot when