(p)articles of absorption

rifle

                    (white-

washed

                    stone

wall)

cracks

                   (blood

red

wind-

                   flowers

                   seep

through)

Leave-taking

I read somewhere 
That ashes are the last 

Trees to welcome leaves, 
The first to let them go— 

In the meantime so brief, 
So breathtaking an interlude 

It bears repeating: The last 
To welcome them, the first 

To let them go.



 

Bankrupt

You wager the world would be no poorer 
Had it no poetry, though five will get you ten 

You’ll never get rich staking your life on it. 

Natural Selection

Seed, what on earth’s got into you? 

There you go rooting and taking off 
In the most ridiculous 

Of surroundings—say jammed 
Between some blooming sheer- 

Rock face or surfacing through 
A sea of noxious black 

Asphalt—never where 
I so lovingly sow you,

Like this nursery bed here. 
You know what? 

I think I’ll stop being so 
Goddamn caring— 

From now on, it’s every man 
For himself, like it or not. 

Shovel Leaning against a Graveyard Wall

After the cleansing downpour, 
I like to think the muddied pool 
Left in the scoop of the shovel 
Reflects on a clear blue sky, 
There in the sweet by-and-by— 

Where a spade is always a spade, 
No matter how 
Many times it’s been buried 
By upright citizens 
Covering up one more lie.