Collateral Damage

This child will not stoop to listen 
To droning cold-blooded explanations 
As to why war exists and why 
There must be winners and losers— 

All this child wants is to hear 
The smallest heart beat. 

Epitaph

It’s time I got this off my chest— 
The more I put down on paper, 
The less my soft heart felt
Like a marble headrest. 

I, As in "Nothinglikeness"

I once wrote 
A poem ending 
With a word I made up— 

Nothinglikeness. 

I wanted it to be 
About light and how light 
Would be if light were like 

A void 

And I found myself leaping 
Out of the clear blue 
Clear through it. 

Earthbound and Inert

Look—up in the sky! 
The lunatic moon’s salivating, 

Spewing quicksilver- 
Lined trails of spit 

For all us snails 
To drool over before 

We get too phlegmy 
To take off likewise

Lickety-split. 

Athena's Owl and the Learned Swallows

Wide-eyed on edge 
Of red-tiled roof, 
The studious looking owl 
May not make out much 
In the late morning light, 
But one thing seems clear: 
These nesting early birds strafing it 
Till it vanishes have done their homework well, 
And can now return to that brooding business 
They so instinctively and abruptly left behind— 
It’s as if they knew 
Wisdom rests not in taking in 
What rears its head before us, 
But what to make of what 
Nests in the empty space 
Once that knowledge takes wing 
And flies away.