Tailor-made Moonless Night

Waiting 

To take measure of the dazzling 

Fabric of the universe, 

I wait out 

Beyond the needles of the pines 

For the pinholes to appear; 

Many questions on my mind but 

Only one of any substance— 

How many light years will it take 

For this threadbare body 

To pierce the heavens 

At the appointed hour 

And disappear? 

Blown Away

The heat wave was so 

Stupefying the cicadas 

Exploded taking off 

Our heads the last I heard 

They were high- 

Tailing it, frazzled 

By dodging sparrows 

Pine to pine. 

Lackadaisical

I don’t know about this 

She loves me, she loves me not 

Love-hate business but all this talk 

Of hard work making America 

What it is makes me want 

To lie stark naked 

In a field full of flowers 

And peel off her clothes 

One-by-one till she lies there 

Doing nothing fully 

Exposed too.

After the Fall (for the Zillionth Time)

To start again 

At the beginning 

With the world upright 

And everything just 

As it was 

In the beginning 

That would be how 

To end things anew, 

Another beginning. 

Blaze of Glory, Poet

The lamp 

Of the lady of night has gone out 

But it’s left a flame 

That still licks your wounds. 

Making Do with Less

Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do 

not take the exact amount. The exact amount is no use 

to me. 

—Antonio Porchia, Voices 

Antonio, tell you what— 

Today I’m going 

To take more of what 

I didn’t take yesterday— 

The rest I’ll leave 

For tomorrow;

That should pretty well do it. 

Staking out the Usual Suspect

Stick to your MO, gumshoe— 

Stare out the window 

Long enough, no matter what 

The view, you’ll see 

The frame becomes you.