Great Expectations from the Dark Night

I’ve been lying low on this hillock waiting for the sun 
To descend behind the floating blue 
Black mountains every evening for ages 
And have yet to let anybody down— 

As sure as my name is Legion, any minute 
Now the needlelike cypresses reaching 
For the heavens will begin 
Sinking into the landscape again. 

Tin Ear

Wake up— 

The music the rain 
Makes as it falls 
On the tin 

Roof’s music you’d have 
To be snoring standing up 
Under it not to hear. 

Ciphers

In the city square where strangers come and go, 
No one sees they’re being watched, stranger 
Still, none save me will ever know. 

Like a Caged Canary in a Coal Mine

You who sing life’s short but meaningful— 
Keep digging there so long as 

The air’s fresh and plentiful. 

Trust to Revolutionary Verses Then

Mind you always explosively intense yes hitting
No false note comrades enlightened enough 

To blow the hoi polloi’s brains out, 
Make true believers of them

To the very end. 

Earth Science Field Notes

                         promontory

sun lounging

lizard stands rock

still above blue green

deep

                        

                         fissure

where upswept pink

cyclamen petals quiver

                         

                        between rocks

slit filled with pine needles

Potomac Farmhouse Diner Entrées after a Freak Summer Shower

Garnishing the fowl 
Broiling, steaming sun 

Basted squealers roiling 
In a heap of muck served 

With relish on the veranda.