Multi Titles See Below

Bathroom Visitor

A horsefly

travels the world

of my bathroom.

Stops at the kitty litter box

on occasion for refueling.

One thousand round trips

including the bathtub area,

and buzzes past the toilet bowl.

Steady pilot, good mileage.

Frequent flier miles.

I swat his journey to an

abrupt end.

-2007-

Lost in a Distant Harbor

Love,

once beside me

now

lost in a

distant harbor

calls out into the night

crawls back into the fog.

-1975-

Jesus Knelt in Grief

Over the Death of Children

Breaking out of silence,

Jesus knelt to his knees

in moist desert sand,

wrote messages

with his fingertips

to children-

“water is water, toys are toys,

but by my fingers burn with life,

though I toil over tombs with grief and tears-

I’m the living and I am the dead.

I was born to life to bring

new hope into the death of children.

I’m the messenger of the morning sun

the prayer book between the morning dew,

the play fields of your daily adventures.

When I kneel here again,

the end will be the end.

Fire will be willed into my words.

Driftwood and sand will turn to stone.

I drag my fingers across hot sand once more;

morning will come without a daybreak.

Birds will no longer sing, and crickets

lose their songs.”

-1999-

In This Place,

Poverty Falls

In this place night falls with Linda.

Wrinkled life, wrinkled wishes

race across her face.

Torment bristles with each morning;

nailed to a cross within her house,

Linda lives.

Everything is a cycle,

a charity or gifts.

Poverty is an odor,

it is a smell her

nose itches with.

In the yard, poverty grass,

near the old car, poverty grass.

Poverty tastes like copper

metal  on her tongue.

On her this journey with no applause,

no gas, Nicor shut that off.

No money honey, laziness shut that off.

Her house is full of bills & debris.

With no relief a few dollars

shrink in her hand harmlessly.

Rest, wait in welfare lines,

manipulate the coin machines

and the local pharmacy drug store.

Electric heaters keep the old house

warm and the multiple pets alive.

The microwave heats the plastic

salad bowl filled with water

for sponge baths.

The left over water mixes with hydrogen

peroxide that brushes her teeth.

Her body pale and spirits bail out with pills.

Groceries are checks

Nourished by food stamps.

Walls come closer in at night.

The wind outside roars

with stolen property inside.

Dreary days, step

into depression’s chamber;

a slice of her mourning

pronounces her dead.

-2007-

Rain

In the rain

He rebelled.

He drove off the road edge.

He was drunk.

It never rains in a dry casket.

-2007-