Hi Pop

I have composed many
Moms’ poems
on dad
perhaps only one

but your dad
I would love to salute
and
add what a charming one
he has produced in you
as a loving son

Dads have to be outwardly harsh
spare the rod and spoil the child

all moms love sons and daughters
but from harsh treatment
they shy away

and

How I wish I had a dad like yours
would he care to bless me
kindly ask
for me

The rounded nest
The boxy hive

The glinting glassy lake
And the heavy
Rolling waves
Of the sea

Nature is our soul’s mirror
Or an invitation
To consider
A different way to be

The tree with its lunging roots
The thunder’s raucous roar

The atom shedding electrons
Or a ladybug
In spurts of semi-circular flight

The botanist
The nuclear physicist
The zoologist

Find themselves
In what they study

An eerie feel follows me
But what would you know
Unable to shake free
And cornered by my foe

Shadows haunt my rear view
Crawling up my back
I see what I thought true
I overthink and crack

Always too lazy to speak up
My meals not so appeasing
Homework and a coffee cup
My friends are “only teasing”

But a smile I plaster
To help them on with their day
Or shut up faster
As no one knows the price i pay

Green fronds of life
adorn a sacred shroud,
laid in the silken bed
you nearly convey life

A golden cup is passed
trembling breath its shine
masters drink from a red lip
all shivering at the gods wine

Men in long cotton suits
admire your swoop and sway,
A lady cheers your passing
venom stuck in her teeth

Your coat slips down long legs
groomed, glimmer and glamour
Always on top, even retired
you slayed them all in a blink

To a toddler the whole world
Could be a candy bar
To a sailor in the days of old
A certain fix-ed star
To a folky or an emo kid
That one important song
To a suffering and lonely soul
Just a chance to belong

We’re all a little different
In that way we’re the same
We have our share of longing
We have our share of pain
What could be so unique to us
In one season of life
Could become as common as a cold
And come under the knife

Sunshine through new leaves
Far crow fussing at bored hawk
cut short by my sneeze

In this stark cold morn,
dew shivers on the line,
the town fox peers
from a castle of grass,
Still;

the moon tipped at venus
is pale wearing night loosely,
fabrics of undulating heavens
cry tears of missed stitches

Gentle moans of anguish
are the collected songs,
wept into cotton and bark
a song less void cocooned

A lone light burns to flicker
spluttering it's waxy death,
A cupboard of memories
lays empty and melancholy

Imagine in the wilderness of times evolution
one day you would not find me
what will you think
lost am I also
in the open wild
forests
jungles
and
gardens
no where to be found
just feel the cool breeze
did in it I freeze
or
was solidified in the layers of snow
Just think of me
as a last image that was I
in your mind
then recall
what could have happened
in our combined wilderness

sometimes it's tug of war
our passions pulling
us in and out
of the shadows

a win-lose proposition
a crossing of
the proverbial line

but if we consider
the philosophy
of fear

how it's there
not just to prohibit
but to protect

how sex
is not just
a dangerous obsession
but the life creating
force of our universe

life becomes more
like a parabola

all the dark and bright
stars of experience
plotted on a graph