Perched outside my frosted window
Yet another hummingbird dies.
I curse my selfish neighbors
Who hang sweet nectar through autumn,
Who lure them to linger past their migration.
All around me
Hummingbirds die.

Age 17
I slip quiet through kitchen
***** blind for bed
In the 1 am night
Forgot the golf *****
I left lying there
One by one
They roll, they bounce
In a staccato poem
Of Oh hell
Yes, he flings door open
“Any more noise I will get my belt!”

The oldest cabin in Baring
Sits every May
In the roar of the raging river
Skykomish

Yesterday
We watched sunlight
Rise from the rapids
Rise up the bank of evergreens
While birds flitted near
Flew swift from twilight falling

The chill night
Brought a thousand stars

Morning brought relentless rain
The knotty pine walls
Are comforting
As I sit in the old leather chair
The heater at my feet
Reading a well thumbed
John Grisham paperback
Someone left behind

My coffee is rich and strong

Who knew
The seventh floor of hell
Holds a view
Of red roofs,
A curl of saltwater,
A distant tower crane,
Baker over all.

Molecules of
Oxy and ethanol
Fall from receptors.
Blood levels plummet.
Straight down to ground
I gaze,
Contemplate
A fall to end it all,
A plummet into grace?
An end to suffering
Forever.

Through seven gates
Flows
Our self of such illusion.
Best not to close those gates
Oneself.
The finger of time
After all
In but a blink
Will flick them closed.
Blessed then comes
Reawakening of True Self,
Remembrance of true birth,
In the Timeless Realm
Of a million gates,
And no gates at all.

And in seven days
I learn to cut meat
With a plastic fork
And a plastic spoon.

Seven decades come and gone,
True love has found me late.
It seems I love another’s love,
I love my best friend’s mate.

She always greets me at the door
With kisses and a twirl.
Sometimes she leaps into my arms,
Makes my heartbeat go awhirl.
Then I have to hug and hold her,
Ask her is she still my girl.

When I stay a day or two
She always finds me in the night,
Slips abed beside me silent
Never stays ‘til morning light.

Oh god how I love her.
True love has found me late.
It seems I love another’s love,
I love my best friend’s mate.

This girl has the biggest heart,
A blessing from above.
She gives to all she meets or knows,
Her God given love.
I don’t know what she sees in me.
Sometimes I feel such shame.
Just like all the rest of you,
We’re pretty much the same,
We learned to hate, not freely give
Love given in His name.

But I swear that I do love her.
True love has found me late.
It seems I love another’s love,
I love my best friend’s mate.

Am I making you uncomfortable
But you don’t quite know the cause?
Or perhaps you’ve guessed already.
Pepper has four paws.

I met her as a Sheltie pup
Straight from the litter.
My job is mostly ball thrower,
Sometimes I play sitter.

Now almost three
She’s honored me;
I’m number two in her pack.
She makes me feel like number one.
How will I ever pay her back?

For never will this girl be mine.
True love has found me late.
It seems I love another’s love,
I love my best friend’s mate.

Deep bellows roll ashore,
Climb the hill and spill from
The Bowl that is our little town.

Their charts crossed
In deep of night,
Still lost to fog
In morning light,
China clippers headed south,
Commerce stacked from deck to skies,
East/West ferries packed with souls,
All ships boom out warning cries,
For maritime fools are sure to be
Lost to port, who cannot see,
Without radar wandering,
Sailing on our Salish Sea.

No little cat feet here,
This  invasion from the sea
A thousand ninjas, maybe more,
A racing horde of cloud,
Blimey the milkman swore
The only warning heard aloud
As these chilling shrouds of fog
Climb the hill and spill from
The Bowl that is our little town.

‘Tis autumn
And the blood of God
Pools in root that sleeps
Amidst worm and toadstool

Vain woman
Autumn swirls her air
Leaf plucked from trees
Of Saint Anthony’s Fire

And they scream from the bleachers
Every first down