on the rocks
with a salty rim like a cocktail
paired with lox, in a room smoky
and dim. Shaken like maracas,

red painted wood. In this
mystery the music's where I
stood. I was shaken down
like a mercury thermometer. I

had a fever.  It burnt
like firewood. I was shaken
like a finger pointed right at me,
piercing through my dreamy

reverie. Shaken like a baby
that's been screaming all day
long. Bleeding in the brain.  I go out
into that dark, thick night like a high-speed train.

called a thin slit
fastened over
a shiny round golden
metal. And there

I sit stitched in line
by cotton thread
colored red, so I
don't fray. Hidden

away from everyone,
but holding it all together
to make it fit. The buttery
disc is taking center

stage when we're
engaged. But when
the sun becomes undone
we lay across from

one another,
brothers of the same
cloth. He's the meat and
I the broth.

holds locks of curly
chestnut brown hair, and
the tiny knit socks that he
used to wear. There's a fuzzy

blue blanket with cottontail
rabbits hopping in the tall
grass. Topping that is Green
Eggs and Ham resting on

the musical lamb. The stuffed
teddy bear with one arm
missing is kissing Thomas the
tank engine. And the piggy

bank swallowed the copper
penny that christened
it, along with the red fleece hat
and mitts. A striped giraffe

bib is tucked in the corner
still decorated with the plum
and grape stain that didn’t wash
out, right under his name. A cardboard

box sits buried in my closet. Was it
just yesterday that thirty years
slipped away.

a soapy crystal bubble
growing cramped under
his calloused foot. He flattens
me, as I stay

put. Walking around
with a grimace he limits
my breathing space
placing a gauze pad over

my face. Leaking like a water
balloon soaking his shoes
from room to room. Flapping
my hanging skin like a

hummingbird's wings. For years
I held it all in like a rain cloud. But I
rounded sitting heavy. Wind and eddy
shed my pearl drops slow and steady.

tangled in the trees. Following
a breeze she let herself go far
as the string on her end let
her. Wetter than the grass in spring

she flew before she budded
wings. Now the diamond with
a tail has no ocean for her to
sail. High in the tree like a grackle,

strung by a nylon shackle
she flops. Branches cutting holes
as she drops in her blue and red
cloth. Swinging by a limb among

the green. Many wanted to fly
her. But now she's hung like a worn
out tire tied to the tree. And the leaves
left her bare as snow covered her tears.

through the wind in a warm
waltzing breeze. Wrapped in
velvet fur men fall in layers
like crimson autumn

leaves. Her chest rises
like a leopard in the Serengeti. Eyes
all over me like a panther in
the snow. I cannot see

them. They shoot out darting
me with the evergreen
glow. She's a lone cougar
ready to pounce. Swag in

her step, flirting in her
flounce. Her footprints are
larger than the moon, marking
men with her golden perfume.

on an ant in hopes it will
fly. Or build a nest for a fish
on a tree way up high. Or place
a beak on a snake

in hopes it will sing. Your phone
doesn't ring by wishes. ***** dishes
piled in the sink don't wash
themselves. You may not

rise in the morning but the sun
surely will. And time goes on
even if you stand still. Clouds
will roll in like the ocean

tide. A turtle cannot hide
drawing into its shell. And death
will come find you, even if
today you are well.