Sometimes it's kicking
and screaming

suffering
or science

and in the pulling of
incisors

molars
that we find our common
yet secret voice

but it's worth
the pain and tears

if it strikes the flint
in each other's eyes

Whit Howland © 2020

Dull
gray skies

churning clouds
and biting rain

either we run
from it

or into it

there's no escape

and it's all a
he said

she said
a comedy of errors

made more
absurd

by using animals
as metaphors

Whit Howland © 2020

rising

it's
silvery

reflection
glints

off the calm
ocean water

the night is still young
and crazy

but it will get older
wiser

as we will
with it

Whit Howland © 2020

The wind howls louder
than a wolf to the moon.
But don't worry.
Spring is coming soon
and will stay until June.

Light and
enlightenment
this
is not that poem

because

the stuff
that is important
is what’s not

there

and

what is here
is really gone
granted

we can still
see it but
only

when we are
not taking it for
granted

Whit Howland © 2020

I picture more of an
eye

though I do
like seeing it as

spaces
between

the arms of
calamity

the calm is never
before or after

it's always in

Whit Howland © 2020

glass
though not so much
a bowl

than it is
a Coke bottle lens
so we can view

the wreck
with its splintered
mast and

splintered hull
with a pair of
goldfish

gliding
in out of the holes
and around

the diving bell
but make no mistake
we are talking

about fish
who are not
just to be clear

really gold and more
a brilliant
orange

and yes maybe
we are talking
about us

perhaps how
us and the fish
look at each other

Whit Howland © 2020