Technically,
It’s not not that.
Though It might be
Or something other
Or completely different

Don’t ask me
I wasn’t there
I didn’t do it
I didn’t see it
I’d rather not think about it

Have you read Moby ****?
Wonderful weather we’re having…
Carbon sequestration will be difficult
(I like touching myself)
It’s not the narrative, it’s the narrator

So it begins
Nearly a century in
Over 500,000 minutes
Of every year
Times 24 hours
Times 365

And so it ends
Nearly a century in
53-to-the-tenth smells
Tells, shells, tactile sensations
Tens of thousands of likes, dislikes

X-numerous memories
X-thousand relationships
X times X being you
X-ed.

We spend some time here.
We do some things here.
We hope we’ve been here.

Times runs out
Life re—

Starts.

I wake in my home
Loving living here/now
Females surround me
(But Fred is still Fred)

I drive to work
I love my work
Young folk talk
Speak their minds

Benefit.

Most get me.
Some don’t–
Their loss.
I do/don’t lose sleep.

Turning 60
All good since 50
Good ‘till (sumpin) ixty
Phase three:

My terms
My resolutions
My obligations
My desires

All good;

Legacy.I

Expectations can be dangerous
Friends could let you down
Especially those you love
Thinking true friends
Would do more

Potted plant?
Tuna casserole?
Mailbox sympathy?
Telephone empathy?
Requiem recognition?

Do I lower expectations?
Expect less of them?
Stiffen my resolve?
Grieve for relief
On my own?

I’m a mouth
With a sphincter

Stuff comes in
**** goes out

Words out:
Sometimes witty

Unfortunately sometimes
Fraught with farts

I mean, I don’t
Want to be mean

Sometimes,
**** needs to be said

Constipated comments
Contribute nothing

Di Niro’s dump:
“**** Trump!”

Not: "Down with…” but
“**** Trump!”

This food tube agrees
Wait. Gotta take a dump.

Follow a moral compass
Yours or one divine
Own your needle swings

Abhor hypocrisy
Shun mendacity  
Straight path walked

Don’t defend deceivers
Lest it define you as
Waddle Chump

Be better
Choose another
Jump that ****

Long-johns on
Grange-eht-Guild hall cold
No! Really cold!
Extra-layer cold!

Tipping point…

Hot! Really hot!
Deck sun sweat
Before sunset
Seasonal change

Time springs forward
Fahrenheit rearranged
Indoors becomes outdoors
Seven am becomes eight am

Time to go outside again

Thin line between
This and when
Between what is
And what’s not began

We walk and talk
And stop and look
As periphery beckons
Through subtle margins

Unheard symphonies
Unseen wonders
Almost patterns
Seeming schemes

An ambulance screams
Cars honk and careen
A child sobs and wails
Shadows whist away

We do what we can do
With our time allotted

We want everything safe
Done; in the can

We want to rescue
Who we love

As we run to it
As fast as we can

Should’ve, would’ve:
palindromed

Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?

I prefer Oliver to olives
Geek before Greek
Funny man with stand

White flame with
truth claims
About last week

Unapologetic
Helps us reject it:
Mendacity

The hummer hovers at
Giant’s window
Because it tastes good

The cat cradles
Twixt giant’s legs
Because it feels good

The dog’s faux pas of
Nose in giant’s **** is
Because it smells good:

Animal instincts on
Doing what seems right
Teaches us to trust

The letter will come
Email chimes
Doctor calls

Entropy entirely
No escape
Nobody

So, no denial
Forget delay
Love today

RAT-A-TAT-TAT

I don’t like that
Splatter-splat-spat stat

Chaotic parading of guns
On TV shows, every one

If we stop showing it
Will we stop owning it?

IT TAKES SECONDS TO AMEND
Laws protecting everyone.

Constitute.

Every touch toward flesh affection
Could be seen as male aggression
What’s a poor boy to do?
The first move begins with you?

Stroke my ear?
Look me in the eye?
Your hand strokes my inner thigh?
Hey Venus, that’s my *****!

Who said you could grab that?
Not to say I don’t like it—
Difficult tango this, Isis.
Physical crisis. Your move.

There’s a rumble
in the continuum
Step aside Q
Jon Luc Picard is back

Tomorrow should be a Monday
It really is a someday
It might just be a one day
It could just be a fun day

I’ll take that petty pace
That creeps in and in and in
And keep my pretty face
Reject the ratty race

So: no; I’ll
Go slow—
A no show
Me, aglow

:

The way to home
Is to roam; to Rome
And to Singapore
And to so much more

Snap shut assumptions
Pop your presumptions
Be ready to roll
With that airport stroll

It’s today tomorrow
At some Gate 54
Seat 24B?
What are you waiting for’

I need
I need something

I scratch at my neck
And peck at my phone

I want
I want something

Just what it is is elusive
Just below the surface

I want to scratch the itch
Answer the question

But I don’t know the now
I sit, anxious

Baby came to me last night
Approaching with tentative stealth
A slink around reconnoiter

First a tail **** flirt
A jump up and down
Waters tested

She paws away
But not too far
Then creeps close again

Invisible pounce
Golden eyes tête-à-tête
She’s not sure yet

Then the chin dive
Under beard comfort shown
With sandpaper tongue

I wear my hickey proudly
Baby’s reclaimed me despite
Abandonment issues

we plug along
day to day
up early
doing our job

i’m a lucky *******
liking my accidental career
molding minds
for decades

aiming at a last goal
needing collegial words that
come and come and come
and i’m humbled,

left floating

It's complicated
Living with another

Both have wants and needs
That intersect or conflict

Conflict is
Complicated

No easy way out
Best to stay with intersect

Here I am
I'd rather be
More now than then

A purge urge of
Places when

Say it different?
Do it different?
Be it different?
Is it different?

Subliminal
Submissions
Here now

What an *******!
Tug of war with credit card?
Accosting probable provost?
“Don’t ******* a yeti!”

Three decades in
Day out, day in
Doing my job well enough
I must tread lightly

(I want to SHOUT!
Throw a shoe at the speaker;
Wear purple [or a big] hat
Maybe a big purple hat!)

No. Slow down. Head down.
Know your place
Just one more year
Then the world: my oyster.

(BTW: I hate oysters
Allergic to shellfish…then…
“Shnick!” Take my helmet off;
Finally free of toxic environment!)

"Bye, ******“
Said the 60+
Year-old guy

Might have been
Different if not
So diffident

But the same old guy
Here safe at home
With his sweetheart

Says, “My, my; while
It should have been different,
Glad what is is”

Rebar hope pokes
Up and out concrete
Expansion dreams it seems

In cities and villages
All across Mexico
Construction reinvention

Tomorrow’s new patio
Next year’s second floor
The rebar promise of more

There’s this certain joint
Under cars and everywhere
Called a universal joint

A priest, a rabbi, an insurance agent
Walked into such a place
“What’s your special" was asked

“Everything and nothing“
The universe wearily replied
“I'll take two,” they said

The rabbi drank while
The priest blanked
As the whole joint stank

Ever astute, the agent,
Made an impassioned point
To everyone’s amazement:

“Here’s the universal solution —
At a certain point, remember
It’s only entertainment”

She hit the wasp’s nest
The big orange piñata
And the angry elephants flew

A slimy smarmy swarm
“Witchey hunt; unfair”
Bouncey baby bawls

Gopers gulp and declare
“Witchey hunt; unfair”
Lockstep in discourse

Not mistreatment
Of the indecent
This impeachment

Forget circumstance and pomp
Now, right now is the time
To finally drain that swamp

**** happens
Sometimes sloppy
Sometimes with
difficulty turds
Painfully pressed

**** happens
Directives dire occur
Hold on, strap in
Lend a mask to
That other poor *******

**** happens
No wipe away
No walk away
Get up, regroup
Deplane

From the land of fog
We drive through big island vog
The hot breath of Smaug

A day off
Stillness declared
I’m not in right now
But I’m home

Leave a message:
Bweeeeeep!
May or may not
Return your call

I’m thinking about here now
Being then when rescinds

Present becomes
Future past

Pondering what
Begins

I twiddle with my phone
A futile search for meaning.
It's not good to be alone
And find only yearning.
For what?

Unknown.

On the shortest day
Before the new decade
As the sun belt sways
With seasons changing
High in sky is Venus
Bright night beacon

Tomorrow will be longer
Bringing urgent hope nigh
That as the earth tilts
So do we, happily
To greater fortune
And love reciprocal  

May you see clear in 2020
And have dreams realized
With all fears deprived
To all I known and love
Good health, better life:
My card, my Yuletide

It’s observable, undeniable
You can set your clock by it

Forget innuendos
Reject insupportables

Trust your dog
Respect your cat

Chickens?
Et-hem

My dad drove a Cadillac
Smooth Catholic operator
Cruising the inside track

My dad kept many boats afloat
Powering through the turbulence
All the while sowing wild oats

My dad was a 60s *******
He knew his cocktail parties
Proud, charismatic fly boy

My dad lived larger than most
Denying himself nothing
The ten of us can boast

My dad loved our mom
And us; in his own way
And carried on with aplomb

Wake up!
I’m awake.
No you’re not!
Slap!

Wake up!
Am I dreaming?
No I’m not.
I’m awake.

My dream:
I’m slapped awake.
By someone not her.
A dream begins:

Coruscating typographic glyphs
Leaves retreating
Roots descending
Tarmac glimpsed

Wake up!
I am/not awake
Wheels down
Then up again

Not awake
No landing
Still ascending
Still plummeting

Wake up!
Which is the dream?
Awake/asleep?
Slap me.

dragons march
up the valley
spitting fire

dragon’s roar
rolls down valley
echoing

dragon drops
fall as rain
it’s fall again

For your sacrifice you get
An *** and a half
Your ***** donkey

A cat-n-a-half
Wild, unpredictable
Somewhat lovable

A dog or two?
Royally loyal
To you

Fish?
No
So?

Chicken?
**** yes!
The rest?

A horse, of course
In your corral
Stable.

I sometimes live life as monk
In solo solitary reflection

Put yourself in public and
Your past can parade by

A surfeit of friendships
Stopped to chat today

As I labored to finish a fence
Something there is that loves it

A confluence of friendship
With a past that is now

Reminds me of a child’s rhyme :
“One is silver but the other’s gold”

Normality upended
Recency appended
Laws and logic upstaged
Reality outraged

What was was
Is now is
Then again
Again begins

Anew
Phew!

I try to see the world for what it is
Not what it seems to be
Or what someone says it should

A baptism of realism,
Faithful leaping from me to
Voyages though our our

I would take you with me
If you could stand my masculinity
As we stumble rumble forward

I’d take a station wagon
With the third row pop-up seats
For all the critter sitters

If there was room,
I’d cram in every mistake
To close or just review

I knew better
I’ll know better
I’ll do better

If there was room
I’d step into it
And hope you'd still love me

This room has a view
Just step through
Us, me, you too

You reduce me
To speaking pleasantries
The eggshell walk
Careful talk leaves only
Quiet desperation

Babies back from break
(At least some of them)
(Twelve speeches expected—
Six delivered)

Today hiccups stuttered
After three days in-HIC-in
Initially disruptive but gladly
Speeches uninterrupted

Today, Honey is home
Short flight, long drive
**** hiccups;
Honey's home

"Let’s have some fun.”
He posted innocently

“Where am I from?”
Him growled garrulously.

“I’m sorry; who are you?”
Was timidly queried.

“You.
Below;
The one you think you know
The submerged
The felt
The itch not scratched
Desires and needs
Beyond what is wanted
The insurmountable
The unknowable
Everything you should pursue.”

I go into the future
To remember who I was

I gravitate to the past
To know who I will be

I recline in the now
Being who I am:

Omni-present
Only me

Finding a film for my love
Flowing from Amazon Prime

Stopping in a wonder of words
I know whose woods these are

Dead Poet's Society
Echoes deep in my personal well

A prevailing influence now a
Confluence to career’s end

I wouldn’t call it plagiarism
Just another poem made possible

Impulse affection vs.
Need for reflection
We meet and greet
Lean in hug, and then …

European peck on cheek?
Risk affection rejection?
%*******? Or
%ConfusedMale?

Real men revel in
Your successes
Clumsy man boys that we are
Show us so we know

A man with four names and
A heart as big as the sky
And surety of purpose
And graceful intent

Moves mountains
Changes lives and
Works and works and works
Not afraid to reinvent

We are proud to call him friend
Proud of his accomplishments
We’ll see you back again as
Our house, you know, es su casa

Fists up
Square off
Who’s more right
Ends in a fight

You pummel
I parry left, you
Counter right
As you should

Left hook!
Upper cut!
Sucker punch,
Rhetorical quarreling

The ending tie
Is preordained
Win or loss
It’s all a gain