"I am old,”
Said father time
Absconding an
Older nursery rhyme

Baby 2019
Fresh and clean
Chortled, coughed
And ripping his/her bib off

Opined: “Settle down; breathe;
This can change with ease;
You are not the only show in town.
There are other clowns around”

Time slowed
Sat down
2019 rose
And now grows…

Bomb!
(nuclear bomb!!)
Pshew! Pshew!
You're dead!

Not funny.
Seriously;
Not funny.

A musical once asked,
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
Or the father of Ivanka.

Give him a pony.
Or a destroyer
Festooned with
"Mission accomplished."




Me have cookies now?

a poem a day
what a way
for neuron sway

brain elastic
language plastic
a bit sarcastic

word play
what a way
to start or end a day

Lost in space
Is a crucible
Inconsequential sloughed
Tested mettle

Lost in place
Reproducible
Insatiable urges scoffed
Regrettable

Hiding place
Reprehensible
Excuses always one-offed
Still, fixable

Saving face
Commendable
Excruciatingly tough
Be flexible

Thwick-thwick-thwifff
Cat tail twitch
The cat is curious

A busy tail tell
A tale, a swish
What’s a cat to do?

Tail down
Slouching low
The game’s afoot!

Hello, yin, I'm yang.
We're different but mostly the same.
You're white, I'm black,
We curve and enfold:
A little of you in me,
A little of me in you—
Not a lot, just a dot.
With that, we complement each other.

Did I tell you you look especially good today?

Brave men bonding
While mending
And tending
To truth-telling

Tears welling
Laughter bubbling
Working, cooking, eating
Together

Beyond story
This work we do
In the crucible circle
Authoring integrity

Guess who’s 42?
…me…

Who here is a clumsy 13?
(me…)

Roaring 20s?
CAPITALIZE MEEEE!!!

44. I’d rather have what came before.

Look you in the eye at 55
And lovingly speak truth

Will you still need/feed me
When I’m

You must be this tall
To ride this ride
The man clangs you in
And the ride begins

There is a bar holding you back
As clanging gears strange you up
And up and up
Clackety-clack

Apex of apostasy
Seeing clearly
Holding on for dear life
As the real ride begins

Grief is cousin
To depression
But darker
More leaden

Grief is heavy
Under water
Time slowed to
Sluggishness

Grief is a degree
Of despair
That goes deep:
The cost of loss

Lost in place, a
Childhood displace
To TV infinity and beyond
Past Jupiter, too

Series recreation
With post-modernist twists:
Lost in a marriage carriage
Family dysfunctional launches—

Mom Maureen resolute
PTSD dad always mad
Danger ranger Will creative
Penny dreadful has her thoughts of

Sister “Judy, Judy, Judy!”
Reimagined, toughened
Age stage softened
Sibling competition

From the abyss, Dr. Smith
Zachary fakery; survival snake
Blending genders
Misogynistic Smith transforms

Less family than familiars
Enter on spot alien Robot
Alien. Robot. Friend, “Will Robinson“
With algorithm compunctions

And the rest?
Wait for West
His function?
He saves the chicken

Or does the chicken
Save him?

Me, standing up
For myself
Summer camp, 1972

Catholic camp
Anything but
Everything ****

Big guy
Twice my size
Calling me gay

What’s gay anyway?
Didn’t know then
Now I do

It felt entirely unfair

Hairs tingled
Skin prickled
Kicked in adrenaline

Little fat boy
Stood tall
Never to be bullied again

We chimpanzees proceed
With all available evidence

Oog said Ogg will attack
Bash Ogg’s brain; now!

Wait, Zegg said, we can’t do that
It’s against the chegg convention

Dash the convention!
Rescind what Zegg said

Restrain her, retrain her with
Extraordinary rendition

My petition for retribution
Is my absolute authority

Find Oog; restrain him
Waterboard retrain him

Truth through torture
Trogg exclaimed

Ugg saw all debasement
From Ogg through to Zegg

And what she exclaims
Remains ———————

What’s acted is redacted
And still remains the same

We fall who we fall for
Feel for our amour
Evermore.

We came into kemmer
But it got dimmer;
******.

As we both grow older
I need a shoulder
Less colder.

I know who I am
A man of
Complexity

Completely
This and that and
In-between

Coming and going
Evading but knowing
Modern eye Popeye

Yuk-yuk-yuk-yuk!

I loved the ****:
Tongue teasing
Emergence…

Elegant rising from
Folds within folds
Rising sighs…

Lust to laughter
Owning ******!
Gift from me to you

Terrified at first.
Girls. *******.
Teeth?

I fell in love –
I fell in love –
I fell in love –

She, mostly;
An occasional he.
Which makes me…

Me.

Sublime timeline—
Yours or mine?

Which switch?
Which time?

The distinction fine
Defines which which

Relatively selectivity:
Your past or my next?

My now or your then?
Who’s here or there?

Outcomes of which
We must now contend

When life lurches,
Add a modicum of control—
Downshift.

Flight or fight is
Lack of hindsight.
Take a chill pill.

Inaction might be
The right reaction
For stress reduction.

We are all precancerous
Just some degree away

The red spot on your nose
The dubious polyps removed

The tang of iron on your tongue
The itch that can’t be scratched

The trick to being precancerous
Is to be your most precocious

Live large; be positive; do
All you can in time allotted

Scuba dive; skydive
Learn how to tango

Follow your bliss
Treat this as this

ERROR CODE 6034:
Undeliverable: philosophical differences

ERROR CODE 6035:
Philosophy incompatible

ERROR CODE 6038:
Indiscernible philosophy

ERROR CODE 6070:
Not detected

ERRIR CDE 666
ah funny Hugh much Nih had

DELIVERED

Nox, nox…
Who’s there?
Fooled.
Fooled who?
Fooled you, sucker;
It’s Fall!

Once Draculina
Wild child
Paws sin laws

Then bathroom baby with
AM routine set
Man cub stumbles

Puts her water on
Drip it spigot love
Works for her

Baby proves my theorem of
"Love, love, love…”
As we dance our kitty tango

I asked her to relax
She asked me to deliver
The middle is special.

Rrrrrr-rrrrrr-rrrrrr…

Rrrrrr-rrrrrr-rrrrrr…

It lands with a thud
No hello, no “can I come in?”

Depression

Come on! Buck up man!
Get that off your back!

That’s your impression?

Change the channel?

Put on a fresh shirt and smile?

It doesn’t work that way
Not for some while

It’s now all gone
What was wrong
It’s now a past that
Now won’t last

Here, movement
With involvement
Moving forward with
Goodness toward

Young man down
In the prime of his life

Young man down
Senseless loss tragic

Young man down
A man with promise
And feeling
And vision

A leader.

What's black and white
And red all over?

Young man down.

Here I sit in my
Emotionarium

Right next to my
Imagintarium

Down the block from the
Duldrumations

And other sullied
Sorry situations

I’m a Happy Jack without
LSD or smack

Because for three seasons
(The had their reasons)

Fevered schemes
Were clever dreams

Yes, allegory, but thankfully
A well rounded story

3 cups dandelion greens
A quarter cup of water
1 waxed sleeve of saltines, crushed
A pinch of coriander
A pinch of curry
A stintch of ginger
Any remaining salt
Stir into a slurry
Serve with appropriate liquid

My hellcat wiffled and wharbled
As I fell through space
Dodging enemy discharge.

“Dispatch; status!”
“Status nominal. Dismissal eminent.
Dispersal advised.“

Swerving left and up, I
cut thrusters and
Bit down on the tube, hard.

All wrong, all gone as I dispersed.
I smelled peaches.
I saw a nascent sunset.

I might have puked.
Then it was over.
I took off the gloves,

lifted the visor and
Detached all sensors.
I needed electrolytes, stat..

Later, I checked my gradis.
I had died twice, virtually of course
But gained only 67 credits.

Somewhere, though,
Lives were lost
That actually happened.

Archived sounds
Modems yodeling
The boop-boop-hoop
Of someone’s phone busy

Back further: the
Thwick-bop-bob-bop
Thwick-bop-bob-bop-bop
Of a rotary dial

Further back:
The piercing
Berrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Of the 3am TV test signal

Why stop there?
Cha-clump; Cha-clump, Cha-clump; Cha-clump
Milk bottles rattle
Cream at the top
Milk truck’s come and gone

We pass through
Interstitial stuff
"Riding on a
Carousel of time”
Says Joni

I’ll jump on the
Dapple grey
Up and down
Round and round

Painted pony
Brings me round
To the rough
And here I stay

I know what’s right and
I know what’s wrong
And ponder the in-between

You can answer yes
You can answer no
Or you can say “I don’t know”

Left turn ahead?
Take the next right?
Or steer straight through?

“For me or against me” is
Always false dichotomy
Be true to both me and you

Page not found
No longer around

Page has moved
You’re still here?

The past disappears
One page then two

Manuscripts decay
The web dissolves

We are old now
When they are gone

We are on our own now
With journeys strange, long

We go our ways now
Whistling solo songs

We be who we are now
Elders—right or wrong

How do you know if (hashtag)
You are an abused man?
Is it *** only with your right hand?
Claiming the mattress cliff on the left?
Falling to sleep without falling off?
The one who promised to be your lover
In your vows, now
Only berates you
Negates you
No touch
Nonsuch
What?

An ambulance mourns and wails
Someone down in this town

Church bells chime at all times
Weddings, masses, memorials

“BRRROUOOGH! GAS! OAXACA!”
On every street on every morning

Smaller, stiller sounds; listen:
Cooing doves in jacarandas

Silent dogs on rounds;
Stealthy, not needing us

Squeals, peals of children
Skating, biking in the park

Schnack-fwack brush
Of shoeshiners

Twhick—shwick—thwick
Of fastidious street sweepers

Traffic, thrumming always
The humming of Oaxaca

To know you are a sinner
Is to be a winner

More important than wrong
Is the penitent song

Not heavenly forgiveness
but to be witness

To admission to the
Loved one wronged

Absolution?

Totally up to them

Darling,

Still on the front,
I hold my territory.
No enemy in sight.

Interregnum
Or Interim Peace?
I wait for insight.

Regrets? I’ve had a few
I’ve done a lot; what's more to do?

I haven’t seen the northern lights
Or seen earth from sub-orbital flight

I never saw a show at the Apollo
Can you dig it? Do you follow?

I never asked a boy to me kiss
Nor ate the cheeks of a blowfish

I haven’t climbed Kilimanjaro
(But I could still do that tomorrow)

But then again…

I threw myself from an aero plane
So, I don’t need to do that again

I zip-lined a mile chasm in Costa Rica
And hot-ballooned over Tlacochahuaya

I’ve been a nudist in Albuquerque
Yes, those that know, I am that quirky

Crossed crevasses to the South Pole
And flung myself into the future solo

Regrets? I’ve had a few
But far, far more adventures, too

Now again, adrenaline
My quest test
Is a go.
Go.

Project‘s launch
Just a hunch–
It’s needed
Now.

Pegs in place
Work begins:
Immigrant stories told;
Truth.

A pride of lions
A parade of elephants and
A shrewdness of apes

A prickle of porcupines
A crash of rhinoceroses with
A chatter of budgerigars

A gaggle of geese
Gleefully honking
Heads held high

A horde of crows
Cackling and cawing
Wings spread wide

A kerfuffle of Flosses
A gatherings of clans
A thankful flocking

Kerfuffle is commotion
A happy hoopla
Movement together

Noisy, gleeful, cantankerous
Laughing, loving, boisterous
Family to the end

Ball of scratch and
Survival scruff
That did a ditch dive

Feline finding us

Lil’ Draculina
Eschewing touch
Now seeks and gives love

There she is with her dog
He is old and dying
She is purring hospice

Ensconced tween his paws
Nose that sensed her
Saved her

Friends till the end

Three decades gone
Legacy now latency
Blink, no longer there

Invest in entropy
A future certainty
Nothing ever lasts

No one needs the past
Nothing to learn there
It’s over; get over it

I fall through time

Crawl through space

Zig-zag slip through years.

Memories roil and bubble;

Photos float and dissolve

Years melt; memories collide

Familiar faces and places

Surface and eddy—

Click, stick, then sway away.

Mom. Sis. Nephew. Friend.

Loved, remembered, cherished.

All fall away.
Past is present
Present passes,
Falls through time.

I love you all.

There are more than 17 dimensions
Even more ways to delay the
Here and now

Hike a ride
On Mr. Hawking’s bus
What a great, but brief, trip!

The Further we go go
The less we know know
Roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour!

Life is unbelievably beautiful
And remarkably breakable

A rush of joy derailed by
Some news inducing grief

Life seems bipolar because it is;
Crushes of fate between triumphs

What wets our eyes can
Sometimes beget laughter

Choose the latter
You‘ll feel better

Yesterday, a poem fluttered by
Fragile clumsy moth
Colorful, felt, smelt,  
It had something to do with
Light, shadows, and
A hint of vanilla
From ponderosa pines

In the breeze
From the trees
In a Mary Oliver forest,
“I thought the earth remembered me
She took me back so tenderly.”

Stillness.
Warmth.
Water.
Eagles.
Paddling.
Friendshi­p.

Sharing food with
Campfire laughter
Loving this life:
Going far away
To come home again

WHAT?

Shell shocked

Trying to be nice, bombed

I saw you feel hurt
I know I was part of that
Not sure of the how of it

You tell me to make the sky orange
I can't make the sky orange
Nothing rhymes with orange

I try to be a good man
I reject the role of bad man
I am the man I am

What you feel is yours
But I colored it
Cause it? No.

WWD at 3:41 am
In the trenches
Here to stay.

Navigating the now how
Leaving but the then when
Not knowing where began

Going to the there then
Hoping to find you, friend
Seeking safer harbor again

How far should you go
For what you don’t know?
Tomorrow?
Last year?
Marrakech?

Why should you go
To where you don’t know?
To borrow?
Revere?
Make a wish?

Where should you go
To walk it so slow?
Assuage sorrow?
Persevere?
Make a switch?

What you should know
To become thorough
Is time’s arrow:
Change gear,
Self enrich

Timely serendipity
Time travel is slippery

I just went back to ‘68
Way pre-Watergate

I was just ten
Way back when

“Come on, Sherman,
Into the Way-way Back Machine!”

Who-hoo Hulu!
Two years after Sulu…

I enter the “Time Tunnel”
Running the funnel

Distanced, displaced
There I am:

Face to face—
It’s me again.