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

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?

I had a telescope.
Actually, more than one.

I had a microscope.
In truth, more than one.

Eye try to keep an open mind:
Galaxies above,
Galaxies below.

Spiral swirls of stars,
Planets within planets;
We are not alone.

Smears of pond ****,
Spiraling up to light.
Life abounds.

And here we are:
Somewhere in the middle.

Monarch butterflies
Go back and forth
Mexico to Northeast US

To Alaska
From Baja swim
Great blue whales

Hummers, flycatchers and warblers
Orioles, and swallows seasonally
Fly their North-South routes

So do people
All the world over
Fleeing oppression

How do we treat them?
Less than human?
Better than butterflies?

“It’s fraught,” he said.
BOOM! Wrong pronoun
They would disapprove

“We should…”
BOOM! Not us…
BOOM! Not me!

They them us
He she we
I myself me

Redefined reassign
People can change
In an instant or a lifetime

Language evolves
Evolution is slow
Give it time to grow

You have the right to
And/or remain silent but

Speak your truth
softly or LOUDLY but

No, really:
SHOUT YOUR TRUTH!

Breath from your diaphragm
Knowing your is is am

Grief is a bowling ball
Ripping down the lane
Leaving few pins standing

The map of grief
Has blue states
And blue states

Grief is a state
Of emotional tsunamis
Crashing ashore

Waters recede
Pins are realigned
We proceed apace

But with longing
And remembering
And the long tail of love

Listening through the chatter
What‘s mattered now shattered
Cluttered schemes now
Shuttered dreams
Minority priorities
Reassigned—
Misaligned

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?

A little less bitter
A little/lot  better
Let's add more butter—
Anything's better with butter!

A little/lot more richer
It might even bewitch her.
Let's ply her with chocolate
Everything's better with chocolate!

What's cake without icing?
Or for that matter, the ice cream?
Treat yourself with love as dessert
Sleep well, and have a nice dream.

A thought thought
Is then thunk

Good idea! But
Think and drink

Too much thought
Thunk drunk

Might really stink
Reconsider, sir

Today, I am naked
Unburied
Sleuth

Ask me anything
What’s that?
Why, yes; yes I am

Naked is freedom
Uncovered
Truth

Traffic whines as
Trucker chaos decides
With or without earplugs

Subliminal rumblings
Traffic stumblings
Above and below

Up here, it’s obvious distractions:
******* lane changes
Big-rig disruptions

Down here it’s subtle diffractions:
Kaleidoscope differences
Elysian needs

Wait for it
Hope for it
Refreshed release

Just let go of
Pandemonium
Forget regret

I'm just six of ten;
You had children
Often.

It wasn't 1/10th love
It was all in.
Always.

Grayce Thonberry Floss
You taught us all
Grace.

Thanks!

With teacher as student
And all the world’s topsy-turvey
Not knowing knight's next move
Although all the board’s a flux
Each step is potential adventure and
Intuition is your only guide
Take the step

Creepy dolly thingies like
Chunky Chucky upchucks

Melody box ballerinas
Mesmerizing, hypnotizing

Rat-a-tat-tats splatter spats
To the music of sax and violins

Little ******’s pursing lips
Seducing the sinner in me

Or ending it all at the end of
The barrel of a long, ferric gun

I cleaned up my **** today
Then, afterwords,
A lot of mouse turds

Decades-old dirt
Archived, postponed
Obvious duff discarded

Genetic leavings
Fingernail clippings
The flakes of folks we were

Cobwebs cleared
Mouse traps sprung
The new has begun

“Rise up!”
Said Cpt. Janeway Mulgrew to
Every woman everywhere

“Rise up!”
Said Lin-Manual Miranda
You have to take a stand!

“Rise up!”
Every woman every man, all
The freaky people in the band

“Rise up!”
Wise up!
Wake up!

“Rise up!”
Get involved
Be evolved!

“Rise up!”
With 20/20 vision as
We take back our land

My body know bullies:
Flames to my limbic brain!
I tense, clench, clutch;
Time and stomach prolapse…

(I'm being bullied;
This makes no sense—
Stay? Run? Respond?
How? Snarky? Politely?)

Retreat seems best.
Breathe, think, relax.
Talk it through with my wife.
Let the F-or-F response flush.

Rhetoric can be a fine-pointed toothpick for
Lifting lint from disagreement
Or a coarse cudgel
Driving points home.

My body knows bullies,
My intellect knows notions.
Trust your body.
Trust your brain.
I do.

I might bungee jump that ravine
But I probably shan’t

I could base-jump squirrel-like
And glide far, far down—or not

I might mount Everest—
(I just made a Sherpa laugh)

Swimming with whale sharks?
I would be there, maybe

With an aqualung
Come along, anyone?

I’ve counted to 21 millionteen
More than just once

I’ve swam over 10 kylemeters
With no one watching

I’ve traversed so very many sidewalks
All my heads spin and spin and win

I could climb that shrub
Without carabiners

If I wanted too—
But I won’t

I could scale that wall
Without proper ID, but no

I could leap tall buildings
Sans nose or red cape

But I shan’t…
Shoulda, woulda, coulda?

Put your camera phones down
I’m my own hero, ******

The tenacity of life,
Said the atheist,
Is evidenced enough through
The resurrection plant a
Centenarian centurion not
Unlike the tumbling pebble toad
Bouncing downhill
All for a drink of water;
It lands, unfolds, and lives.
Life begets life
While still leaking away.

I was falling apart
Distracted distanced disconnected
WWD was settling in
(That’s world war depression
for the uninitiated)

Then I did something unexpected
Answered an ad in the Northcoast J
And drove two hours to a beautiful nature nook
With a weekend of brave brave man

I think it saved my life

Realities revealed
Truths needing challenge
Connections not expected
Community with men rewarded

Flame on, men, flame on

https://www.northcoastmensgathering.org/

We draw water from the same well
We celebrate and despair together
Our fates are tapestried
In our shared community

Roses are Rosaceae near 700 angstroms
Violets are Violaceae around 480 angstroms
Sugar is C12H22O11
(It’s sweet)
And so are you

I slipped gears
No drive
No jive

It’s good though
Just chill
Be still

Watch grass grow
Paint dry
Be wry

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

:

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 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

Loneliness
is quiet
as an ache

Loneliness
is hollow
at its core

Lonliness
Is inside-out
inertia

The gravity
of the situation
pulls you

Down

Ohm, ohm
On the range
Where the deer
And the antelope
Think

Where seldom a thought
Is not what is brought
And the world
Is not at the
Brink

I’m NOT writing this poem
Though I FEEL it and NEED it

It’s something I HAVE to say
But you WILL take it wrong

(It will HELP ME
But it will HURT YOU)

Words of such tremendous power
Leaves this poem unwritten

Too quiet unnerves me
Distractions are needed;
Sounds of birds chirping
Demanding tabby talking

Too quiet scares me
Only my thoughts
Are they too much
Or not nearly enough?

Too quiet is too much
“Alexa, turn on NPR”
“Alexa play acid jazz“

Microwave
Washing machine
Anything

When one of ten
Cacophony always company
No choice in that matter
Finding comfort in discord

Too quiet
Turns inward
Alone with
Solo voce

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.

rye fphitter waht two…
What?

myie whust cheich punum
What?!

tessha bidda fikum…
I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

Ok I’ll kreshit bid it dit
What?! I’m

Honey, I can’t hear you…
Could you please speak up?

Yes!
mmimble schumble com

Scapegoating 101
Always wrong

Feeling good by
Blaming someone

Nice for you
Justice for no one

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

The tired spider
More than retired
Is now expired

Three days in shower stall
Stalking the white wall
No way out, none at all

Eleventy-seven in spider years?
Lifetime tumbling fears?
Multiple eyes filled with tears?

Wait! Spatula rampart!
Put there with heart
By Lady Ann; smart!

Freedom! No: checkmate!
Alas, too little too late
Tragic arachnid fate

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

Honestly,
What did I miss?
Dissed?

"Honesty
Charity
Love…”

The homily
Spoke of family
Realities

There is blue
And green and in between:
Yellow. Hello.

Rushing into the roaring twenties
A full century later
Hope we don’t crash

Someone pushed the pendulum
Into a crazy mood swing of
The madness of King Tweet-thing

Mobilize, optimize, centralize
Let’s take it back
After, an amusing anecdote

And then,
Whites were gone
Not even then when

No Niña Pinta or
Santa María
No TB for NA

No Auto-de-fés
No pogroms
Nor hollow cost

All brown around town
North South and Central
Native America

Look: on the $20 bill–
Alexander Hamilton
There: a Fredrick Douglas fifty

Jesús? Brown.
Buddha? Yellow.
Tecumseh? Red.

George Washington
Carver? Black.
No white slight, that

We can build walls
Separate families
Deny others entry

Or reclaim beige and
Not run the race
And finally, just behave

Ever watch a cat calculate?
Skulking at the top of the stairs?
Tail twitching; strategy switching…

Other cats already vectored –
Ms. Black oblivious at 2 o’clock
Red’s tight around the corner…

Slink or pounce?
Either.
Neither.

Cat’s cradle with
Gravity advantage
From the top of the stairs.

That’s one lucky,
Calculating
Kitty!

The past presents itself in future
The constant is conundrum
The happening has happened
The now, the effortless action
Only eddies of the Dao

What we thought was gone
Is gone.

So long!

What we think will come
May come.

Somehow
Cherish the here and now.

Oven love-in!
Propane magic a
Stolen coven

Fire proven for
Frozen provisions not
Microwave woven

Heat it up
Oven cauldron
Cook a dozen!

The sun kissed mountains
Greet me to the north
A beckoning mystery

The double domes
Of Templo Santa Domingo
Christened in golden light

Shine below the
Guelaguetza dome a
Spaceship mushroom

I walk the streets in early morn
Beguiled, bedazzled, in love
With our temporary home

I love to love it; it is
A privilege to praise
When they go beyond,
It’s a gift to say it

When the work is mediocre
Less they know they can
I rue my job; psychic indigestion
Tired, I herby retire

I can’t what anymore?
I must conform to that, now?

Weren’t you supposed to help;
Not actively slow and hobble?

Not in the job description:m;
Makes my job more difficult.

I’m a Higher-Ed foot soldier,
Not a draconian decree minion.

Google U. or HSU?
College or corporation?

Take me back to the days of
Mimeographs and over-heads.

Work for free?
Not me.

Tears, blood, *****, sweat;

These are the waters of a man.

Muscle and sinew, **** and bone;

These are the solid earth of a man.


Seeing, hearing, touching, thinking;

(thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking…)

These are the shifting winds of a man.

But wither spirit? Where is fire?


Lost in the hum of electrical ether?

Warped and worn on the grindstone of work?

Slipping through films of ****** desire?

Fading in a fog of drunken forgetfulness?

Sunk deep into cold unfeeling depths?

Shrunk to the size of a tiny, selfish, wrinkled pea?


All of these.

All of these.



But quick, look to your left—

See it; seize it.

Name it. Claim it.

Invite it back into the circle.

It’s yours, it’s here; it’s never left.

Stand with your brothers and call it back.

Drumming, chanting, singing, laughing.

Gather it around you and don it proudly.

Button it up like a brand new suit—

Looking good, man!


Feeling… better.


Tears, blood, *****, sweat

Muscle and sinew, **** and bone

These are merely the parts of a man.

Dignity, Clarity, Integrity and Strength

These are truly the marks of a man.

Empathy, Respect, Pride and Love

(And Love!)

These reside in the heart of a man

A conscious man

The spirit of a true man.

Truth to
Millennials
Is hard

Grandfather talk is
Lost on them

I do my best
As "honored elder"
To bestow what I know

Maybe they figure it out
Themselves