A Warm Sweater    

You are a warm sweater
I wear like a second skin
A warm gentle breeze that lifts
Away the melancholy
  
A nod, a glance, a kiss hello
Brings comfort
As I move through time
Yesterday today and tomorrow

Hand on your soft waist
Rubbing hip to hip
That swelling inflating light headed reverie
Half real, half imagined memories
As homemade perfect dreams

Visions of the night
Floating away like a kite
Making love in the clouds
Sharing a laugh and a smile for no reason

Simple shared joy of a song,
A dance, a hug, holding hands.
We are philosophers of our time
Floating in the moon's evening glow

Copyright 2013-16
Richard L Ratliff

Crossing contrails looking down
At the plains of Peru
A negative image of Nazca's lines

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

A blank screen
Is this the way it ends?
Just a blank video
Ctrl+ Alt+Del, Esc, Esc
It doesn't matter
The end

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Constitutional

Morning constitutional
What does it have to do
With the Supreme Court?

If it's been a few days
While siting reading the news
It's a great ruling coming down  

Vacating the lower courts ruling
And wiping the slate clean
Is a release to enjoy
I'll start my day
Flush with success  

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Check out my books www.amazon.com/author/richardratliff

Summer Heat

I'm on the deck                          
Sticking my head into August's oven  
Only to see flowers hunched over
Gasping for air
Tree leaves clinched
Holding on to a last bit of moisture
It's as if something is ******* them dry      
I spit and it never reaches the ground
Perspiration doesn't happen but should
The sun like a laser blisters the sidewalk
And melts the souls of my sneakers

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Thursday Morning  
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Morning comes now
With no alarm no razors edge
Splash of warm water and a brush
Yesterday's slacks are clean

Instant coffee then
Inhalers, pills stool softener
Morning news email and Facebook
Breakfast from the drive through

Trash set out at the curb
It must be Thursday
Unless yesterday was a holiday
Have to ponder this

Must exercise on the treadmill
Twenty minutes slow walk
Some days more some less
Just keep moving is a goal

Guess I'll work on a poem
At least for a while
Till its time
To get my poppy seeds
From television for the afternoon

Evening news
It is Thursday
Better bring in the cans
Before harvesting the poppies
On tonight's cable

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Ripe

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Ripe old age: *******
Sounds like you'll spoil if you last much longer
You're done, ready for picking
That's a bunch of crap
I'm not ready to quit
I'm quite alive and kicking

Copyright 2013
Richard L Ratliff

Gopal
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Met my friend Gopal at the bar where he sat
Las Vegas has lots of places to sit and gamble
He showed me his fifty thousand dollar hat
That baseball cap had a big "S" on the front angle
It didn't look expensive but it was he shared
His daughter was graduating from Stanford

Copyright 2013
Richard L Ratliff

In the hay
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How about a roll in the hay
Just for old times sake
Let's turn back the clock
If only for an hour or a day

Let me hold you
Like the young lover
That I remember so well
Though this time would be anew

I'll put my arms around your waist
So kiss me with tinder hungry lips
I'll kiss you back
And trace the the contour of your face,

You taught me how to read  
The words of curves and valleys
That make a complete book in brail  
A story I love to read and reread


Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Expecting you'd be there

Took for granted  
Did I ever ask for a date
Think I just assumed knew
You'd be there
Don't remember ever asking for a date
We just seemed to be
Could you read my mind from afar
You never broke my heart
Hope I never broke yours
I knew you'd be there
I knew you'd go
I knew you'd enjoy

Came to visit on my bike
Knew you'd be home

The movies :Doctor Zivago
Knew you'd like a love story

Home from college
Visited your modeling
Knew you would smile

Made plans for your prom
I knew we'd be there

Dinner at the Union
Football games at college
Knew you'd root with me

Frat parties
Motel night
Knew you'd stay

Stewardess job
Took you away
Knew you'd be back

Returning home visit
Knew you were there
Airport kisses

Then I knew you went away
Digital visits
What's next
Ethereal visits?

You were my safety net
I knew you were
And yet I know you care
And then you weren't

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Sliver bridge
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As the sun sinks
It casts that silver bridge
Across the lake
If I run fast enough
I'll reach the other side

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Mean

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I forgive you
It's really my fault
I saddled you with raising the kids
While I was off to work
I should have done more I know
It's ok when you mock me now
I understand it's my fault

Twenty-five years ago you drifted away
While I worked blissfully along
Go ahead push away, you should
I deserve all of it
It's really my fault

Push away my arms
They must be in your way
I'll draw back if that's ok
Never could truly comfort you

My health is my fault
Just rub it in I deserve it
It's fine to berate me now
I never have fought back
Why would I start

Every thing that breaks
I must be at fault
I'll accept the blame

Copyright 2015
Richard L Ratliff

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As my hair thins

As my hair thins
Should the barber charge less
Give a seniors discount?
Or charge more because there is less to work with
Not enough to give creative expression
You know they are called stylists now

Copyright 2015
Richard L Ratliff

Graduation

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Picked up my sons cap and gown
At the campus book store in the college town
The clerk was so thrilled                      
Congratulated me and ask    
Is a masters gown to get down
No a bachelors I said
You should be so proud
Having graduated after all these years

Couldn't spoil her confusion.              
I just went along with her illusion
Told her it took nearly 40 years
Had to work full time and such
The effort was almost too much
But I finally made it
I then put it the trunk
Of my alumni plated Benz
Heading off to my son's graduation

Copyright 2014
Richard L Ratliff

Shower built for two
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Got into the shower to explore.
Come in, please close the door.              
Rubbing together making soapy bubbles
Four hands at work with rapport.
        
Hands chasing bubbles all around
            
Slippery Soapy bubbles washing                    
Backs, shoulders, sides and bottoms
Lubricating warmth is splashing

Hands chasing bubbles all around                    

A downpour of warmth
Washing away the evenings dew                  
Grab the bar, foot on the bench
Legs to wash and more we knew

Hands chasing bubbles all around  

Slipping together face to face
Let me be your wash cloth.    
And you mine, guide me to that place

Rinsing bubbles down the drain

Copyright 2014
Richard L Ratliff

Lunch
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Sky looks like cottage cheese
Spilled on a blue table cloth
Needs some black pepper

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

There are days

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There are days I feel
Myself slipping away away
Like a watch running fast
I'm slowing down

A contradiction in time

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

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About today

What can I say to you about today
It moves along with slowly rising grace
Leaving all my thoughts of you still in play  
Around and around but still in this place

No matter what other thoughts may arise
You cast a shadow over all others  
They all compete but you are still the prize
That towers above all mental flowers

Come along with me, soar above this fray
Clear your mind and rise, rise as the sun does  
Each and every day without thought this day  
Will be different no matter what was

Each day is always breaking out anew
Aspirations swirling round what you do

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Fathers talking
When did it happen
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I don't know how it happened
Really my friend, I don't know
I had to stop and get diapers

You were just supposed to pick her up
You know, at daycare on the way home

Has it happened to you before?
Perhaps returning from brownies

You too? Were you
Going to softball, or soccer practice?
Playing catch

I know, I know, I was coming
From the junior high fundraiser

Well I'm confused, I was
Saying "easy, easy on the breaks!"

Nice to met you
Be back by eleven

Come guys come on
How did this happen

Only yesterday
I had to pay tuition

So he ask for what?
Her hand, quaint
A tear

Now I'm at the bar
Paying for everyone's drinks

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Number  One  reviewing

Bath powder on your *******
That I caressed
You felt like silk

So surprisingly timid was I
Our first time you so gently
Helped lead the way intently.
Did you hide your experience
While letting me seem victorious ?

We parked so many places
We could have used a valet  

Win Schular's was class
But mosquitoes in the Michigan woods,
They made love bites on my ***
No room in the canoe even for that

That house I hitchhiked down to
A warm bed of your softness
Football weekend at a brothers place; times too few
Where your scent lingers after you

Memories are sometimes fleeting
But not your first love
I cried after you.  ........  still needing

After ten years strong and vivid
After two decades still exquisite
After five they begin to fade
Just flashes here and there
A whiff of your scent somewhere
A lingering synaptic flash decayed

Copyright 2013
Richard L Ratliff


Win Schular's is a famous restaurant in Michigan

April  

If April is cruel
May is so friendly
Pleasant and warm

May is green and pink and red
A teenage year
As summer learns to drive

June's young adult
Searches for July and August
Hoping for a tryst

Then a mellow September
Casting long shadows
To the final quarter

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

Check out my books www.amazon.com/author/richardratliff
Aging Gracefully
It gives you clarity, perspective and appreciation

Always thought cataracts were rapids in a river
Or a boat or something: fuzzy thinking
Don't think they give clarity
Even bifocals don't help

As a kid I wanted to be a king like Arthur
Didn't realize getting a crown would be painful
Like a poke in the eye: going down the canal
And not a canal in Venice either

Always enjoyed a smile with dimples
But time adds wrinkles to the smile
Causing ever so slow changes
As my dimples turn to jowls

I found out that PSA
Isn't a pro sport authority
Doesn't regulate the rules of golf
But It can affect my game

Copyright 2016