Making best use of the adverse weather
Road kittens and puppies grow together

The ma dog suckles the kittens orphaned
And the ma cat though wary of suckling the pups

Keeps a watch on the pups so they don’t stray too far
Besides keeping them together in the warmth of her fur

Before my eyes happen this caring effortless

Why men find it hard to care thus for happiness!

I want to break into your liquor cabinet
And write my name on the bottoms of all the bottles
So you can be reminded
Of why you're drinking in the first place.

I scroll down your pages,
Each line making me hungry for
The next.

Father Eagle, wings spanning
Across multiple decades
Of strong life lived.

How many poetlings have you
Hatched from the cold, solid
Shells of their insecurity?

How many hearts have you
Guided from the darker corners
Of creativity, and

Into the light of a broader sprecrum
Of impression and expression?
How many lives

May just have been saved by the
Firm foundations of the attitudes you
Gift us with?

Keep challenging us, uncle Joe.
Keep soaring above the landscapes
Of ink and paper, of fingers

Painting themselves through keyboards,  
On nights where sleep has to yield
To the force of inspiration,

And remember...
You will live forever in the hearts
You have touched.

Long after your work is done in  
This world you made more beautiful and
Meaningful to so many;  

Once you become one with the trees,
Flowers, fields and woods that you
Love; even making those

Landscapes with which we all must
Merge more wonderful with your
Own perpetual grace,

You will be thought of. Spoken of,
Written of, reminisced about.
You tremendous man,

Friend, inspirator, teacher, creator.
May you live forever. A king cloathed
In ashes; humble.

A god, wearing Man, loving every
Strand of grass he graces with
His footprint.

You hold a thousand pens. You conduct
Legions of observers and transmitters.
You are the leaf you asked us to

Write about; at its most beautiful in
Autumn. Yellow. Dry enough to leave
Its tree and flutter through

It all. Unattached.
Unconcerned with
Winter.

do birds sing at night?
I wonder-
as I listen to the cackle
of birds in flight

i come home
to
a mexican standdoff
of
sorts

on the inside
of
the window
the
little blucat
with
firebrush tail
and
arched back

facing off against

the big
busterfer jones
tom
from 3 doors
down

black
and white
persian
moggy
more than
twice
the size
of gus blucat


pressed
up
against
the outside
of the glass

normally
the
best of buds
but
there is
a
new girl
in town
and
she sings
a siren song

so it is
bared claw
at 3 paces

as i
put down
my keys
there is a
muted
thump,
thump.

they have
rushed
each other

forgeting
the magic
of glass

and now
as i
finish
r.o.l.f.ing

i see
they
have
retired
to their corners

with that
was'nt me
that did that
dumb thing
look

as they
wash their
paws
with backs
speaking volumes
and eyes still
crossed.

Put your arm around my waist.
Let us share a kiss so chaste
that even sinners will be vouchsafed
by its purity and be graced.

I am debased by its foretaste,
encased in the sin of lust.
Lips interlaced like a corset yet undone,
enslaved by your lascivious tongue.

Come hold my hand and retrace our steps
back to where we first embraced,
unscathed by want, need or disgrace.
Where we raced into each other with haste.

Crazed with passion made brave by fate,
seal my end with this misplaced date.
Ignore my complaint and acquaint yourself with me.
Debase the chaste kiss that started this greedy need in me.

Forgive me for I have strayed, half crazed,
into a kiss that coursed and raced through my soul
like poison not yet sated, straight into craven depravity.
Engraved upon my heart forevermore, is my last kiss.