Eyes, crystalline, shine awake
newborn suns stream, blue light
mists of fog breaking through
cool breath, of forest's wet
steaming bark, clouds of water smoke
trees breathe deep, drinking dawn
mosses warm in wooded sun
raven call penetrates the soul, an ageless echo
pulse of forest drums, awake my heart
in birded rhythmic song, connection, meditation
I am home, I am home

Shiny black spit-shined shoes
on the walk
in the Memorial Gardens
hurt my feet
to look at their stiffness
and his swollen ankles
in them.
His worn and creased pants
too short, belt buckle aligned
dress-right-dress
with the button fold of his shirt.
He wore
an old faded USMC campaign hat
pulled down
almost to his white eyebrows.
Almost comically.
I pitied him
in the way we sometimes do
the old who mumble,
never knowing
just who they are talking to.
I heard Inchon mentioned,
and Chosin a time or two,
and every time he said Puller knew,
yeah, Chesty knew.
I quit taking my lunch
with a book in the Garden
when he stopped coming around
and after I saw his picture
in the obituaries
with a description of how he won
his Silver Star and two Purple Hearts;
wishing now I had listened closer.
More’s the pity
I never spoke to him.

r ~ 6/27/14

It gave me a **** and an emotional stir
surely I hadn't seen it earlier
in a fleeting moment in my eyes' mirror
saw the glimpse of an old woman in her!

Alarmed I was and didn't savor
surely I hadn't seen it ever
always said god do me this favor
make not an old woman of her!

Old she would grow I thought never
hoped age would give her waiver
dreamed her skin would glow forever
till I saw an old woman in her!

I thought my river would ever meander
her tides would reach the yonder
but all my wishes were torn asunder
when emerged an old woman from her!

Finding your poems, there, all but faded
dust of pages, your fleeting song of days
secret book of you, lost among the ruins, laid
and there I stayed, many an hour
and could not tear away

They monitor the internet.
They listen in on calls.
They spy on foreign Heads of State-
Believe me that takes *****
Their surveillance apparatus
Makes the KGB look LAX.
Omniscience is their stated aim
to “protect” us from attacks.
So put up with whole body scans
And show your papers please.
I believe the cure for terror
Will prove worse than the disease.

Unbound,
I slide
into the
wanting
found in
you.