Two busy birds
that takes to the sky at dawn
the nest was a space
we kept somewhere in our hearts,
for a time too long.
Who did what to make it
a reality concrete
when we built it at last,
neither I remember
nor she. At the end we find
we two are the nest;
from there everything begins,
we stand losing in
each other's eyes and realize.

worry not* I tell her
finding her morose
better time is not far
things can't get worse.

she pulls a smile on her face
basks in my wish
in my hope refreshed
her lips glow pinkish.

what we do are tries
to the rest have no recourse
life's turns and surprise
we can watch not force.

does she believe me really
when I say leave not happiness
or seeing through the cries within me
pulls out a smile on her face?

This morning,
I walked with god and man, and animal

I've come to believe,
no other possibility,
He denies me sleep
as His insurance policy

some One wants to be sure,
someone sees His sunrise poem,
He selected this ancien regi-man
to be His admiring audience,
with deer, squirrels, rabbits, a red fox, an osprey
always complaining, why do they get
the cheap seats

so up at five,
no jive,
gotta get there early,
for a good seat,
on the dock by his name

watch the color blue transgender
from feminine elegy elegant pale
to peacock royal male,
the water,
a contributing editor,
phases in with a steely grin,
with ermine whitecap hints
and an orange marmalade sky homage,
I cannot try to describe

and here is where man comes in...

as the tableau reveals a still life
come to be,
a painting enlivened,
come to me free,
bursting with
effervescence and
animal life tribunes,
paying on...

strange...

my Pandora app
back to back,
plays for me
Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue,
hard upon it comes
Saint-Saëns's
The Carnival of the Animals

and I
enfeebled amateur,
needy for a
word titan Titian,
can think only
this trite thought:

I know not who is the
instrument and who
is the
artist,
but virtuous us,
We, all, now-capital-buddies,
now, all, well-color-capitalized,
god and man and animal,
crooning a chorus of appreciation

let this "accidental" miracle,
this collaboration,
enthuse me,
to live happily
with anticipation
for just one more day...

June 2014

She was nowhere to be seen.

But I had stepped awhile aside
For a moment to myself
From the crowd jostling the railway station
And here she is gone
With the platform empty!

In that briefest time
I remember arguing with two guys
That we need to remember not everything
And they were dissenting.

Where could she have gone
My mind yelled
what if the train had arrived and left!

We were supposed to board it.

As I looked frantically around
There wasn’t a ticket counter
There was no train
There was no trace of her

When a shiver told me
The station couldn’t be this empty!

Then my fingers fell on my cell.

Oh I forgot
She was just a speed dial away.

Enveloped me a cold sweating

The platform was bare
She wasn’t there
And her cell returned no ring!

It was then two women I saw
Pulling a cart
Of trash and the station’s dirt.

Where’s the ticket room?

They smiled

I froze in fear

Ten miles from here...

my cries traveled far
woke her

*why I keep losing her!

Judy was in the store
and I found her at the back
filling shelves
and I said

how's it going?
and she said
O so so
not like it was

at school
there
you could have a laugh
here everyone is

O got to keep
the customers happy
got to keep them
coming back

she placed the last
of the tins
on the shelf
and paused

you still get
to sit by our lake?
she said
now and then

I said
not as often
as we did
but I have to work

now too
and time gets eaten up
by the work time
you remember that time

we sneaked there
after school
and it was summer evening
and we sat there

watching the sun go down
through the trees
like a departing actor
after a big scene?

she said
sure I do
I said
and the shadows of birds

going off to sleep
and bats
she said
O how I hated

those things
beginning to flap
about over head
and that time

you kissed my neck
so unexpectedly
that I screamed
and it echoed right

through the woods
like I was being murdered
she smiled
and looked around the store

don’t have a laugh any more
it's all so serious here
the staff
the customers

just wish
it was as it was
maybe we
should meet up again

one evening
by the lake
and see the sunset
as we once did

I said
the store manager
came by
and said something to her

and she picked up
some other tins
and began filling
another self

what's he say?
I asked
the *** said
I wasn't

to waste company time
in idle chitchat
anyway
she said

I'd like to get
to the lake one evening
as we used to
maybe Thursday evening

I looked at her hands
holding the tins
how I once held them
and kissed the fingers

one by one
sure
I said
that will be good

we agreed a time and date
and I left her there
giving the manager
a cool eyed stare.