When times are good and there is rain
She leafs full tilt
Disdaining dread of drought

Betting on the come of future rains
A luscious jungle of gorgeous green
Swirling overhead

But there are no guarantees
If day follows day with only summer heat and sun
All born cannot survive

A choice must be made
Terrible triage
Children sacrificed for parent’s sake

She tourniquets her limbs
Newborn leaves scream, wither
Yellow, dry and drop to the ground
To feed the mother in another year

How can it be
That you and I
So different from each other
Still find ourselves
So constantly
Brought back to one another?

Why do we try
And try again
Despite the odds against us?
Why do we fly
And fly again
Like this moment’s Icarus?

Why do we cry
and feel the pain
that square peg/round hole cause us?
Why we do try
And try again
Like today’s Prometheus?

Because, like Icarus we know
The game is worth the candle
The sun we seek may melt our wax
But we’re not too hot to handle

And like Prometheus we know
The pain is worth the pleasure
Flying higher
Finding fire
There is no greater treasure

So we have gone
Repaired our wings
And flown again much higher
So we have torn
Our hearts open
To discover true love’s fire

And each attempt
To reach ideal
The joy is always greater
I know more you
You know more me
We are each other’s satyr

“Tis destiny…
(The Gods all say)…
you felt when your eyes his met”
For you and me
this work is play
God’s will, maya, kismet.

One morning’s walk there she was
A coral orange flower
Engaged in a staring contest with the sun
******* up the sap
Of the rushing water at her feet
Exulting with the orgiastic rapids
A shameless harlot
Flaunting her perfection

I plucked her

Held her in my hand
Walked quickly back the short way home

All was well
I was in control
Towering over her small frame
I would trim her stem
Install her on a throne of crystal
Satisfy her wants and needs
Show off my new possession

But the ***** betrayed me
She had tricks I never knew
Ways to show me
I was not the master

I looked down to see her
Dead in those few minutes
But with a smile on her face

I got my hair cut Wednesday.
Lynne talked as she plied her trade.
A kitten was born on her doorstep-
Strange how the world is made.

Online Lynne read that mother cats
often give birth at your door.
Coincidences abounded.
Does death abound even more?

If mother cats know about doorsteps,
do they know which people to choose?
Is a cradle worth less than a manger?
To save your life must you lose?

Lynne wasn’t supposed to be there.
Her shop was closed that day
That’s a door she never uses.
What drew her so far astray?

Mother cat had chosen most wisely.
No doorstep was better than Lynne’s.
But can one this young survive?
Are babes blotched with original sins?

Extraordinary measures
for extraordinary things are required.
Lynne fed every fifteen minutes.
Loving never makes one tired.

Lynne spent forty eight hours
wrestling with God for this child.
Vets, internets and eye droppers
saved it from the law of the wild.

Hope is the name she gave her.
Hope is what saw her through.
Stronger hour by hour-
Death had been cheated anew.

Now she is sleeping so soundly
with covers snuggled up to her head.
Lynne looks and loves her fondly,
then sees that she is dead.

So I sit and hear this story.
Lynne brings Hope in her tiny box.
The sight of her rips my heart open
Like a raft ruined on ragged rocks.

She finished with my haircut
ignoring all my tears.
Today I sit and write this
with the help of a few beers.

How can this have happened
Is it part of the Master’s plan?
Malt much more than Milton
justifies God’s ways to man.

my apologies to A.E. Houseman and his poem “Terrence This is Stupid Stuff”

I arise at first light
Sirens of sound and sense
Call me to the dock
Sleepy- eyed
I can’t resist
The love they offer daily

The slothful sun
Clears the trees across the lake
Burning off the mists
Dying cool breezes
Killing soft light
Getting over mourning

Remembering mornings gone before
Waxing and waning
Rising and setting
My hand shakes
From coffee or old age or both

Listening to the song “Suzanne“
By Leonard Cohen
I am reminded of old lovers
Each in some different way
I still love them all

Still thrill at the joys
Still hurt at the sorrows
I listen three or four times
And cry every one
I should be getting over them by now


Every person I touch
If only for one moment
Is my lover
The child I pass in the grocery store
Smiles and waves
As though he knew me intimately
Which he does

His mother smiles too
But differently
A tense, perfunctory smile
Tense like her grip
Tightening on his hand

She’s afraid because -Who knows?
I might be a pervert
Soon she will teach him
To guard his heart more closely
To get over it.

Looking at the wild shrub
I chose not to cut down.
The one the Cherokees called
“hearts bursting with love”
Its pink fleshy pods
Open to reveal five seeds
of the most outrageous orange

The shrub has several stalks
Only one is overwhelmed
with those vibrant fruits
The stalk that is obviously dying

Sacrificing its own self
To feed the fruit more profligately
The children joyously
Consume their mother

Have you ever noticed
The fruitfulness of death
The tree or shrub
That creates wildly
In the days of its own destruction?

Birth and Death are Yin and Yang
The end of each always
The beginning of the other

People are no different
They too feel the chill
And seek to find a purpose
Before they perish

It is then
They plumb the depths of being
For perhaps the first time
In their entire lives

Mark the profundity
The leering crowd hopes to hear  
In the condemned man’s words
Right before the hangman
Springs the trap

Friends and lovers all in one
Could such a thing be real?
Our rabbits cried then dared and tried
And ripped apart the veil

We lay before a holy fire
One “Om” our souls revealed
But when we stopped because of fear
Perhaps our fate was sealed
Like peter on the water walked
just ‘til his faith was stilled

Since then we’ve hopped, started and stopped
Searching for that “Om”
Two rabbits loped, two rabbits hoped
To find their happy home

We lay in bed and smugly said
Stopping that “om” was wise
Just do the math -the solid path
Requires such compromise

Plod round the mountain step by step
Don’t leap from Cliffs of stone
A leap of faith is too much risk
Half loaf’s better than none
Friend and lover though both are good
Relent and choose just one

And so we did -we played it safe
And this is where we are
Our love is cleft and all that’s left
Is this ugly scar

A text from you hopes just for friends
After the wounds have healed
Have mercy on our suffering souls
Let the love be killed

But having tasted friend and lover
To live with less than both?
Be satisfied that Jesus lied
Seek neither truth nor troth

I’d rather choose all win or lose
Einstein would roll God’s dice
On wings set sail or if we fail
I’d rather pay that price

So I will tend that hurtful wound
No matter how it feels
I need a lover and a friend
I hope it never heals

Oh I will not be constant
The pain is hard to stay
Run hot and cold ‘til I am old
Come back then run away

But though I can’t make up my mind
And it may never cease
I know that you are truly kind
Hope’s better than release