Blue to gold
Gold to red
Red darkens
Black.

Specks of light
One by one
Filling my
View.

Low glow east
Full moon rise
Smiling at
Me.

I smile back.

The forest behind my neighbor’s garage
Is ten feet wide and thirty feet long
But is full of different types of life

In summer the leaves grew full and thick
Filling the space with shades of green
The ground is dark and mysterious

But in winter the spires of lean saplings
Poke out of bright snow in numbers
Like pins in a white cushion for grandma

The cardinals glide through
The squirrels hide nuts
The finches flutter
All in plain view of my kitchen window
The forest behind my neighbor’s garage.

Gold on gold the cold clouds fold
Into amber wisps of day’s remains
This isn’t an end
But another beginning
A night
A day
A future that holds
Breaking slivers of silver and folds of gold
Worth a ton of sun
That warms my face
After a long cold winter

Feelings of aging aches beginning
Creeping in
Creeping in
In morning high snapping
Of joints and bones
Accompanied by deeper moans and groans

My reflection stares back at me now
Whiskered face
Whiskered face
The puffy eyes not younger
The hair I had retreating
I surrendered the troops to a clipper working

I wonder if Dad felt this way too
Numb to time
Numb to time
Boys running circles
Around his life
Did he have time to enjoy the sunsets?

Cool grass blades
And blue glass fades
To golden reflections
Of sunset on my window

Sprinklers shush shushing
And mourning doves cooing
The light fades away
And lightning bugs play

Summer nights
I could use you now
As I sit here in February
Cold and tired.

These shoes are worn
This soul is torn

My empty glass
Was once half full

But as Mondays wear me down
Fridays don’t come fast enough

I tune one string
Five more go flat

I whittle my stuff down
To things that matter

A simpler life, a happier life
I love what I have around me

Even if it’s worn shoes, an empty glass
And a guitar that’s out of tune.