Will you please answer that phone

Will you please answer that phone
But if it is for me tell them I am in Africa

Discovering the true source of the Nile

Because John Hanning Speke was a liar

*

He wrote his name boldly at the top of the sheet

He wrote his name boldly at the top of the sheet
He wrote his name boldly at the bottom

He wrote his name large in the middle 

He tore the page up and started again 

**

The pleasant hours fly by much too soon

The pleasant hours fly by much too soon

If we are enamored with drudgery 

So move lightly from task to task 

Never let one own you 

*

The man went to the woods to gather sticks

The man went to the woods to gather sticks

Instead he found the woods 

He was happy to wander all day 

He came home with a leaf in his hat 

***

The heap of fallen leaves was set on fire

The heap of fallen leaves was set on fire

The smoke drifted up into the sky

When flames reached wetness and damp

There'd be hissing and puffs of blue smoke 

***

Schools for ladies teach charm and grace

Schools for ladies teach charm and grace

While boys want to wrestle and climb trees

There will come a time when a boy can't decide

To return charm for grace or to have tree for free

**

Wood is best for making toys and blocks

Wood is best for making toys and blocks

Metal is good for guns and bombs

Flowers are best for wooing love

And soothsayers for solving sphinxes riddles

**

The pirates seized the crew of the lost ship

The pirates seized the crew of the lost ship

Then the crew seized the pirates' ship

They sailed away in opposite directions

Wondering how that managed to happen 

**

Bring your problems to the wise chief

Bring your problems to the wise chief

He may look at each one weighing them carefully

If you can explain them rationally enough

He may decide to put one like a feather in his hat

***

He ordered peach pie with ice cream

He ordered peach pie with ice cream

28 pies with 28 gallons of vanilla 

He fed every squirrel in the yard

Plus every raccoon and fox that night

***

Cut the pie into large parts

Cut the pie into large parts

Make it two slices because there are us

You and me with an old ticking clock

The heirloom clock does not eat

**

Her purse was full of useless trash

Her purse was full of useless trash

And in it was no ID 

In a small notebook in the side pocket

She had wrote I HATE YOU at least 300 times

**

Press the pants and sew a button on the vest

Press the pants and sew a button on the vest

It is a blind date not a hanging 

If you bring flowers get real ones 

A silk rose the size of your head would be strange

88

Most of the news is easy for us to hear

Most of the news is easy for us to hear

Stories that trouble are suppressed

We'll buy all our things made with slave labor

And have a bright nice clean house 

***

The beam fell on the head of the worker

The beam fell on the head of the worker
But he was unharmed a toy soldier

As a child I built many structures

Greater than any castles in the air 

**

She danced like a swan tall and graceful

She danced like a swan tall and graceful

No one knew she was terminally ill

She had a standing ovation and thought

If every night could be like this one 

**

Open the crate but don't break the glass

Open the crate but don't break the glass

The form is ancient and sleeps 

A jewel like thing in the blessed amphora

If loosed will rise and corrupt the living

**

Move the vat over the hot fire

Move the vat over the hot fire

And sit by me where we can praise

Having meat and gristle for this day

Trapped by snows we eat our dead

**

Thieves who rob friends deserve jail

Thieves who rob friends deserve jail
But for love is the wished for exception
That I robbed you in the name of love
Gives us betrayal turned into poetry 

**

- for Leonard Cohen

"Well I see you there, with the rose in your teeth." -- The Famous Blue Raincoat

 as if we'd never notice

the day he stopped 

coming to work 

a trade a sacrifice 

between divisions

needed you'll see

he's without a job

because someone

thought it was good

those still employed

go on dealing working

waiting for a turn 

he's a man without a job

HR tried to keep it secret

as if we'd never notice

the day he stopped 

coming to work 

they say it is for a reason

a trade a sacrifice 

between divisions

needed you'll see

but it is a lie

he's a man without a job

because someone

thought it was good

long or short

long or short

the road is long 

if i have no courage

they asked me

what is the opposite of faith

i said faithlessness

*

dreading going back to work

why dread it when one knows how to do it 

it might be in the knowing 

77

snow trailing flakes that i shoveled twice

snow trailing flakes that i shoveled twice

it falls now with gusts of wind over snow i moved

a thing to see your work so gracefully undone

seems better in life to leave things undisturbed

99

facing the day with notes

facing the day with notes

  go store

done

  ret lib books

done

  everything is going to be alright

thank you

..

The Boy Was There When The Sun Rose

The boy was there when the sun rose, in the first place the rays touched when it rose over the tiny town. Before his drunken father left, he would tell his son about the field at the very edge of town, where no one would go to ... and how in that field the sun's cotton candy would appear in the dew every morning. The boy knew it was a fantastic story, like all the others. Though he knew his fathers stories were all lies, they also were irresistible stories, full of whim and amazing happenings, miracles, angels, and unforgettable details. His father had that about him -- a flash, like lightening, laugher, mysteries revealed. The boy loved and hated his father, but above all he missed this unreliable love. A presence like a force of nature, like a storm, then gone. Or at any time, could suddenly reappear dirty, laughing, full of tales. So the boy brought a book with him, and a pencil, and he would write his own stories in the field at dawn, and he promised he would someday publish them, with a dedication to his father. 

***

shhh! this is a quiet place and we are all reflections

shhh! this is a quiet place and we are all reflections

suspended over time that is like a night table 

so starry 

so deep

tribute to thundering creaking of subway trains

that grew like western roses on boot hill

to order and disorder 

peace and fury 

**

everything that can be summed up about me is lost

everything that can be summed up about me is lost

and when everything about you is lost 

it ain't such a bad thing 

moonbeams and sunshine go right through 

the stuff that used to cast shadows or block 

gone any direction  

you can see over around and through if you look

forward into the past and back into the future

but you can't hold onto anything now

**

The Fish Twisted and Turned on the Bent Hook

The fish twisted and turned on the bent hook. He crouched on the edge of the river, swore he would never eat meat, made the oath, but he was starving. It had taken him 28 days to find the wire, to sharpen it on one end, to purloin enough string to have a fishing line. He arose before dawn, walked with clasped hands, meditated at daybreak, noon, dusk. He was the epitome outwardly of humbleness, or service. The mist rose off the water, the only disturbance were ripples from the struggling. As he drew it in, he even felt a pang of deep regret for the poor fish, for all beings snared in suffering in this whole world. 

When he had the fish (so pitiful wet cold and alive!) something in him made him let it go. Then the abbot sat down beside him.

**

Sickness Kept Him Home the Third Week

Sickness kept him home the third week, but it was no more than what he imagined himself to be afflicted with. His heath was as good as it had ever been, he had no physical ailments. 

He'd watch the sky from the tallest window in the house. The clouds were marching to the east, dizzyingly high. He would hear the watch ticking on his arm, the second hand getting louder on the watch side as it approached, then receded to the other side of the dial. 

Later he was at the beach, looking for shells. He saw Candice there. 

"I saw your daughter the other day." she said.

He exchanged small talk and then called his daughter.

They had brunch at a favorite restaurant. 

"Dad, I am glad that you called." 

He forgot everything he idly worried about. He was glad too.

For some reason the lonely halls and rooms of his mind where smaller, as she smiled. 

As he drove home, he hummed a tune and wrote it down when he arrived home. The darkness did not oppress him, though he turned on the lights. Then he turned them off quickly, and saw the moon going up into the sky from the tallest window in the house.

He picked up the instrument, he played a violin solo to the moon. 

A deer with her fawn heard the violin music, and came down the hillside, waited patiently for him to finish. It knew when he noticed, he would feed them carrots.

...

The Ship was Torn Apart on the Sharp Reef

The ship was torn apart on the sharp reef. Was it ironic that it was my son's toy ship, a model of the sloop we were sailing in, dashed to pieces seconds before the full-sized boat followed it onto the coral? The churning surf looked like milk or masses of cream, the rending of the side like gunshots as the wood gave. I saw splinters shooting through the torn sails. The wheel shuddered then started spinning as if down a hill. All was falling sliding, grinding, and going up or apart. Off aways was the life raft, with my son, daughters and wife ... getting farther and father away. 

When I awoke, an orchid rested on a spotless side table, a glass of water, some gauze. A Japanese doctor. I was trussed up in a body cast. 

"Did they make it?" I asked the Japanese doctor. "Did they get away?"

He couldn't speak English, didn't understand. 

---

A King Ruled the State in the Early Days

A king ruled the state in the early days, and he was hated for it, even though his subjects expected him to be the ruler. They also wanted their own laws, and their own customs of non-royal rule. The king did his best to be a figurehead, but his subjects decided to throw him in prison. 

Prison was actually better than living in the dilapidated castle that the commoners expected the ruler to live in. The king was quite happy, but eventually important people in the new government felt guilty on how they were treating the king, so the Chancellor and his cabinet offered to let him go into exile. 

The king was sad, and moved to a small country far away from the land. There he became an excellent hat maker, and interior designer. The king really didn't have any other skills other than this. Later, when the king retired from his second career, and ran a little B&B by the mountainside, he'd wonder how his little country was getting along. 

One day, he was surprised to see the Chancellor and half the cabinet coming down the road. They look very tired from traveling. Once they recognized the king, they were very surprised. 

"Tell me how it goes in that beautiful little land."

"Wrought with famine, and pillage."

"How so?"

"We could not agree, after you left, and so we quarreled and fought with our neighbors, and with our own factions."

"Terrible news."

"You should go back, the people would have you rule again."

"A milliner, decorator, and inn-keeper?"

"We will advocate for your return."

The king thought carefully, and saw how the Chancellor and his cabinet were sincere. The king made the journey back to his land.

Once back in power, the people rejoiced. The king had the Chancellor drawn and quartered, head cut off and put on a pike, with all the rest of the cabinet. The old motto of the king's royal line was PRO PATRIA, but motto of the royal house restored, VAE VICTIS, was cut deeply over the gates of the newly improved castle, with the royal emblem of a smartly hatted knight crushing a serpent. 

...

i look for the cat

i look for the cat
he is on the roof

looking down at me

quite surprised

and i am surprised too

seeing his face 

over the gutter

then he goes back 

down into the yard

later i let him in

ask what did you see

leaves breeze

twigs 

untouchable

squirrels