Thankful: A Dog's Lament

Thankful: A Dog’s Lament

I wake up to good morning to you good morning to you good morning

hello Dolly but go to bed with Honolulu baby trailer for sale or rent

lamppost what you knowin’ on the streets of Laredo. Last night I heard

today while the blossoms still cling to the vine from the living room

you’re so vain with a pin to burst your bubble close to you and ukulele

strums leaving on a jet plane. I’m thankful the three-year-old on the front

porch sings “I’m so beautiful!” instead.

A funny article in the newspaper!

Found Poem: Sterilized—but pregnant

invasion

sets a tone of fear

not sweet

back in it beyond running

stirred up

to muster fight

valuable fix for return in union

as tensions rise

weigh violence

set up teen suspects

hold condemned

blame families

beat odds

take healing steps

win looks.

After Releasing Butterflies for Memorial Day

Sighting Butterflies

Two Tiger Swallowtails on the purple blssom.

The common yellow sulfurs aren’t so common

One aims its eyed wings at me as it feeds.

Butterflies are sensitive indicators.

Now there’s six—skippers and a monarch!

If butterflies are disappearing, other wildlife will too.

           

What’s he doing with his net?

Every Monarch on the planet now overwinters in an area of forest no larger than three football fields.

That black swallowtail isn’t supposed to be here.

Remembering Bob

Remembering Bob

Remembering names requires a picture:

prayer hands for Grace,

a crowned royal playing card for Jack.

Some say we are our memories,

a product of our past,

even in dreams where thoughts refract,

bend into motorcycle helmeted figures,

grated gravel roads, and Autumn,

a dry October leaving fields hard and cracked,

their dust whitening black heels,

powdering hands and face with a rising wind.

In a mirror we see our pasts.

Chicken pox at thirteen.

A fall off a church wall at eight.

“You keep me grounded,” he said.

“When we talk, I’m seventeen again,

drinking sparkling grape juice out of plastic cups

in a hotel lobby at 2 a.m.”

What you don’t say, I remember.

Leaving the circle.

With you.    

After Jazzercize

After Jazzercize

She measured her face today

the difference between

eyebrows and cheeks

proving her roundness

moving her part from left

to center like an old hippie

giving up granola

trading dandelion wine

for champagne.