tryingpoetry

Far Away

A child wondered how things work And made up answers when she didn't know

The world grew crystalized shapes that spread Through space on contact and she knew the true answers

One day she walked through soaking wet stardust A thick fog through blurred moonlight behind a shaggy fir tree

Looking far off where her star might have been and many more might be

At Home

Hallogen sparks peek through they grey mist Over a low muddy tide in the bay on late December

Bloody Noses

My first bloody nose landed my butt on the concrete tears and shock

Pain and people deliver it?

My second bloody noses and I landed one back the punch to the jaw

I delivered it too and the jerk of reaction?

My third bloody nose and I stopped it first Push and shove and dig in and scrap and bob and weave and taunt

Cockiness as a dance.

One day I bloodied a nose and wasn't asked to stay.

Why did I swing?
Who am I again?

My fourth bloody nose and I got up to fight but I only stood up.

Accepted the warm wet iron on my teeth and mouth.

I know who I am.

My fifth bloody nose will come and I will sit calmly fold my hands on my stomach and ask... “Why are you hurting?”

Two White Dogs

Lugnut and Old Boy bark at a four point buck eating fermented apples under a gnarled old tree

They bark at joggers fit and annoyed at the intrusion into their ritual

Two fluffy texans french dogs left and rescued and came home to the wet woods the boggy hollow

Their shift starts before mine Before I leave And ends after mine Before I sleep

They howl at the sirens of police and firemen heralds of needed help

And they greet the delivery people so that they know they may not stay long

They ward off the wild things the raccoons and opossum and yell at the uncaring ravens to begone

And the Coyote's call the yammering yelps sing a song of battle in Ranger's heart so he paces back and forth and whines – “Let me at em!”

Then in the evening they come inside, fences secure treats and headrubs and wrasslin

Until we all sleep Rex on the couch, sprawled out and Ranger next to our bed, childishly close and wary as Cerberus

Four lbs and fit in one hand and on my mind NO In my mind like mycelium on a forrest floor.

Flushing like mushrooms with the seasons or rain or trauma or joy

She left home but my mind still leaves room for her and what is left and still

Like a tree that thinks the fungus is still there that makes strange gloaming melancholies and whispers

She is still on my mind, in my heart and my soul. The pieces I gave her freely are gone.

I'm detached armor, shield and sword on a rack at home if she decides she needs them

But the rust is coming because she doesn't

Protector with no root.

Fast wisdom and a slow body never made me mad before.

But now I am

The wind in the city has so many names

No portent of the weather No kiss of far off trees

It has addresses and shorter lifespans

Brought about by smaller changes manmade and unexpected

The 4th ave breeze from rush hour The Broadway gusts bourn of channeled winds

Whistling in the subways and trees and tunnels

But the four Wild Winds old as time Named for the turn of the earth Children of the Rising and Setting sun Great siblings of the seas Patient carvers of mountains and sometimes angry rotations. Constant their fickle Their children the clouds in tow or behind

Sailors and Fishermen know them Mountain climbers know them

The people of the city know them but most by their children and grand children and their doppler echos

Like the broadway gusts flitting to and fro without stopping at the whim of...

The Four know the children of the earth As Gods almost eternal paying heed to the times With reckless abandon Girdling mother earth pole to equator

The Cascade foothills Stretch out like Spring walking from winter

Over wet fields Soon to be filled Cold mornings still with frost

Morning eyes and long sinew Yawn the evening sun Exhale the clouds

then she looks around for her book and her dog

rolls on her side and waits for coffee and the sound of feet on the stairs

her eyes the grey blue of a foggy morning her humor as clear and bright when the sun burns the clouds off

comfort and hope mixed with the challenge

to weed the garden, ready the year and laugh

The End

“Why do people die?” she asked...

“So that there can be kids.” I said....

Muddy Water

Muddy water washed it clean with the moss and algae soaked woods

The clouds threatened rain the water cold biting my skin

And before the GLOM of requirement

In the eve of change known and the maybe of change unknown The thoughts cacophanous dull-witted drone

The cold muddy water washed it off

And fall is coming

The Old Man

November 17, 2017 On the Train

I miss the Old Man Template and spring Laughter and Work and cigars and Love Remembering always how he started I ache to know what he held that's being lost