43-Year-Old Crack Up

When Dianne and Veronica saw me
On the front stoop with suddenly no
Mustache, they ran over from their
House in socks and cracked up,
Which caused our own son to crack up,
Which made Norma crack up too.
It was 1971 and we cracked up
Easy, but I grew my mustache
Back so people would take me
Seriously --not sure it worked.

Hymn To A Cosmic Clock

Like a clock,
Time must include
Spring and escapement--
Lest all at once unwind--
In planetary paths, blue iris
Swirls and bearded falls
Under astringent harmonies
Sung in moonlight and sun.
After rain it opens and,
In its time, is done.

Motion And Inertia Are

At every point
Motion and inertia are
Affected directly
Or obliquely by
Every object in
The universe.
To move or stop
Moving is to
Feel it all --all.

Bee Daughter

When she was little,
Learning words,
We would consult the
Garden and see
What was what.
"Bee", I said, and
She repeated:
"Bead" --delighted
Some beads had wings
And flew around.
I never corrected her
And still step outside
And say, "hello bead."
She grew up, flew
Away, but her 
Vocabulary remains.

Big Dang Bang

In our modest station, we hear
Only the inside of
Creation, nothingness eroded, unlike
God, whose first thought 
Exploded --yes, into stars!
So all thought, and ours, is done
As variation on that one.

Remembering June

A vine will bind a trellis or
Its own stem or empty air
And find no difference in 
Them, but share a reeling
Dance with earth, feeling
Time leave old growth
Behind to orbit, bend and
Let light subtend the mind.

Bark Borer

 

 

I have opened too many boxes,
Insides redolent of correspondence
Long closed, glue and dust,
Old collodion, lives closed,
Whittled pegs, strings,
Things cinched in stiff ribbon,
Parts. Paraffin.
I weary of the irreparable.
And so look beyond bottom drawers,
Basements, to beating hearts,
Out of webs,
Out of the past.
Is it
Time present or time preferable?
Much happens over what
Happened last.
Something one
Must decide:
To gather clues; to reason,
Open boxes from inside;
To be, and be reason applied;
To contain a search
Assembled in mystery.