Saturday, June 21, 2014

ANGELS AND SEAGULLS


Have you seen the light
Shining through the gull’s wing
So bright
You see through?
This must be an angel.
It pelts through the sky
Zig zagging its wings
Catching the wind in
An up draft,
A down
And the cry
Is a high pitched screek:
It hurts your ears
Haunts you
Calls you.

What do they do
Out in the blue
For so long
Not to come down
“Cept to fight and to fish:
Rob food
Right from a beak.
Such a fuss.
I guess they’re
No angels
With their beauty, their troubles.
Hey, they’re like
us!

(from a children's book I am working on.  dedicated to my grandchildren: Huck and Bronte)

ANGELS AND SEAGULLS



OUTCOME



I breathe with the wind on the bay
Dragging in a great dragon
Of fog from under the bridge.
It’s tail disappears around Alcatraz.
Horns herald its coming
In stereo
Hi — Low.
There is an inevitability of
Seeking solid land.

It moves with a constancy
Little known in this world
Steady, onward
Hour after hour.
I expect it to blanket
Everything I know.

But it does not happen.
It does not build upon itself.
It does not gather a force
And spill over
To new territory.
We do not always know
The outcome of these things.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

ON RECEIVING PLUMS

 for Nanette

There is something
So relaxing about a plum
The pitty flesh on top of my tongue
Flavors explode
But they're not exotic
They're not intriguing
Just ordinary plum
Sitting there
Releasing
The sun.