January 2012
11 posts
The Sandpiper
A sandpiper snaps into a turn and sprints around the beach directionless. Mad to find some morsel underneath the sand.
She pushes down her beak,
nothing,
angles off in some direction, stops,
And pokes the beach again.
Ah, but now— a bit of flesh. A chemical spike of violence keeps her there a millisecond longer to grip the meat and eat
Then it’s back to simple...
Growing Up
A little boy, on learning from adults about opposable thumbs
Asks the oak tree what it’s like to live without them.
The oak tree, being wise, gives no answer.
The little boy, a fool, doesn’t ask again.
Maxforce FC Ant Bait Station
I love them with a stillness like regret. And when they enter me I gather to meet them inside where orphean minuets loll in the dark. I’m passive as they chew the part of me I sense I was created for. I can feel their quivering antennae discover me before they bite a quid of what I think is rightly theirs. For I
am just a lifeless tool to please and give a tiny respite in the...
Genesis 15: A Meditation
It was the rite of ancient conquered kings to walk between two halves of severed cow, and swear to peace or face a beastly cleaving.
And now when flesh has won its coup and great and dreadful darkness falls I brace my halves that must by law undo.
But then before I’m razed to earth and scorch a greater king commands a greater peace with smoking fire pot and flaming torch.
Bichon Frise
Consider the trash can, bichon frise, you piss upon outside Starbucks.
There is no one to comfort him No shelter from the elements (including yours) No simple pleasure to relieve his toil.
Still, he sits in spite of this defiant. Quietly laboring in his terrible office taking in the waste of this world. Keeping coffee cups from purgatory once their fresh brewed glory is spent. They come to him...
The Old Man: On Women
When I was your age, Love Bugs would get so damn thick… Anyway I hated em. So I’d Catch me a real juicy pair And I’d smush the big one just like that!
Ha Ha, and then I’d Laugh and laugh…the poor little Bastard’d try to pull himself outta That old squished woman-bug, Probbly pulled somethin’ else tryin’. Ha!
Skittles
Dear God, I know it’s much to ask of you but please, please make this great big bag of skittles have lots more reds than any other color. In fact, I’ll boldly pray in faith that you will make them all the red kind. Be it so! But if you don’t and choose instead in all your mighty sovereignty to cut in me long suffering and test my faith and make me steadfast, please, at least give...
Sea Dog
In the splintering rain the old sheepdog sat on the dock with hair like seaweed waiting. He did not note the wood as it whimpered and rose into snarls at every wave, the few boats rubbing the dock struggling to dry. If the storm had let him see those two tumbling blues trysting on the horizon, his innards would not have clenched a bit. Though he smelled a thousand times: the rain like iron pots,...
Apple Core
Ah! nom de Dieu! qu’ont donc crié ces entrecôtes
-Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire, an apple core am I. Tell me, is this thing you have done, your plucking of my tree away from me, your violent “mastications,” as you call them, is this thing so good that you could whistle through my pulp stuck in your terrible teeth? that you could smile, dripping juice, as youthful...
The Old Bitch Gets Out Of Bed In Three Parts
For Callie
I.
She sleeps naked every night under just a quilt she fashioned from her husband’s flannel shirts. Retreating from a dream of marriage stealing only smells away, she warms. Her body creaks and coaxes her awake. She senses from underneath her quilt that night has honed itself and burgeoned into morning. It’s then she feels the wrenching love that sorrow and...
Fall of the Rock of Ages
I didn’t think too much about the sign at first. After all, I don’t have the Faith like a child. Mama said I don’t have faith enough to trust in gravity. She’s wrong I think. She didn’t know I just need proof sometimes. That’s why I didn’t think too hard about it when that book fell over on its own while I was sittin’ on the couch just...