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Archive for October, 2015

Inside Loneliness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 21, 2015| 3 Comments »

there are blessings,

though they are wrapped

in sandpaper—

perhaps by now

your fingerprints

are nearly erased

perhaps you’ve noticed

how this

is the gift

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Two Unsuspectings

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 20, 2015| 1 Comment »

setting a trap

with honey, catching

myself

*

this song

of relentless yesses

a set up for grace

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I’ve Got $1.41

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 20, 2015| 3 Comments »

A penny for your dreams—

they’re as curious as thoughts.

A nickel for your laughter

if it comes out of the box.

A dime for your happiness

if you’ll share it with me.

A quarter for your apple

if it falls far from the tree.

A dollar for your love,

but only time will whisper

if it’s money down the drain

or a happy ever after.

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Why I Didn’t Grow a Single Pea this Year

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 18, 2015| 6 Comments »

This is the year I learned to hate the moles,

the whole blind-tunneling, garden-raiding,

carrot-devouring, pea-sprout-munching,

rapidly reproducing, miserable movement of moles.

Not for a lifetime, but for an hour or two,

I would like to be an owl so I might

swoop down on their company in the dark

with my enormous silent wings and my sharp

and merciless beak. I would pluck their bodies

from the rows of beans with relentless precision

and I’d pull them apart, the young ones, too,

no, not for the joy of the massacre,

but because that is what I am born to do.

How free it must be to kill with no conscience,

to take their furry, soft-skinned lives

without tripping on compassion.

How much easier not to muse

about how a rodent’s got to eat something, too,

and why wouldn’t she want an organic carrot,

all crunchy and sweet, or a pea sprout or one hundred,

so tender, so green.

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For the Lumpy, Unripe

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 18, 2015| 2 Comments »

one lumpy

unripe

quince

turns

to stirring

perfume

given

the chance

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What I Learned Today about Mutual Exclusivity

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 16, 2015| 3 Comments »

a glimpse of bliss

knowing myself as starlit night

and wild expansiveness—

no coincidence my ego

wasn’t there to enjoy it

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Just Before Our Twentieth Anniversary

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 16, 2015| 4 Comments »

He knows how to read the coming weather

from the direction of the wind.

He knows from the shape of the clouds

when the storm will start.

All I knew, when I met him,

was that I wanted our love to last forever.

I did not understand what forever meant.

Nor did I know much about love,

though I thought I did.

I am not so better at reading the heart,

but I do know, watching him watch the sky,

that twenty some years is not enough

and that love is what we are here to share

and that after seeing all those mare’s tails

this morning, there is a storm a-coming,

and that after some time

the wind will come from the north

and there will be calm after that.

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I Couldn’t Have Explained it to You Then

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 15, 2015| 5 Comments »

Some things do not easily
leave the sea.
In an instant they shift
from buoyant grace
to cumbersome weight.

Remember that night
we stood beside the surf
and the whole wet world
stretched shining before us?

We wrestled the wave runner
onto the trailer, and I
felt some kinship with
those first prehistoric fish
who dragged their lobe fins
onto the beach, those fish
who, driven by what?
struggled up and out
and learned a new way to move,
a new way to breathe,
grew a new kind of skin
and a new kind of spine.

For a moment, tugging
on the wet rope,
I knew it, some hint of the drive
bred into my body
over the past four hundred
million years. How I gasped
at the gift of it all—these
legs, these lungs, this upright head,
these biceps burning
against the burden
of emergence, the glitter
of light as it leaves, the scent
of honest sweat.

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One

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 14, 2015| 3 Comments »

looking at falling leaves

until I forget I am a woman

looking at falling leaves

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After a Difficult Day

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 13, 2015| 1 Comment »

Because my heart is aching,

I clean the stove. It’s covered

in dark brown stains, stains

so burned on they seem

to be part of the stainless steel.

Because I am practical, I wear

plastic gloves while I scour.

I know that the cleaner

would ripple my fingers and dry

my skin for days. And because

I would rather not cry right now,

I turn on my music and play

Joni Mitchell as loud as the speakers

will play. She always knows

just what to say. There are some

places now where the stovetop gleams

so silver it looks nearly new. There

are some stains I know, that no matter

how many hours I scrub,

they will never leave.

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