All Too Often

 

She loves it when it’s angry.

Settles into its big lap
like other people take a nap.

Lets it rage so nobody

will notice she can’t turn
the pages in her life.

The red hot virulence

of maddened strife
and strangled tears

is mother’s milk to her.
And is to me, when
I am she, which I can be.









.

Commandments

 

Commandments

you can’t
have imagined
proceed from
your hand.













.

De Trop

 

Put on your
thinking cap,
they said.
He did.
It grew a head,

and then

three more.
That made four.
Not, of course,
including

that which bore

the cranially
overburdened
pink
chapeau.

Something

had to go.
Five heads
were
de trop.









.

Conditions of Existence

 

We’re neither

a retreat
nor an advance.

We’re dancing

in a trance.












.

After You Make the Thing You Make

 

After you make

the thing you make,
what do you make of it?
What’s in the wake of it?

Does it enthrall?

You can’t recall.
As soon as it's done,
you’re onto another one.












.

Etymology of Forget

 

Old English:
forgietan --
un-get.

Haven’t

grasped that
yet.

Next time

before it's gotten
you, you’ll let it go.

Forget –

and time –
go to and fro.

Heighdy-ho.

.

You Know How When

 

You know how when somebody walks in

when you’re dancing naked
and they’re so amazed by your exquisite
grace that they begin to cry? Neither do I.














.