birthday

what to give you,
gift of my life?
I’m still learning
to receive you,
who showed up,
sunshine and beauty and hope,
blasting my trajectory
ever upward and outward
rounding my life’s arc
sending me soaring—
and you still are

I celebrate you
strangely sometimes, I know:
sighs for balloons
sarcasm for streamers
silencing the adoration
that sings in me
these misfires speak
more of me than you
and the flame of my love
cannot, will not, be doused

what to give?
no fitting tribute I can buy
nor my unsure hands make
but I can make you sure
of one certainty:
on this day of your birth,
great love of my life,
know, today of all days:
I am so, so very glad
you were born

today I light a candle
to mark a special day
when a wish came true
long before I knew
to wish for you

August 2009

one take

this is not a movie trailer
the voiceover’s in your head
and is prone to stutter
there’s no abracadabra
no magical impetus
to make all things mend
in just under 2 hours
or before the bill’s due
or love walks out
or the big line goes flat
there may be background music
but you’ll have to pipe it in
there might be a plucky heroine
but she may have to be you
you get the same clock
the bones and the blood
and a finite grasp
of the swirling infinite
and you must, simply,
make do
so improvise
speak slowly
think about the Theme
address it whenever possible
give your fellows
something to work with
keep the scene going
speak to the back row
emote
laugh
cry
wail
pause
express
and pray the editor is kind

August 2009

martha

dynamic lady
her measured gait belied her
proud, unbent spirit

July 2009

gardener

Martha sowed freely:
loves of family, nature,
words, seeds still settling

July 2009

accountable

it is not good
for man
to be alone—
this logic
was more
than Eve’s explanation
more than
marriage propaganda
it was, and is,
an indictment
of our humanness
our character
our basic baseness
the guarantee
that, left to our own devices,
we will devise vices
and eat from strange trees
believing somehow
that if no one saw it
it never happened:
the myth of the tree
falling silently in the forest
we hear
we see
we know
it is not good
for man
to perceive to be alone
better that he make
a burnt offering
of such futile freedoms
and find hope
in the mutual,
crucial obligations
of community
in nearness to others
far from the slavery
of shadows
and secrecy

July 2009