Photo of me taken by my father in 1970, Wisconsin. My brother and sister are in the background.
Afterimage
Here
she
holds a
string of trout
for the camera,
red eyes dilated from the flash.
In this one he stands sweaty and proud of pikes whose flesh
he
will
pickle -
vinegar
dill, tarragon, thyme.
Cabin walls a mural of snap
shots, those days now ebbing on the cool [...]
does the debate end when it comes to darwin and creationism?
suicidal war
it was a dive into the unknown
misspent gift of youth
bloody bodies and bayonets
mere breaths from dying
who knew?
the questions whose answers might set me free
I am not a soldier
mere breaths from dying
suicidal war
teetering precariously
eradicating any and all evidence
come daylight, as if the stars did not [...]
Weird Fortune Cookies
You will live long and enjoy life
as long as you offer an apology for your sins
to whom it may concern.
Focus on the color purple this week to bring you luck,
not the distant memory of your purple eye,
whose scar reminds you of running in the dark while drunk.
Be adventuresome and try a new [...]
Although I stopped going to church at the age of thirteen, I’ve always been on a spiritual quest. Spirituality is a part of life I feel - it’s not so much about knowing.
When I was a child, my father told me I didn’t have to go to confession because he thought children were innocent, and [...]
The fable of Octavia’s harp (second version- click on link to hear me read.)
Octavia dreams-
she becomes
a harp’s plaintive melody.
Her hair hums
with sad songs,
black mane swaying
toward the stars.
She lies still each night,
sensing a mournful tune.
In sleep she plays the harp-
requiem for a boy
snatched from her grasp.
Wailing to the wind,
“Don’t leave me, never leave me,
never leave….”
She [...]
birds fly gaga in her head (click title to hear me read)
An agitation of avian airfoils
beats the breaststroke in her brain.
Not badminton birdies-
bona fide birds babble barcarolles
to broken balaclavas,
while crones in black babushkas
crow their cacophonous calypso,
crowding the margins of her deliberations,
duping her into debauchery,
driving her from a delicate dream
of equanimity. Every Easter
she entertains the [...]
Total Lunar Eclipse February 20, 2008
My two sons and I went to the front yard on Wednesday night to watch the lunar eclipse. Near ten o’clock we could see the moon glowing in a pulsating sphere of topaz. Clouds streaked across the sky, but we could still sense the radiating light.
Freeboarder said, “That’s epic!”
Philosopher [...]
Punch and Judy
I will give you the stick!
My name is Mr. Punch,
Lord of Misrule.
Provoke me, and I will beat
you about the head
with my stick. If you turn
your back to me,
I will eat your sausages.
I’m a lecherous old fool,
but watch me defeat the rule
of law, taxes, Satan, Death,
and clowns. My Baby
toddles upstairs and down
in a [...]
Confession Tuesday - listen in on a real, live confession booth at the Polka Dot Witch!
I wish I could peel back the layers as well as the polkadot witch does, but I have to admit, I’m a neophyte when it comes to self-revelation, at least when I’m not in my therapist’s office…… Here goes [...]
Feet
Forgotten at the bottom,
far from the resplendent crown,
forced to wither inside socks,
foppish laced-leather footwear,
freakish stilettos made for
frauleins to grow their legs long-
forgive, and free your pale petals.
This poem is a pleiades, a form I learned about on Poefusion. They’re fun forms for those who enjoy counting syllables, and the alphabet. The prompt this week at [...]
