where'd de go?

no mosquitoes okay
but where’s the lightning bugs
or fireflies, as some say,
but that’s in other parts

not here in humid hot hell
take a breath and sweat
stick to the chair summer
winged beetleful ohio

where’d de go?
gimmie da glow
i wanna know
those delightful iridescent call 'em yellow lightning bugs

da filthy rich

yeah, buddy? you say
you got a million bucks
well that’s just fine
now take a step back in line there, son

we gots us some real money folk comin in
you noticed the world making money
and stealin’ what they have to
well, only out’a necessity, that’s all

i’m telling you, kid
they don’t mean nuthin’ by it
what chew called there?
yeah, you. . . .

oh, that’s fine, now like i say
the rich gets richer
while the rest of you Head Count
is not needed for much of nuthin’

unless is for being
good foot soldiers
we need those, you see
they pick up things on the parade grounds

and i don’t mean jes communicable diseases
hah, hah, pieces of paper and shit like that
an' they can walk in a straight line
an' everything

an' look fine for when
the real important people,
the important people, make their speeches
ya hear me? - don’t chew see?

now step a little closer,
crowd in here,
that’s it
so’s i donze haz ta yell

nightmare

i know you were renting,
well, your home is our house now
you see, we are going to buy it
would you move out please

wait, what i said last week
forget about it
yeah, cancel the movers
we changed our mind

see if you can get
your deposit back on the new place
oh, and here, this stuff
was in your mailbox

i guess it’s yours again,
most of it’s junk mail anyway
hope you don’t mind,
i clipped out all the coupons

when i'm flying

often we pass a certain high tension pole
supporting large power lines
that run for miles over the rolling country side
in mornings, large birds called turkey vultures or buzzards
set on the metal branches with wings partially spread
to dry them from nightly dew

one of the most skilled aviary flyers in the Americas,
these giants have been seen to soar
as long as six hours
without flapping their wings

today on the pinnacle of the tall vertical metal tower
a bird perched, wings fully extended
in it’s full six foot span
gallant as an eagle on an American emblem

seeing that bird atop all, in golden morning light
my wife put words in that wild creature’s beak
when she said,
“this is what i look like when i’m flying.”

at the same time
he whispered to me
“i can soar higher, longer, faster
than you can ever dream.”

tend your still

words on a note
i know i wrote
cause it was on a piece of paper
in my pocket

couldn’t figure why
i asked her and yes, she said it
that’s why i wrote it down
tend your still

nice words together
i asked what it means
she said it’s what you do
in West Virginia

three steps

needed house front steps,
didn’t want wood,
in our town it’s normal to call a cement contractor
that’s a guy who has a truck and pours cement

not a problem, i’d call a guy, then another and another
the job to pour three steps was too small to be bothered with
they had big jobs, long driveways to keep them from tiny steps
so i thought and thought - and thought of stone

at the stone quarry they said they could do it,
cut Indiana Blue Sandstone i selected, and deliver it,
set the stone down one , two, three
all i had to do was provide the dimensions for three blocks

three weeks i planned. the first time i measured i thought i had it
a few days later i checked my figures and they were wrong,
so i did it again, three blocks, one, two, three on top of each other
it was many days to get it right.

i had to prepare the ground, no one else would do it,
so I raked, then measured the first block, the second had to fit
back under the wood of the door, and the third
had to be even with the inside floor. one, two, three

on and on i figured stone dimensions, and finally had it right.
the bottom block was largest,
the second and third were equally smaller.
it all would fit, everything tight.

the day they delivered the stone in a large truck with a crane,
they had one block cut wrong by two inches on one side.
I recalculated and told them put them down. one, two, three
in a half hour i had them down and perfect,

you can’t tell they made a cutting error.
now we have our three stone steps
the bottom, the second recessed under the Georgian doorway
the third level with the inside wood floor

come back in two hundred years, you’ll see
the house may be gone,
but the steps will be there
one, two, three

dry my tears

dry my tears
in my dreams
i'm in my world
you are you

i may yell
but don’t cry often
hug my fears
then they soften

truth over fiction

a fast horse pays
the loser begs
truth is fiction
with better legs

M. is going shopping

M. is going shopping at trader joe’s
it’s an hour away
she’s taking me along
and will drop me off at a friend’s
who wants to show me his new bookcase - wow

that’ll take about a minute
so she told me to start now
to write down as many questions
about bookcases
that I can think of

4:09 a.m.

when I wake
in the middle of the night
as I often do,
should I listen with headphones
to radio reports on the BBC
or listen instead to the silence
and think my own thoughts?

what I was thinking in my world was dreaming not thinking
i can tell cause i woke up

what i was
thinking in
my world was
dreaming not
thinking i can
tell cause
i woke up

check out time

quite a morning breeze
that knocked down
her favorite dark red hollyhocks
while she was looking
out the kitchen window

then she saw it leap
through the flowers
in blowing rain and heavy winds
that came for hours and hours
one more frog followed the exit sign
one more for the road

leaving only a pair
out there
a boy frog
and his girlfrog friend
loving right down
to the very end

as luck would have it

as luck would have it
an expression that grew because others
recognized it, picked it up and rolled with it,
it became a part of the vernacular

so, as luck did have it, seven old friends
happened together for an afternoon
to laugh and compare
review and declare

five friends stopped by our home
fifty years ago five of us were in that summer,
that particular time of our young lives,
before our first year of high school began

if we could have fed our friends
and wrapped them in blankets
they would have stayed all night
however, on improvisation we did okay

mark it as a day well done
in light drink, snacks, long talk and laughter
pile this onto our stack of pleasant memories
of life worth living - good fortune for us

the whittler

sun shines on a small diner
built a century past
on what is still a quiet off street
in the little town
we enter, take a table
the business is slow

two quiet women are at one table
three happy workers lunch at the counter
they are having a good old time
we hear the youngest tells the others
he is going to whittle this weekend
then shows his new large very sharp pocket knife
they all marvel

then the older says what ever you do
be sure you don’t cut off your thumb
of course not, the younger says, but why say that?
cause the guy says, you’re going to need it
to pick up your finger
much laughter filled the room

Mexican food

Mexican food at a roadside diner
with a chic-latin name in Somewhere’sville, Ohio
the stucco outside painted red and blue, looks right
with food prepared by Mexicans
from ingredients,
though available locally,
were probably frozen and trucked
across long American highways from anywhere

pleasant low volume music was authentic
as I imagine were the workers immigration cards
I ordered three enchiladas stuffed with
some kind of white cheese - gooey
in a sauce once based on tomatoes
currently based on grease and memories
of how it could be somewhere
the beans and rice were good, so was the coffee
the cost reasonable, the food wasn’t terrible,
it also had precious little to do with Mexico
hey, you want good Mexican food
better go to California

the shallow cove

the shallow cove narrows
by brushes and thickets
our old row boat sparkles
under sunned running waters

when spring floods the low lands
all return and rebuild
for memories run deeper
than fat fish go up stream

papoon

papoon, the Iroquois called it
when they gave it to settlers
along the Susquehanna river
around 1779

knee high by the fourth of july. we say
the Indians probably had a version
or made a motion with their hand
it was special for them also

it’s planted in fields prepared and well tended
now an American tradition
seeded in good long rows
they’ve got the procedure down pat

and hope for rain
the sun does the rest
tall and green with wispy tassels on the stalks
then pick it at the peak

old timers made pipes from the cobs,
you clean the golden vegetable, cook it
every one runs to devour the feast
sure tastes good

add butter and salt the way you like
I sure do, since I was a kid
means it’s really summer
sweet corn

sunday my brother

Sunday my brother
now an old fisherman
took us in his boat
up brown river

through turns and trees
years fell away in ripples
as in seasons long ago
when humid air was still

turtles, fish, mossy fallen painted signs
by snags from leaning, half sunken trees
a heron tall in the branches watching
the river course changes
from flood and growth
always changing
water up and water down

a golf course where a farm used to be
now many new houses
old shacks fallen
a corner where we camped
another where we fished
duck blind in the marsh
a spot we had ventured to
paddling a canoe up mud brook creek
by jumping fish, sleeping deer and water birds
some sweet summer ago

river fest

this morning
while meandering quietly at the piano
i paused and heard the patter out side
not raindrops this time

it was runners in a something k event
we went out to see them go by
then later came youngsters in a little k
only last night from the front door we saw
fireworks boom over the river
and launch high golden,
red, flashes sparkles blue dripping fire
booms to shatter the evening sky
filling the night for revelers
to open hearts
hello the neighbors
hear the music

today the boom was thunder
a real corker, rain in buckets
seemingly a never ender
that finished in the nick of time
for the start of the parade

sunshine for the floats, the twirlers,
fire truck and the marching band
then off to the firehouse for a barbeque,
and the library for the book sale

tonight it's bands again
rides and games
food booths and fun
for children of all ages

make some noise
hold some events
and the town will turn out
to unify and enjoy
another fine summer weekend

face lift for an old village

a bed and breakfast
all decked out, not moving
like a ship in dry dock
the owner’s husband split
so she dressed the place like a dollhouse
lacked only a key to wind it up

my wife liked it, but does more shopping than I
not into pastels and ruffles myself
ok, little wrapped chocolates in a dish
no oil lamps I understand, electricity is fine

but I missed the manly respect to history in detail
give me a hammer, saw, raw wood and cigar smoke
let me walk old boards not puffy carpet

on the street I hum obscure half melodies
watch stylish girls window shop
and startle to the loud music booms
from SUV’s cruising slowly by

an old town in new times
caught twix and tween
undecided which way to go
leaving tourists to wander