ship locator

Position received seven hours, forty minutes ago
Isadora is off Spain, headed to Algiers
I wonder if Ralfo is aboard
how smooth the sea, how blue the sky?
oh, my, and my again.
i believe in you.
who is steering the ship?
how fine is summertime.



.

Geese the significant

when driving in a dream there is
no need to signal, yet i cordially wave and smile.
traffic heavy melts together on the road,
shut my eyes and nod off into a cat nap.

in a splash, came to wakeful senses
i did in a crowd. horns honking.
waved back, had the change,
paid the toll. told myself i could finish

this dream, in an hour, if i rush.
hit the gas, checked the time
and then realized an hour had already passed.
time flies, you know, some say, they’re right, some time.

took another bite of sandwich,
chewed slowly while i wondered
where i got it and how to hold it
with two hands while driving?

seemed mayonnaise enough to me ,
i smiled at the hearty bread, tasty as reality,
with long green salty seeds in it,
and the tomato slipping out.

aware that all the red was taillights
all the honking were wild geese
making restful music as i
closed my eyes to finish dreaming.

thinking the one last conscious thought,
that i like geese, i really do.
never met one though to get to know,
i’d surly like to.



.

sweet train

cracked the window after three
cloud dreamed again 'til five
when, from long beyond
i heard the name say - i am train

calling low in light rain,
sweet voice, milk and thunder
clawing on wings of steel,
lonely is the night ... i am train

swinging through, blasting,
rolling heavy on quick-wheel feet
powering down, long around, then out of town,
murmur lonely; cutting night stillness like a blade on ice

iron maiden go into first morning light
familiar friend, shaking houses with your power,
i smiled ... low in bed, covered my head
and slept another hour.


.

tradition begins at home

the pairing of plain rice
and miso soup, considered
a fundamental unit of
Japanese cuisine and the basis
of traditional Japanese breakfast;
as for me is the perusal of a broth box
left on the counter where i am
sitting and reading, while eating cereal.



.

President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have proposed reducing the federal education budget by $9 billion, in part by cutting a $27 million arts-education program. They don't like art or animals; the Republican party should dissolve itself with this kind of thinking. A new party can be formed for the people.

.

4 july, all are happy. drum, drum.
Ohio waits all year for summer -
sunny fun, and warm.
a holiday exactly like this, a charm.
parade the morning school band,
wave the red, white and blue;
i'm telling you, see some standing and
folks on the sidewalk in folding chairs.
then afternoon root your Cleveland team.
it's TV baseball and a beer -
family eat and laugh together,
cheer those Indians, louder.
nightfall hear the boom boom
it's fireworks for another year


.

hide my face
i'm out'a place
ah jus' got back
from out'a space


.

baseball

for the Cleveland Indians
where Zimmer plays center field
i'd need a golf cart to get there ...
and a beer in a to-go cup, please.



.

manuel dreamed he was driving
and fell asleep,
sometime later i woke in a crowd,
said i'd finish this dream
in february ... it's already july,
furthermore, my name's not manuel.


.

it touches my heart

summer warms, inevitably; and charms.
sitting here while spinning june in real time
our mountain cabin came to mind.
oh, the pleasure ... to have lived then ...
the primitive log house we loved.
we kept it and it kept us.

in oak and pines, manzanita, high in the Sierra.
today driving by some woods and creek in ohio
i heard the swoosh of heavy wind through the trees,
so alive it could carry color like a house painters brush.
delight splashed into my heart as i revisited the memory.

so much goodness in our mountain life
could burst my heart to recall our fun;
although time rolls and we did
unaware how the days do get along.
use the days wisely, my friend,
be careful ... be kind ... do enjoy.




.

bend time

to take different pills
twice a day, long enough
and time blends
the best of systems

take pills different
enough, twice a daylong
and blends time
best the systems

to take pills different
twice, and along
enough blends time
the best of systems

to pills different
enough a long day
twice time blends
test the system




.

image

image isn't everything,
but it is a good beginning.




.

on the outback ... i call it that ...
you can drive for miles and rarely see traffic.
our favorite is a straight line south thirty miles
to shop the Mennonite store in Shiloh.
a pleasant ride with practically no one on the road.
it's quiet ... by farms, and woods and open fields.
some days we pass only two or three cars
or a black, horse-drawn buggy or two.
we wave at them. they wave at us.
that's Ohio. when you look around
you'll find ... it has something.



.

dancing in the moonlight
should be my theme instead of
looking at the clock ... counting
three hours until extraction.

are you kidding me?
another dental thing to do.

he's good, i tell myself.
my tooth isn't, evidently.
waltzing to another extraction, i am.
the phone rings, he's ready what?

i go in three hours early
no time to think about it.
he needles me twice, i wait.
he x-rays, 15 minutes later he

takes my tooth away ... can't say
pulled ... he slipped it gone ...
so long forever, tooth.
oh, brother ... another ... withdrawn.

he's so slick
i can hardly bitch.





.

it can be destabilizing for me
to attempt to write poetry
of birds singing
and homemade pie cooling on the window sill
when out there governments say this country
does not get along with that country
and lockheed martin is selling
four hundred forty F-35 fighter jets
to eleven nations.
why don't they all take a breath
and cool their pies instead.




.

very early this morning they wouldn't let
my raccoon on the airplane
to come home again;
that's when i woke up.




.

i can hear you

while i'm sleeping
dreaming hard.
quiet nights
by the open window
until dawn
i sleep and talk some
caught in visions
in the darkness
time slips on

...
there are people
a few at a time, so no confusion,
time consuming, saying hello, they are welcome
because they show up - in night's dream;
every night it seems, i dream - almost ...
hello again, i say again and mean the best
to you, thank you, it seems good to see you
again, i'm dreaming
...



.

by drove

drove by a nuclear power plant
in Ohio, didn't plan on it or like it.
i'm afraid, but the road took us there.
alongside the giant

with dark smoke belching out
as we drove by so close a baseball player
could have hit it with a
fly ball if ... if a lot of things

... I don't know why a base
ball player would want to
hit a ball against the side of
a nuclear power plant. another thing

we were doing sixty on a curve
with the windows closed.
there's no room in the
back seat to swing a bat




.

eagle

eagle

an eagle
sees eight times better
than a human, how'd scientists ask him?
they didn't ask. they took a dead eagles eye
ball and held it up and said he could see
about like that.
we saw a big one, could have
photoed him .. my camera was not ready.
it takes time to set it up and it's
handy in my phone. good quality
and since i did no photo, i'll tell you
and you will feel the eagle in your heart
as i did,
as you think it should be because it's
such a large bird, and strong, and the stories
about them, and it's the usa official country bird,
like that; and there it was and it flew
over the car practically. it should be in
your heart now too, practically.





.

new fire station

the local fire department is
a couple years and a few million
into plans for a new station ...
it'll be a hundred yards from our house.
the old small station was built in 1912
they can't get new trucks until
they have a station with doors large enough
to get the trucks inside.

chief john is hands on everything
selling details to the city
and will work it to completion.
Brett made some fresh coffee;
john showed me the building plans,
i sipped and asked questions.
firefighters do a most valuable job.