Tales

everybody has a story
some with colors bright
keep you awake at night
others so dull they
put you to sleep





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moon shadow

a day long drive to Kentucky
and if we are lucky
the sky will be clear
casting the moon shadow.



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round off the edges

saying what you say
in a cordial way is poetry,
as i see it




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talking, thinking

fingers tapping on the table,
thinking, hardly blinking,
i'm able to crack ... there it goes
crack open the window;
feel it? take some air.
ready to begin or having patience
... don't know; can't say.
coffee's good, that's a fact.

pull out my paper scraps,
can hardly read my notes,
pencil blurrs. but i remember
what i saw worth writing about
... now, how can i
put feelings into words?
and emotion.

words, to bring
sweet feeling out;
chosen phrases.
a small bird on the window ledge
distracts me relatively.
sweet sip ...
there's always coffee.

sitting, my elbows on the table
tapping out a melody ...
excuse me. i lost it ... thinking ...
drifting some ... more importantly,
look out the window,
home is warm and good,
that's the picture of it.
the day wears well.






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rhubarb pie

had a good drive round
and down a lot of lanes;
country roads, where just those words
bring picture-thoughts to mind ...
heard blowing, rattling leaves,
got sprinkled on, gray cloudy
then sun-some.
on the far side of a field
a white-tailed doe with her two fawns - jumping.
stood still to look at us a while,
then turned back to playing, leaping.
stopped at DeChant farm,
picked a rhubarb pie,
tasty sweet eating,
left money in the tin.
i'm nibbling the outer ring portion
of back to childhood memories ...
plus the pie.





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Pone, Pone, Pone

my phone will not ring anymore, forever
what's your pones vibration pattern?
wait ... my pone is levitating
did i tell you, now it's a pone.



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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.



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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.



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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.


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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.



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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.

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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


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


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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.



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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.


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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.




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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




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image

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




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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.



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