cold blooded

she was looking for them in the pond
on an early fall crisp morning
thought they’d be in the water where it’s warmer
hey, she wants everyone cozy

they've come home for the winter
there could be more shuffling
now we’ve two large black bull frogs, two tiny small
and two medium leopard type frogs

it’s cool this mornng, but wait
until winter when the pond is frozen
the frogs’ll be on the bottom
sleeping in the mud, nighty-night

to the heights

to the Heights, a country small town
nearby, yet aloof from modern ways
where farmers and country survive
and some of their kids go away to school in the cities
take jobs, live afar and return now and then
for holidays, alternate years

their folks stay on
in touch with the soil
clean, neat and country casual for a Sunday
standing tall as they can
walking leaning, a bit slower

these remaining have been small town friendly for years
know the families, names from long ago
and can recall some of the faces
now under the headstones
on the treed lofty knoll

there is a chicken barbeque today
at this conservation club
no telling what they are conserving
kindness and good will for sure

the building is set back on a large area in an otherwise field
the road in waggers as if the guys who dragged it out
changed their minds two or three times before
they settled on how to get from here to there

and the twenty or thirty cars already there
were parked in the field over a few acres
like dominoes thrown out of a box
and where they landed is where they sat
independent parkers they are

this yearly event we’ve been waiting for
three hundred tickets were sold they say
the money raised will keep the group going
about thirty folks there at the start when we were
maybe fifty
half again that number just neighborly helping out
i didn't try to count, they were spread out nicely

rear double doors were open to the beginning
of the green and rust colored stick crackling woods
in mild temperatures and near idle breeze
on the cusp of another change
summer to fall

had covered long tables, sturdy folding chairs
set with plenty space between to walk
and clean silverware, no plastic for
these folk of dirt, cast iron, seed and steel

the building’s maintained in good repair
someday they’ll pave straighten that winding road in
or sell the whole damn chuck to a developer, if and when

barbequed chicken was the draw today
and these hens were as large as small dogs
and twicet as tasty as you could ever imagine

spoke with old Reece, one of the volunteers
heard he deeded his downtown brick building
the decorative grey century one on Main
resplendent with curiosities and used books
to the local historical society

our common friend dick, who visited us in Rome
will be coming soon, here’s where he was raised
with a smile on his face and mud in his toes

today's group was quiet well mannered
stayed on the business of eating
and getting to the desert table
in no rush orderly fashion

i had a slice of crispy near warm apple pie
made from experience by Aldean
as she stood alone by her kitchen window
taking care and good intentions
thinking of her family while using well hewn skill
that would’a made her mother proud

after we did the deed on the chicken
during which time we made new acquaintances
and refreshed old ones
we waved goodbyes and moved on
out the door and beyond
into our own tomorrow

free time

why knock yourself out on the internet
connecting with the world
when half the folks are not bright, half
scratch those – i’ll make this easy for you

that leaves three billion people
so you want them over for lunch or what?
make everybody a sandwich and what you spend
on mustard alone would run Norway for twenty-five years

keep it simple, you’ve heard that, right?
how about a few, maybe three or four friends
either that’ll be enough for you, or
you need to reevaluate your free time

mirror

In Anatolia, around the land that is now Turkey
mirrors of polished obsidian were used 8,000 years ago.

catches the eye
flashes the light
better than a still pond
you can touch it

pick one up
carry it around
hold one up to look where you’ve been
hold it down to see the sky

put your face in one
it won’t talk back
won’t make a sound
what is left appears on the right

repeats colors
specularly reflective
practical magic
safe to do at home

weather whether

tv weather
showing maps and arrows
in red and blue is weather
you can see

radio weather
talks how it goes
though for tomorrow i doubt whether
anyone knows

i'm not afaid

i’m not afraid
to go outside the box
though rather get paid*
an cure chicken pox

filling our time now
an eye to the weather
i mean, holy cow,
we’re sticking together

i’ll rub your back
you sip my cheap wine
give me your heartache
and i’ll show you mine

the world is our sea
i am your oyster
they get us surrounded
white flags we’ll hoister

we drifts and we hops
as poets we'll cruise
dance till we drops
or the ship’s out of booze

*laid, strayed, made, spaid,weighed, swayed

for every minute you're talking
someone gives up 60 seconds
of peace and quiet

every year that passes

as i ladle up a smoking silvery spoon of time, though I don’t write or call
every year that duck squeak slip passes greased
finds me wonder why, and how you’re doing
in the golden yellow white days of summer, and another adobe fall

there is will be a small flower
something wild half hidden amid somewhere green
anywhere, i find one, anywhere at all, in between
no matter, it changes how I’m feeling that hour

taking up a petal, one will do
in vibrant color, texture, pattern, scent, then recall i will
from afar, time spent, and power from soft warm eyes
i think of you


every year that passes

as i ladle up a smoking silvery
spoon of time
though I don’t write or call
every year that duck squeak slip passes

finds me wonder
why, and how you’re doing
in blistering golden yellow white summer
leaning to another adobe fall

there is will be a small flower
something, wild half hidden
amid somewhere sometime green
anywhere i find one, anywhere at all,

in between, no matter
it changes
how I’m feeling
that hour

taking up a petal,
one will do
vibrant in color, texture,
pattern, scent

then recall i will, from afar,
time spent, and power
from soft warm eyes
i think of you

when old clothes were new

archeologists say
first clothes were made
seventy thousand years ago
more or less

before that? you tell me
what’d the cave man wear
sticks and clam shells?
maybe dinosaur skins

now in a cave in the Republic of Georgia
archaeologists have found colored fibers
that indicate the cave that may have been a factory
engaged in producing colorful textiles

found were strings and ropes
dyed fabric yellow, gray and turquoise
and one in pink, twisted together
carbon dated to thirty-four thousand years ago

scientists, not prone to speculation,
estimate that even then the fashion styles
changed every six months
and runway models were skinny



Scientists credited with the above discovery are
Ofer Bar Yosef, George Grant MacCurdy
and Janet G. B. MacCurdy of Prehistoric Archaeology
in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University
Bar Yosef and colleagues have been working in this cave since 1996.

writing

Digging into my archive, to save you the trouble, I brought this out from February 2008.

writing’s a bit
like digging a pit
you have to know
how deep to go

what to do
when that work is through?
You cover that lover
and start on another

curtis mayfield

around somewhere, maybe in a box
i have his business card
should be framed like a trophy now
here' the story

saw him perform
in those early times, 1963
when i was young and had the stuff
to get backstage, no problem

i was writing, wanted to see
if he would do a tune or two of mine
he was very friendly, kind
but wrote all his own

rolled em out, played em on
it’s all right, people get ready,
anyway, it was nice talking with Curtis
i really liked his style

animals revisited

the house of the rising sun was sung
by Appalachian artists Clarence "Tom" Ashley
and Gwen Foster in 1933
Tom learned it from his grandfather

Alan Lomax recorded his granddaughter singing it in ‘37
Roy Acuff in ’38, Woody Guthrie in ‘41
Led Belly in ‘48,
‘61 Bob Dylan did it

and according to punk archeology
in the British invasion of 64 the animals did it
many others have since recorded it
many other artists

2009 the dentist’s office
heard it on the radio, and kid next to me says
wow. the animals, oh, yeah!
animals lead singer Eric Burton 68 years old

lets dig up Mozart, blow some air in him
and see if he can open for the animals
just keep pumping air until
we get a beat out of him

i can turn it on

a low level technician i am, i know
rank me where I ought to be
somewhere low
because a lot really blows way by me
dust puffs on light wind to vapor

it’s the way I see it
what I expect
don’t you feel it?
examining from the back porch
under moving tree shadow and moon light

watching lightning bugs while
making thoughts, stringing them together
that could be necessary, stringing
to adjust things not quite right in my reasoning
we’ll see, I’m not sure, no regret

nine eleven answers

some day
historians
will follow
the money

bloodlines

fractional Cherokee blood coursing
she stood the ladder
painting on high
four and a half feet
beyond fear

off to the side with pride in my eye
envious of her heritage advantage
i watched from my perspective
as a humble full blood
Kielbasa

not the hanging judge

the frog tunes stopped
got real quiet hereabouts
don’t want to rush
to irrational judgment

but it looks like Herb stayed
and the nervous girlfriend
the one with the big eyes
might have split in the cover of darkness

this morning Herb is there
sitting on the same bar stool lily pad
like someone told him to freeze
he didn’t move a muscle (can't say hair,doesn’t have any)

we’ll move slow around, easy like
take our time, not make a sound
and count ‘em up later
to see who’s still in pond town

a frogs worth

summer now gone
September cool arrived
a few days of rain brought
warm damp last night

opened the window
imagined heard familiar
this morning M. saw him
called me to the pond

yes, after a summer scamper
to spend time with the girls
fall season approaches
(Errrb) Herb‘s home again



An hour later we see there are two large frogs in the pond. Maybe Herb brought his girlfriend with him.

days are like eggs

days are like eggs
some sunny side up
they’re hard, or scrambled
and, thank god,
always a few go
over easy

nature

of fish, birds, squirrels and frogs
there’s all kinds, good and bad,
each exhibiting different personalities
with examples for each
i told my brother what i had observed

he listened to my explanation
then told me i had too much free time.
in defense i maintain
it is better to observe nature
than watch television

old clock

old clock man was here
brought the metal guts
didn’t have to take
the heavy wooden case

just the grandmother works,
we talked of factories and parts
in America and Europe
how things have changed

of old cars, collectors, estate sales
and the time he opened
someone’s old dead clock
to find an equally dead

rattlesnake wound inside,
when he tried to get it out
it went back to nature
returned to dust

future talks

two more automakers are thinking
of launching an electric car
that was the promotional word – launching
it must be better if it sounds like a boat

and from here, a few days into the centu…
okay, actually a nine years into the
next thousand years
electric cars are the future

how’s that if you’re looking back?
and yes, I’ll take questions, go ahead
you there, the little one with the uh, . . .go ahead . . . -
why, no, I never knew the Earp brothers

was that kid kidding
or is the future that far ahead
that you forget
exactly where the past is?

apple cake

from a peg on the wall she took up
her worn canvas bag by the shoulder strap
said come on, we’re going to pick apples
near the corner across the street in the empty lot

there’s a neglected, half dragging to the ground,
poorly shaped, unremarkable old tree
not worth a glance,
and loaded with apples

we ate one to sample
half red, half yellow, a little strange to look at
but fresh off the tree
it was some old variety

forgotten, unattended and delicious apples
she filled the sack with a dozen or so
when she said she had enough,
we walked home

late that afternoon, after other tasks
by September sun streaming into the kitchen
she made an apple upside down
augmenting a vintage recipe found on the Internet

an hour after dinner
we each had a piece
of the best apple cake
i ever had tasted in my life




It would be too easy for M. and I to eat the whole thing, so I took the rest to my brother’s family. For us, there is always tomorrow.

look around

look around, you’ll see
old rock musicians
like politicians,
have taught us

if you stick around
long enough
you can always
make a comeback

an afternoon out

taking a slow walking pace
a few hours into the hills
easy now, said to the horse
reined up content
took a look around
into the advent of fall

the weather is kind
warm another time
leaves are dry
the autumn sun rounds the hills
at a lower angle in the sky
now winter’s just ahead

another change underway
trees will turn
geese will fly
come on boy
that’s enough, say goodbye,
we’re going home now

orderly salad order

Memorize this important catchy little salad poem and teach it to your children.

Ohhh, America eats it first
Europe eats it last
to lose weight fast
they say, then hey

vinegar, as in salad,
curbs desire for sugar,
as in desert
don’t you know?

eat salad last some say
can you believe it? don’t rush me now,
salad after main course aids digestion
it also blocks digestion when eaten first

but eat it first and it’s a palette cleaner
salad first curbs appetite to eat less overall
The contents of the stomach are released slowly
into the upper intestine, 1 or 2 teaspoons per minute

in summation: eat salad in the middle
or avoid it altogether, then again,
when they first came to America
the boat ride made everybody sick and confused anyway

final tip for orderly salad eating
use a fork and not you fingers
unless you’re a monkey, then no problem
you won’t eat salad anyway except bananas

robins gone

it's the last day of august
change is building in the air
worms are safe, robins gone
new bird children learned well enough
to wing away with the adults

in a few weeks they’ll return
to hop and peck around
for a few days of substanance
before the family flies south for the winter
free as a bird, means no luggage, to pack or carry

wisp

get a thought
take it with you
ride away on it
you won’t fall off

a soft puffy cloud
that will evaporate
before you do
possibly

when they were young

in the mid 60’s my buddy bill got
tickets to Mershon Auditorium
in Columbus, Ohio, a night
twenty-five hundred people packed in

we were the two white guys in the crowd
to see Gary U.S. Bond, Major Lance, the Drifters
the Temptations, The Ronettes, The Supremes
and Ray Charles

one after another
these great performers
huffed and puffed
and blew the house away

i remember when Ray was going into the falsetto
turnaround on Georgia on My Mind
there is a tiny pause at that point
the audience was silent in anticipation
a woman screamed out – Oh, sing it Ray, baby
Ray chuckled, the audience smiled and he did it

they all did it
knocked ‘em down
one after another
for everybody
all together
this night of music and love

back to the dentist

back to the dentist
maybe i should rent a bed there
find some second hand equipment
and do it myself, then again

the government checking itself for corruption
is like me checking myself for a bad tooth
cause even if i find one
i’m not going to do an extraction

today the dentist was doing my back upper
and used a little mirror to see
seemed rather tricky to me
he had to pause for a few seconds for something to dry

both he and his assistant did a habitual freeze, waiting
playing statues, like a comedy routine,
i laughed, my mouth was full of equipment,
so i couldn’t explain to them what was so funny

and they looked at me
like what is wrong with this guy?
and I’m the one in the chair with my mouth open
with their equipment and hands in my mouth

drove to the college town

a half hour drive away
we had coffee and a scone
where young students were about
more life than we usually see

there was traffic and people walking
as we passed several houses for sale
nothing in particular for us
though we tried to like what was there

the town wasn't special today
it was fine, but didn’t have our names on it
up and down the streets looking
then a while later we drove back home

when you see it you’ll know it
that’s what we hear all the time
and although we desire a change
so far its gone out of its way to avoid us