SWEET TWEET
When My Sugar Walks Down The Street
All The Birdies Go Tweet Tweet Tweet
and in the evening when the sun goes down
it’s never dark when she’s around
Johnny De Droit and His New Orleans Orchestra
And now at a million tweets a minute
are we more connected or more lonely
What have we lost when typing thumbs
replace that old New Orleans walk
in that old New Orleans land
could it be the hand in hand
FOR POET PATRICIA FISKE
on her eighty somethingth birthday
The answer to living past 110 is men
having enough to take care of
and a few that can take care of you
Or then again it may be women
deep wells that keep you well
So keep on living, keep on writing
it’s your story that no one else can tell
THE ECLIPSE OF 2010
(for Susan Bright)
Over 400 years since the last
over 400 years until the next
a short enough span
in the history of man
and we are but here
ten percent of that
Our ancestors did not know
quite what it was, or when
it might occur again
Mark Twain knew as he came
in and out with Haley’s comet
We in the darkness looking up
not smaller, but more brief
a shadow across the earth
and gone
And for you, Susan
hugger and defender of Austin trees
older and wiser than any of us here
who have thirsted for springs
and leafed out each spring
just for the privilege
of giving you shade
SOLSTICE ECLIPSE 2010
On the longest night of the year
just when one is wanting
as much light as possible
the earth is eating the moon
Every time you look up
there’s another big bite gone
pretty soon, only blood
IN GRATITUDE FOR YOUR LIFE ODE
In memory of Dr. Marvin Kimbrough PhD
Ah Doctor Marvin, you were class in a glass
the glass is broken – class spilt everywhere
I want to believe that all is well and
all your ripples spreading forever
a part of God’s most perfect plan
and yet I also want to say
I stepped on a splinter again today
BORN TO BE A STAR
Elizabeth Taylor
had eyelashes
that grew in double rows
(a genetic mutation called distichiasis
you could look it up)
Rather rare , and generally harmless
except when serving as they did
to frame wet violet eyes
And everywhere men falling
northward like the Nile
QUANTUM LUNCH
There is nothing stable in this table
And yet
the ever so quickly spinning
nothingness
that is me
is happy this particle – wave
filled morning
to rest on it with non–existant
elbows
and gaze and gaze
at the improbable you
THOU ART MORE LARGE THAN FAR AWAY
Should a poet not
attempt to hear
a few notes over
those heard by Rover
And a few below
the long distance tales
of elephants and whales
More ultra than violet
and more infra than red
how else to learn and share
what’s in your heart and head
Branding time again
babies torn from their mothers
cowcalfany of sound
YIPPEE–AI–KU
Out in West Texas
sandpaper storms scrub the sky
back to perfect blue