Monthly Archives: October 2011

A HUNDRED YEARS AND ACCOUNTING

A HUNDRED YEARS AND COUNTING

Old roll top just keeps on rollin’

My father’s mentor
sold him the ranch
gave his name to his first
born son (that’s me)
and left him this desk

More than a rancher
he kept his day job too
as municipal secretary

Taxes, foreclosures,
roads and bridges built
and all the books balanced

During the 20’s people paid a lot for horses
he’d have had nice cash in the cubbies
During the 30’s mostly dust

Once it became my father’s
Roll it open, count the receipts
Roll it open, pay the bills

Roll it open there’s the letter
your brother dead at war
Roll it closed – still dead

I roll it open now
Mister Fisher and my father
looking over my shoulder

Here’s something
from my six year old assistant

Look at all those colors
in Katherine’s new picture

DEPARTMENT STORE BLUES

DEPARTMENT STORE BLUES

I run the long gauntlet of perfume counter aisles

Reaching men’s wear I dare
my first breath
since leaving the street

Take my time picking up
and fondly fondling
warm winter socks

Should I buy two pair or three
two browns and a black
or two blacks and a brown

In no hurry to begin the return journey
so recently reminded of why
I had been driven here
in the first place

The odor of the old pair

THE AUSTRIAN UNCLES

THE AUSTRIAN UNCLES

Already old when I was young
revered as I would hope to be when old

Two brothers married to
two sisters of my father’s father

Great aunts
always as they’ve always been
busily bustling round the house

while the uncles somehow stay
both present and out of the way

Little china cups in work-hard hands
black coffee and home-brew
sipping the day away