WONDER WOMAN
Lovely as Aphrodite, wise as Athena
Swords and spears
and daggers and darts
tools of penetration
weapons of men
Wonder Woman
with her lasso of truth
takes in the
wounded wielders
disarms and saves
by the gift of embrace
And see
with what joy
they drop their arms
MIRAGES
The thing about mirages
I mean the ones on roads
(the ones on deserts are all about thirst)
The thing about mirages on roads
is that your tires never go flat
and the girl beside you
never moves out from under your arm
THE GIRL FROM AWAY
I was sixteen, it was summer
Hauling wheat to town in the 3 ton Chevy
A quart of store-bought buttermilk
on the seat for the trip back to the ranch
There was a girl, my age and beautiful
visiting in the last house on the left
Sometimes she would be
on the street or in the yard
The truck was new and powerful
I was farm boy healthy, strong
We were hitting on all cylinders
It was warm, the window was open
I was in love, the buttermilk was cold
A POET WALKS INTO A BAR
Have you seen my horse
No
Any priests, Irishmen or rabbis
No
How about a Black Russian
HOW YOU GET TO BE A POET
There’s a pointy piece of lead
under the skin of my right arm
where some kid poked me
with a pencil in grade 3 or 4
Been a long time now
trying to write it out
RULE BRITTANICA
Mostly musty now
Google-buried deep
in library stacks and garage
sale Take if for a Dollar boxes
Generations
denied the pleasure
of sitting with a volume
rich and heavy to the hand
and knowing you could know
everything there was to know
about whatever started
somewhere with an M
to whatever started somewhere with an O
WHAT WE DID AT COUNTRY SCHOOL
The garter snake
is colorful and kind
it means no harm to man
In venomous snakes the young
are more dangerous than the old
The garter snakes have found
it is the same with man
ONE ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE BLUES
(a novel in nine lines)
I started school in grade four
Neither I, nor my teacher
showed up for the first three
Bullies, gophers and garter snakes
were there from day one
There was a teeter-totter too
where, on the high end at recess
you could catch a window glimpse
of my hand out, leather strap descending
SHADOW PLAY
Come out into the dark
where I can see you
Show me your pain, I’ll show you mine
All this time
our shadows have been boxing
They could have been dancing
DIARY
If I’d had a diary
I could have called it Dear
and told it all the stories
that no-one cared to hear