GREAT PLAINS
The Great Plains used to be
the bottom of a sea
We are the new fish
looking up through the blue
Steadily about
the old family business
of laying down fossils
Category: Uncategorized
THE PRICE OF PURITY
THE PRICE OF PURITY
Whole grain in the granary
plenty of rocks to grind it
Take a wagon-load to town
get enough money to buy
three bags of white flour
Fast forward fifty years
Whole Foods sells brown
for the price of the wagon
EAGLE-EYE AT EIGHTEEN
EAGLE-EYE AT EIGHTEEN
The Golden Eagle hangs
on a string of grace
a hundred yards
to the west
I raise the 32-20
Winchester
and squeeze off
a shot
Dead hit in the breast
the string breaks and it drops
Quick voice in my head
Damn fine shot
Slow voice from my heart
Damn fool
WHAT ARE THOSE TRAINING BRAS TRAINING THEM FOR
WHAT ARE THOSE TRAINING BRAS TRAINING THEM FOR
It isn’t that women
didn’t have breasts
when I was young
And it isn’t
that I didn’t notice
without of course too much
appearing to notice
But what’s
with all this
in your face
lifting and pointing
All this pairamilitary
upping of the calibers
from 32’s to 38’s to 45’s
all the way to bazooka
From succor and delight
to ready for a fight
And is it just
some harmless plastic
or les explosifs plastique
Perhaps we need to let
the UN inspectors in
CHURCH AND STATE
CHURCH AND STATE
If religion the opiate
politics the placebo
TEMPER
TEMPER
After 20 years, lost her temper
or, did she just find it
LIVING ALOHA
LIVING ALOHA
On Kauai an average house
costs half a million or more
And half the people and more
still work for a minimum wage
Around a grass shack tenement
broken handles of tired tools
lie buried in lava gravel
and broken hands that held them
hot a cut-rate mainland beer
The wind from the ocean stirs
creaking limbs on a dry lanai
Orchid’s breath still whispering
songs of an old deep joy
NEW ORLEANS 2005
NEW ORLEANS 2005
Nobody wants to leave Shangri La
When the Chinese invaded Tibet
they sent the Dalai Lama
and a ream of Rimpoches
rolling down from the
High Himalayas
and out across the world
And the world is better for it
Nobody wants to leave the city
where all the rivers lead
From the Missouri Breaks in Montana
through Minneapolis and Memphis
the gold and good earth
of America’s heart
all heads for the delta
and gathers in Basin Street
and sings
Hurricane Katrina reversed the flow
pushed it back up the river
and across the land
and America may be the better for it
MARX AND GOD IN NEW ORLEANS
MARX AND GOD IN NEW ORLEANS
The people of New Orleans are still singing
If religion is indeed the opiate of the people
seldom was it more needed and more used
than last September down in New Orleans
And yet strangely and much I suspect
to the relief of the administration
the God of the people of New Orleans
is not a God of revenge
The God of the people of New Orleans
is a God of mysterious intent
not blamed for those who die
but praised by those who live
Theirs is the God that rocks you to sleep
in the belly of the slave ship
surrounded by water
The God that rocks you to sleep
in the hold of the Superdome
surrounded by water
FORGIVENESS 2
FORGIVENESS 2
The bitten hand heals
The dog eats now from a tin bowl
in the corner of the room
The one you saved unthanked
from going down the third time
is knocking at your door
He insists on coming to the table
and drinking from your glass
What alchemy can change the taste