GOOD GRIEF
And this, children, is the skull of Lucy
three million year old ancestor of us all
(If you can believe
anthropologists without bibles)
Who lifted the very first football
at the very last moment
so the very first Charlie Brown
could miss and fall on his bottom
After three million years
Charlie is still the hero of the piece
Never letting experience
change his trusting nature
ANOTHER DEAD DEBBIE POEM
I’m remembering
that scar you had
full across your throat
The kind of scar one gets
from bad thyroid surgery
or a husband with a knife
Most intimate of orifices
no-one was allowed to touch
You let me touch
Thinking it was something about me
I failed to fathom the depth of the gift
BUDS
At the age of three or four
her bike hit a sharp ditch
pitched her into a fence
and broke her jaw
The tooth buds were damaged
and never grew in right
At about the same age
something else happened
She can’t remember just what
the family wouldn’t listen then
and the family won’t talk now
But the trust buds were damaged
and never grew in right
A DEBBIE MOMENT
I was noticing again the other day
watching a movie, strangely enough
called “Remains of the Day”
that even though you died
you haven’t gone away
In the movie
a bird gets trapped in the house
and tries to fly
through the high ceiling glass
Remember the time in the office in Austin
when the sparrow was trying in panic to
escape in this way
You spoke to it in your stardust voice
and it landed in trust in your hand
I remember the windows you flew against
and your trust so light in my hands
And it’s a comfort to see
you and the sparrow
both flying free
ROBERTA’S WEDDING
When I returned from anywhere by air
Roberta would run
full out across the crowded floor
take a gymnast’s leap ten feet away
and fly through the air into my arms
So pure a show it was of joy and love
so affirming of the goodness of all life
so full of youth’s unquestioned faith
she would be safely caught and held
that travelers all around
would stand in awe
Today she runs across a crowded floor
and leaps with equal joy
into the arms of another man with
equal trust she will be safely caught and held
And now I see what all those others saw
and I stand back in awe