floating and leaving no trace
so impatient and greedy
for words
the reader clicks
and clicks and
clicks
and here they are
a few lines
meant for the hungry reader
lines etched in photons
that disappear
when the window closes
but leave their ghosts
trails on the backs of your eyelids
like fireflies
the night cannot hide
you could feel them
with your fingertips
if you could just
make
it
dark
enough
the rooster said
that’s a joke son
a joke
i made a funny
but it went right over your head
too fast for you
you gotta keep your ears open
ears i say
and i laughed
and my dad who was sitting in
a recliner, almost sixty to my
ten years
laughed
laughed so hard that tears
ran down his face
laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe
and that to me was funnier than
anything the rooster said
Fantastic Friday Haiku
heat-withered blossoms
sag on the peach tree branches
small green peaches erupt
there’s something wrong
with a road made of concrete
that forces you to drive
in a single
straight direction
as fast as you dare
–faster than the driver in
the lane next to you because
by god, he’s not going to beat you
in spite of the fact
that you don’t know him
and you have no idea
or interest in where he’s driving
or when he has to be there
there’s a lack of freedom
on a freeway
with its straining arteries clogged
by lipid, adiposian cars
all racing toward
one giant cardiac event
i whisper a secret in your ear
you smile, rise up
from where we sit
and walk barefoot
across the grass
to lean against an old fence
you try not to look at me
but i catch you anyway
a stream sings about rocks
and fish and water splashing
and in the distance
a handful of trees
whisper their own secrets
to each other
leaf to leaf
and branch to branch
your skin shines
like moonlight
and you move
like moonlight
illuminating everything
with each footstep
and beneath your toes
the grass
whispers a secret
the redhead and the brunette
arrived at the buffet
at the same time
they circled each other warily
though there was plenty of food
the redhead lunged at the brunette
forcing her away from
the table
then chased her
screaming
from the dining hall
and returned to
eat alone
sometimes
i want to dissolve
be everywhere at once
but so diluted
that there’s no focus
no place to shine a light
no light to shine
you could dissolve too
our atoms could mingle
and there’d be no way to tell
where one of has slid
into the other
would it feel electric
or fuzzy
warm or cold
or at all
falling
a leaf does it
though i almost
never see the action
just the evidence
brown and split on the ground
tracked in wet and flat
on the bottom of my shoe
and always always near
the entryway
just in time for the cat to spot it
and in this drought
i try to feel guilty
for watering my trees
but i can’t work it up
because these are my trees
and their leaves
are
head and shoulders
knees and toes (knees and toes)
is all well and good
but the parts i am interested in
the eyes
the ears
the lips
the mouth
–inside and out
the nape of the neck
the throat
the elbows
–yes elbows
the breasts, good god
the ribs
the wrist
the bellybutton
that hollow in the small of the back
the curve of the hip
the ass
the swell of the thigh
the inside of the thigh
the knees
–wait the knees are in there–
ok, the back of the knees, then
the ankles
the soles of the feet
and skin
–skin skin skin
i suppose there is a reason why
they are left out of the song
too many verses
that adults couldn’t get through
without tearing off their own clothes
Friday haiku
the driver swerves
the other driver swerves too
accident averted
Words and Feathers 