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MY ANNA
Along the banks of the barge canalin the village park, a manolder, his hair white, almosta mane, sits on the breakwallfeeding Wonder breadto the small flotilla of ducks.Tearing shreds of crustfrom a slice, he casts itonto the water and smilesas they bob for the crumbs.He tells them the storyof his life as thoughthey were his…
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HAUNTING
The ghosts of my birth parentsblow into my dreams asso many white sheets tornfrom the clotheslineby gale winds, fly over me,at once angels and vulturescarrying off memoriescreated from the clayof surmise and wishful thinking. I invite their visits, frailbranches to which to clingin the storms of growing age,beginnings tenuous anchorsto hold against time, knowingthe battle…
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STAGED
At the moment of your birthmy son, I grew suddenly older,mortality became a realitythat I could no longer avoid. You could not imagine this,and I doubt others could seebut I knew and the infinitecollapsed inside the event horizon. Your brother came later, butthat death was incremental,a single cut among thousands,a step on a path you…
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A SMALL REQUEST
If those in the campsknowing their fate,the inevitabilityof their impending deathcould call up music,for orchestras, playor sing withtheir final breaths, is it too muchtheir ghosts silentlyask, for youto pause andremember us,and singa dirgefor our souls.
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WAR (an acrostic)
SOMETIMES A POEM CANNOT WAIT From the moment it began, we knew, it was obvious that peace and freedom were under assault, Russia had thrown societal norms to the wind. Under gunmetal gray skies they attacked by air, killing women, children, destroying hospital, homes raining hell on the innocents with nowhere to turn. All we…
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AFGHAN, ANYONE
Symbols have deep meaningeven to those so blind theycannot see them, and our politicshave become wholly retail. Any good retailer will tell youthat $19.95 is significantlyless than $20.00, a nickelthat swallows the dollars. So we got out, and nineteenyears and 354 daysis considerably shorterthan twenty years we are told, but everything blew up around us,but…
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JUSTICE
The Rabbi always said thatthe highest form of justicewould be to teach a man to fish,rather than to donate fish to him. The Rabbi in question is nowlong dead, and in so many placesteaching a man to fish will onlyenable him to poison his family. We have laid waste to ouir worldassuming someone will clean…
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WAITING IMPATIENTLY
Waiting rooms are usually somber.That is true of most hospitalsand every mortuary. It isn’t like we needto be prepared for whatmight happen next. In the hospital the surgeon,at the direction of lawyers,has given us the worst case. In the mortuary we are certainthe departed was no saintso resurrection is out of the picture. I’m not…
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THE LADDER
We have anointed ourselvesthe highest of species, ableto assert our dominion over allwhich might be fortunate enoughto fall within our protection. Some say we have eliminatedspecies, but they fail to recognizethat it was simply survivalof the fittest, that Darwinianrules must govern nature’s game. We mourn those gone, but neverpause to consider that basedon the game’s…
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A QUESTION OF TIMING
Umberto Eco, I believe,intending to or not,has found the perfect wayto bring classic playsback to life, to enable usto reinterpret theseold works, to hold theirreincarnated selves dear. All you need do is decidewhether you are onewho prefers beginningsor finds ends more satisfying. Go see Hamlet, but missthe first act or so, and museon why he…
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an old writer and his words 