• NOAA’S ARK

    The rain finally fell today, a delugeworthy of Noah but NOAA assures usthis is only a three day storm and the nextthirty-seven will not mirror it, at leastnot fully they think they believe.The weather here, the outer skinof nature, is too often a petulant childforever not satisfied with how things are,wanting things different, wantingmore, wanting…


  • LISTEN UP

    The cat says thatwe need to talkbut my language skillsare still lackingso she will writeher thoughts onmy arm with a claw.


  • WHOSE FAULT?

    You lay on the lanai paversin the shadow of the tableunder the watchful eyeand ever prodding pawof the cat into whose territoryyou have so boldly encroached.You say that it is not the faultof your kind that ours were evictedfrom the Garden, and of courseyou are correct, but it no longerreally matters, does it, allof us,…


  • I PLAY THE FOOL

    On more than one occasion she had characterized him as a loveable fool fit for a Shakespearean comedy. Of course when she said this he bristled. That was the required response to the characterization, else he willingly adopt the role in perpetuity. But deep within himself he knew there was more truth than perhaps even…


  • SHE

    She is territorial in a modest way. She can sit for hours looking out on the yard and the now dry wetland beyond. The birds come and go and she watches. They do not bother her and she does not bother them. They are part of the landscape, as she now is, she imagines. Even…


  • RULES

    I learned from John Berrymanby way of W.S. Merwin that as a poetI should paper my walls with rejection letters.I thought this a good idea whenI lived in a small apartment, butall too soon the walls appearedto be growing ever smallerand I was papering over paper,like the latest in a too longline of tenants who…


  • FLUTING

    She says that since the cochlear implantall she hears is battling flutists, and she adds“you know how I hate the flute.”I remind her that she did love Paul Hornbut she retorts “only in small doses.’A friend says it could be worse, it couldbe battling harpists but she wouldgladly trade her flutes for harps.I want to…


  • NAME THAT

    It should be daunting, sittingin a waiting area in a gownthat is open in the back, the roomlike most all in such officesmore refrigerator than lounge.She smile and says “It’s your turn,we’ll do one, take another patientand then the other. Is that okay?”A nice question but it isn’t likeI have any real choice.The MRI tube…


  • DREAM ON

    Good night, Sisyphustry and get some sleep.It’s been a long dayand you already knowthe rock will await youwhen you arise in the morning.I suppose by nowyou’ve come to realizethere is no percentagein irritating the Gods.Think of this as a personalreeducation centerwhere right thinkingis the lesson of thisand every other day.Did you really thinkthey would let…


  • RULES

    W. Somerset Maugham suggestedthat there are three rules for writinga novel, but no one knows what they are.I suppose the same could be saidfor writing poetry, with a twistfor there are three rules for thisas well, but everyone knowsprecisely what they are not.Writers and poets must be rebels,writing what must be saidand damning the consequencesfor…