Agonizing details

Agonizing details
Surgical precision
In the end, meaningless
A pointless incision

Asking reality
To find the back burner
Allowing dreamers to
Become a self-learner

Where do our dreams go that

Where do our dreams go that
Meant more than anything
Unkept promises to
Ourselves that didn't sing

Having to stare hard at
Trivial things at most
Cheering small successes
Knowing the dreams are toast

Not Life of pure wood grain

Not Life of pure wood grain
Many knots in the wood
Branches bold and broken
The continuous could

Markers, forks in the road
Extensions of the self
Now planed and varnished and
Repurposed as a shelf

In triangular time

In triangular time
What has, what is, what will
Seeking a sense of pi
Past a chipped windowsill

Bodies falling apart
Tulips and peonies
Basking and then bursting
Life’s aging injuries

I am my child’s adult

I am my child’s adult
Product of my own youth
My second set of teeth
After each missing tooth

The flower on the stem
A fall blooming aster
Coming into my own
Being my own master

Matches without a fire

Matches without a fire
Without flames or a blaze
Wandering lightning bugs
In twilight’s purple haze

Gather the pine needles
Unravel the sewn quilt
Pile on the syllables
Of words that Life has built

This is not an echo

This is not an echo
A tide returning back
The light on the moon that
Would otherwise be black

It has the strength of thread
Holding buttons to cloth
Viscosity of glass
Changing slowly as sloth