Trifling Realities Against All Odds

Trifling Realities Against All Odds

Our biggest tree in the backyard
Is just beginning to put out,
Swelling buds,
And shriveled, purple-looking
Leaf wanna-be’s.
Fig tree
Back near the fence,
Is decked out already,
Laughing in the spring breeze,
Derisively.
I knew it wasn’t dead,
Though I thought it would be a bitch
Without shade
On the deck this summer.
There hasn’t been a frost
In a month or so,
Almost certainly won’t be another
Until October earliest.
All kidding aside,
We need all the relief
We can get,
When the heat sets in…
So, I’m thankful,
Even in my ignorance.

I think about my mother sometimes.
Yesterday was Easter,
Under a magnificent blue sky.
My daughter’s disability
Creeps into my heart
Like a ragged, tired fog.
Our rituals,
Broken shadows
Against a mottled backdrop
That is racing by to some destination,
Unknown
But very far away.
And I realize
Our movement is simply relative.
I can only hope
The destination
Is better for her,
Like my mother’s embrace
That I can barely remember,
But know so well.

The sirens
Are calling me again…
Ropes taut
To restrain me.
It is not so much music,
Like Nero’s violin --
But rapt attention,
While the flames are
Dancing…
Beckoning.
The crew around me
Is anxious.
Not that I will fly away
But that I will stay,
And they will have to endure
The melody
That I dare not describe
Or play.

Easter 09

Easter 09

it was a huge full moon last night –
storm clouds two counties to the east.
another low pressure near-miss.
burn ban’s still on
so we won’t ignite everything --
at least until summer.

someone on the internet
says the crucifixion was a fake –
“cruci – fiction”
the vinegar was really a paralysis drug,
and Jesus escaped to Egypt
to make babies with Mary Magdalene.

water into wine…
I thought,
“if He couldn’t change us,”
“maybe He outsmarted us instead.”
I said to God,
“it’s still better than what You did to Job.”
We laughed together,
it was funny
‘cause it was an honest prayer.

the devil’s on a three-day weekend,
maybe shooting nano particle rapids
in a black-hole somewhere,
or doing something else just as relaxing
in a recreationally nihilistic sort of way.
Easter is his Halloween Holiday,
when the hobgoblins do all the work –
eggs
for the children to hunt.
services at sunrise,
to divert our attention
from the rest of the day.

i prayed and prayed
last winter,
when there was just nothing
else to do…




waking up,
going to sleep –
anticipations of
the times in-between --
like Easter.

and then there’s Jesus
up there
on the cross –
thinking about making babies with Mary Magdalene.

“Blessed Be The Children”
“Blessed Be You And Me.”