the cup

the cup of parting – filled now
feel
it is smooth of edge
on your trembling lips
do not say
the thing you so
want to say

the described queries

yes, but
which flower –
exactly?

first auto

traditionally engendered
privileged to
continued service
waits under the oak
for the explorer

the numbered ballads:4

pocketed chime
wound chain wristed
behind it, left minutes
ahead of it, time

rain

the rain
gave life to the bike
abandoned
on the grassless
front yard

my little fort

it is
where I am
when you think I’m in my chair
seemingly concentrating
on a book propped against
the cat
sleeping in my lap
what you are seeing
across the room
is an apparition
of someone far away
in a small suburban
backyard fort
with walls of
faint pictures
lashed together with
ever changing tales
of boyhood

the numbered ballads:3

the line
has been laid down
it’s mine
yet remains unknown

continuum: continued

2)
They came to incinerate
then hide the wicked fire glare
behind a curtain of deceit

a desperate slog
through rubbled streets
finds faces floating like dust
across pupils glazed with
the refusal of belief and
cloaked against recognition

those left howl
in vanquished language
with chests laid open

their drained hearts trying to absorb whatever light is distributed
as a stipend from the state

leaving children
to grasp at prisms
in the shards
of their parents
shattered panes

the numbered ballads: two

pigeon-toed knock-kneed
with hair like a yak
cross eyed buck toothed
a hump for a back

her laugh was mostly cackle
her breath could singe a brow
yet, a sweeter soul I’ll never know
not then and not now

the numbered ballads: one

so sure was Death
in the appointment made
positive that I was next
to Death I said

you obviously got it wrong
when you marked this date
look, my blood it runs still strong
there’s spring yet in my gait

no, said Death, I’m sure of it
I double checked this morn
we scheduled this visit,
the day that you were born

oh, bother said I, can we
push it back, perhaps a year
or two? because you see
I was on my way, if you care,

to put in for retirement,
I’ve bought some country land
sorry, he said, the contract
and motioned with his hand

I glanced back as we walked away
and said, this really blows
yes, he said, but may I say?
you should have quit years ago