Cardinal rules

Listen closely and
you can hear him
chip he goes chip
chip a hard C
and then another
she responds
chip – chip
call and response
keeps them safe
from sharp shinned
and Cooper’s
listen closely
that is what it takes
the mewl of a catbird
quack of a mallard
different from a
wigeon almost
whistling
and the eagle’s sharp
high pitched screech.

It is easy to get
lost in the noise
when verbosity
inundates you
hurts your head
every time you
turn it
and that is the purpose
confuse fact and fiction
cruelty and kindness
the coming and the going.

Easier to tune it out
of course
quit listening
hide under the bed
but –
listen closely
I say and soon
you too can see
oak and pine
and hemlock
you too will
see the forest
full of trees.

2/2025

careful friend

careful friend
they come
for you

the noose – the gallows
knows no blue
or red
it only knows
obsequious
deferred a bit
and not on end

tilt a little and
watch the wind
blow you
out to sea
no wind cares that
you can’t breathe salt
or that flying
is not your thing

and no my friend
i won’t be here
to answer for
your faith
they will have sent me
helter skelter
into outer space
my face oh friend
my face my face
is ever out
of place

so careful friend
they’ll hunt you
too
if you bend a bit
askew

2/2021

Cancel culture

We have done this like
forever
haven’t we?

When Anna’s cousin was
beaten to death by Mrs. Hicks
for falling asleep over
a crying child
the toll of countless
sleepless nights was not
considered – no being a
slave means
stay awake,
stay awake, stay awake
or die.
The child belonged to
Mrs. Hicks.
Of course.
The crime was falling asleep.
Not the torture.
Not the beating her dead.

We have done this like
forever.
haven’t we?

Demby ran to the river
not heeding the voice
of Austin Gore an
overseer who mastered the
whip with glee.
The river was pure and cool
and away from the lash when
the gun shot him dead.
The mixing of water and red
is the foundation upon which
America stands.

Culture is just a somewhat thing.

We have done this like
forever.
haven’t we?

The hunting of humans
leads back to the wild
where beast is the norm
and conscience is void
straddle two worlds
natural selection
and vehement use of
technical invention.

We have done this
what seems like
forever
seems like Amistad
was a miracle.

I am looking for miracles
every day miracles,
miracles as norm
since we’ve done
this like

forever

haven’t we?

2021

Remember them always from Emmett Till to George Floyd and all those who came before, after and between.. May the world change.

Historical note: Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass gives an account of the incidents in this poem.

Hyperthermophile*

If I were a betting woman
my money would be on you
resident of Old Faithful
lingerer on a deep-sea vent
tolerant of Death Valley I bet
you are doing just fine in Salem,
Oregon June of 2021 I doubt
this weather is phasing you
at all, minute though you are
naked to my eye so small
but fierce like the vireo
defending her eggs from a
foraging jay – I watched her
as she dove and dove again
pushing him back
hunger makes us do things –
all of us and I see the
hunger coming when the soil
turns to powder so fine you
wonder where the seeds are
when everything turns to
dust

*An organism that can survive in really hot environments, 140 degrees Fahrenheit and upwards.

Checkpoint Charlie*

Can you imagine it? Little
brown skinned children evading
the sharp eyes of the Texas
governor giving all those legislators
Covid, yes those little devils,
challengers of walls and all things that
injure wildlife roam the state
Capitol in this, the hottest of
wars

Mister patriotic, friend of
the KGB, (well formerly), seems to
get a kick out of blaming
children – poor children that is,
since everyone knows the
poor are always to blame

Yes folks, they are children and
are to be blamed, or
so we are told since my uncles
who went to medical school to
study all this stuff don’t know
nothing,
or so we are told

Cold wars, hot wars,
pandemic wars, I want
the most stuff wars –
can’t get enough of it,
can we? And good thing too
since we can always blame
the little brown skinned
children yep
as American as
apple pie

*The best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. I traversed this point back in 1975.

In the time of rain and dust

This is the place to be
or so say those nerdy
folks who watch
the sun, dig at tree
roots, study the fish,
this land where the
people change from
Bedouins to skippers
in days, years,
minutes – in the land
where snow disappears
into hoax like it never
was

This is where wildfires
devour fewer homes
heat domes don’t settle
wires do not melt
where lungs, livers and
hearts stand a chance
of surviving the fire
that consumes the organs
of anything mammal
bird or toad
this is the place to be
alas

2021

Living on the coast of drama

It sure is addictive
the constant pressure
to one-up
man-up
push the extra weight
off this water bound
airship
into the thicket of
bramble and gator
snake at the ready
venom constant
living can
wear a person
plum out

and that’s the point
of course
bury me in the
downtrodden sea
so I never
speak again

my voice is just
a rat gnawing
at that broken-
down conscious
of yours

but even a midge
has to eat
or how would it
feed the swallows and
swifts
the never-ending
floating of wings?

10/2021

The death revelers

What a curse it is
this touching
display of the love of
hatred and fear
words that go by
different names these days
the vigilante as
victim

My window on the world
never ceases to amaze me

There is a hierarchy from
big to small from
squirrel to jay to sparrow
what is a poor
chickadee to do?

Dart in dart out
live a life on the run
for

The gun is the biggest
thing yet – certainly
bigger than the
Word*

Leave us to
bleed or live
a life of darting

I’ve been darting
a lot these days
perhaps I can
learn a thing or
two from the
chickadee my
mirror into all
that is beautiful

*Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Fall 2021

Creating Eden

The brown marmoset
stink bug rests
upon my deck
rigid in anticipation
as I
sweep him into
a pail of
soapy water

I could of course
crush him
squeeze out the
very juice of him
but

they aren’t called
stink bugs by
accident

tending a garden
isn’t easy

but when the monarch
sits against a
puddle of water
and the finches
munch on echinacea
seeds and the toad
scurries beneath the
fallen leaves
oh my heaven
she is beautiful

Fall 2021

1619

Money will follow a lie
or
the lie follows the money
take your pick
both are true

When a child is separated
from his mother in
Texas or Arizona or
wherever
know that the gun sold
south to a drug lord in
Guatemala or El Salvador or
wherever
this is the link
this – the gun

Follow the money that
follows the lie or
the lie that follows the
money
take your pick
both are true

Amphibians decline from
atrazine
birds crash into windows
the wolverine of Michigan is
no more
the coral reefs, the deep ocean
fishes, the polar bears, the penguins –
will they survive the
changes in their habitats
– or will there be nothing there?

Money follows the lie and
the lie follows the money
both are true
take your pick
whatever

They came before my ancestors who
followed them aboard
the Winthrop fleet of 1630
I can trace it yes I can but
then my ancestors were not
equated with cattle and
spoons and forks

They were here first – no lie but
It is difficult to trace the truth in
a lie told for
centuries – no – you
only find them by
following the money
that follows the lie or
the lie which
follows the money

both are true

Arrogance and conceit –
they do not want you
to know this
but this is true
follow the money
follow the lie
they intertwine like
vipers and will
poison you

Don’t believe the lie and
let the money go
follow the truth
there is no money In truth
truth is an essence
money can never own.

12/2021-1/2022