less than

an ant
forms a mound with
numerous cousins
easily stepped on

a bee with stingers
cannot
consume you

the warp of
toad can fit into
the palm of your
hand
you can blow it
to smithereens

a body the color
of bark can
hang from a
southern tree

a girl from the
reservation can
disappear into
nothing
never seen

a journalist
speaking truth
is tortured into
lies – he too
vanishes

the world knows
lots of them
the ones sent to
gulags
re-education camps
ghettoes
gas chambers

entire peoples
recommitted to
the rule of tsars
princes
oligarchs
narcissists

the ant at
the mound is
crushed into

nothing

the crushing
is such
a human thing
to do

2/2022

World’s edge*

It’s the sort of thing
you fall in love with
this bit of earth
this wisp of land
so narrow and thin you
only notice it
when you fall

and they know you
are there of course –
the geese –
they give notice before

the wigeons lift above
the wood ducks cry in alarm
and the ring-necks merely
float away

where the goldeneyes
whistle in the spring
and the goldenrod waves
in the fall
milkweed and caterpillars
waft in the wind

this is where guano
is fertilizer – the
planting of seed both invasive
and endemic
not a sign of disrespect
for the dead
although you cannot
disrespect the dead
only yourself

it is an increasingly lonesome
spot – out of the concrete
eye – the paved over
farm fields

but then she is always pushing
through – isn’t she?
those cracks in the wall
where weeds and seeds
take hold and
the living breathe again

4/2022

*From a song by Over the Rhine. According to a study published in 2018 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences humans account for about 36 percent of the biomass of all mammals. Domesticated livestock, mostly cows and pigs, account for 60 percent, and wild mammals for only 4 percent. Today, only 23% of land – excluding Antarctica – and 13% of the ocean remains free from the harmful impacts of human activities.

The weary woman blues

It wasn’t like this in
1972, this gut filled with
anxiety – how do I pay for it?
the way up – forward – out the
door costs ever more –
ever more a lifetime of
indebtedness – can I
make do as a barista oh
college the holy grail of
advancement encloses
those of ordinary means into
a cycle of owing unto death
every generation starts – hopeful
problem solvers all and yet
another problem comes knocking
on America’s door.

And that assumes you live long enough
to get to college as these weapons of
mass destruction are 20 million strong –
makes a woman wonder if that militia
thing covers nuclear weapons or
if some day it will since we all need a bomb –
don’t we – but let’s ban Harper Lee and
Toni Morrison instead since we all know
children who deal with active shooter drills
and the struggle to stay debt free can’t
possibly deal with the truth of
literature – dang! The word really is
more powerful than the gun!

Listen up all my children
you need to know who to blame
the carbon spewing gasmen
name by name by name
the Exxon loving liars who steal
your future now supported by
fifty senators who hold you
hostage with weapons of mass
destruction in your schools
and synagogues your churches
and your grocery stores
they leave you indebted if
you live long enough and
kill your future with
their love of money and
the gun they are digging your
graves all your graves – no
humanity
will not be missed when
sentience goes – no one
to remember left
only grave after grave after
grave

But you need to know
who to blame – yes
you need to know who to blame.

2022

June 2022

This is a lament
for decency gone astray
a nod to everyday women
on this sad day, Shaye Moss –

perhaps the rose of youth
will bloom in splendor
raise a garden over some
graveyard bones – for all

my casting stones at
heavenly bodies above
you shine a light here
in the dark keep on

Miss Rosa keep on.

*4th public hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol

June 2022

Construction

The road ahead of me
is blocked –
orange barrels –
yellow tape
men whistling Dixie
everywhere

Detouring is a thing
these days
if you want to get
home

I can just hear
them – say –
a blue-winged warbler –
perhaps
buzz buzz
in my way
buzz buzz
whether window pane
or turbine
buzz buzz
“man oh man
migration is such a bitch
anymore”

And beaching is a thing
if you are a whale
or getting caught in
a net – entrapped and
likely to die
of starvation

But of course
let deep sea mining
begin
since the oceans
are all screwed up
anyways

When the day
comes –
and it will –
when the only way
across the river
is to swim

just make sure
you know how –

Make sure you don’t
drown

7-2022

The drunkards

Oh my lovely
kitty cat
nipping at the leaf
of a most peculiar
sort of plant
plucking at wings
batting at mice
this drunken sort
of love is not
civilized but
then you never
professed to be
civilized did you

Alas the world
of civilization is
an inhibiting sort
of place – a lost
garden filled with
vipers that bite
and sting poor
woman forced
to raise a child
with her violator
not that folks who
have never changed
a diaper in their
sorry lives have
ever actually raised
anything except
perhaps an eyebrow
or two

8-2022

A protest song

It is something music does to us –
reaches into an inner world
a peculiar sound –
this –
the madness of sisters
daughters
breed cows
mares
feeding – getting fat – breeding
a cow has a
singular life indeed

It is the voice of
a geriatric diva*
this story of love
gone to gambling –
drink -excess belonging to
the proclivities of
privileged men

oh most dastardly
brother – the
Bride of Lammermoor
veiled in frippery
draped in blood
with a knife
she does protest

“Oh! qual funesto avvenimento!
Tutti ne ingombra cupo spavento!”**

It is the chorus who
speaks to us
most glorious music
wondrous song
announcing with chill
the madness of
every woman
who protests
glorious Scotland
can defeat her enemies
while she crumbles
within

Perhaps every word is a
protest
every syllable
every note
every brush stroke
every breath
perhaps to breathe
is to protest
against the injustice
of it all
and yet –
and yet
when the
ball and chain
are fixed to
your ankle
again
you can still hear
her singing

*When Joan Sutherland sang the role of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor for the last time in 1988 she was in her 60s

**Oh what a tragedy!
A numb terror paralyzes us all!

October 2022

Tough birds

Every woman can hear you
“Na…….ncy”
“Na……………..ncy!”
these weaker vessels who
carry water jugs
and fruit baskets
on top of their heads
babies inside their bellies
and in their arms
who chase away snakes
and rescue children
from angry cows
who trap vermin and
strangle chickens
who gather their young
and keep them safe
every woman hears you
and we are not amused

November 2022

Everything Leviticus

Love one another.
John 13:34

It isn’t love – this
closet-enforced living
with clothes hangers
and dust bunnies
winter coats and
old shoes not worn
in decades

It isn’t love – these
autocratic laws*
leaving autonomy and
freedom and well,
the normal,
on a window sill,
like an un-watered
plant, leave it
long enough and
it will wither
and die
this isn’t love not –

the arrest and
conviction**
when even
words are second-rate
citizens and irony falls
victim to the
jailer’s key

It isn’t love
when death***
is the only answer
to a nature that
runs in a different
lane sings in
a different key
but with a melody
so beautiful it
rings in the stars
just the same
it isn’t love

when you kill it.

4/2022

*Russia provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

**Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was arrested for gross indecency and sentenced to prison from 1895-1897.

***Matthew Shepard (1976-1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured, beaten and left to die near Laramie

Woke

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Maya Angelou

Early morning the
chickadee comes –
darts to the feeder
peanut – sunflower seed –
he grabs and is gone
when he comes later
invariably a blue jay
or a squirrel
will be sitting there
king of the castle
or even a goldfinch
holding forth –
away oh chickadee
this food is mine

Even a siskin will
snarl when it comes
to food

And this sentinel for
all things raptor is
never accorded the
respect he deserves
chick – dee chick – dee
warning all of
what is to come
best listen to him –
he – my persistent guy
my favorite little
fella my kindred
spirit my eye
onto the world
as it truly is
speed dexterity
a willingness to be
unafraid –
staying awake always

For in a world of
bullies and narcissists
you will starve
to death as
surely as an
Irish peasant in 1847

Staying awake is how
a chickadee survives

11-2022