dopesick

Pull up to Harbor Freight

to buy a thing or two,

Beyond the windshield

shaking boy skinny

White trash watershed

"That boy's sick" you say

We both know what you mean.

It's not the flu and not a cold.

"Hey, man." Boy calls out,

the words quickly flow out

desperate explanation,

Like pressing your thumb over

the end of a hose, your suppression

the more he grifts, the more dollars lift

Out of your wallet, four dollars

And shake your head,

"I don't need to know.

If you need it, you need it."

We all three feel the relief

like how mushrooms can

Feel each other without senses

He gulps and says, 

"Thank you...at least someone understands."

And we both know, he won't be there

when we leave, he will chase dragons

Down the line, your kindness

hits my heart all the time.

females

That's the greatest task

to learn and thus be wiser-

reflexive, retroview, grayscale.

to feel my life in spiral time

feeling through and feeling in

to feel to feel to feel again.

To feel into each moment

cry into lessons, lean into delight

absorb the wild world.

Learn, learn, learn.

Suck out the wet knowledge 

beaconing as too long glances,

staring, penetrating eyes.

Pull on the tethered neurons

syncing, tug of war, wisdom

in the past, encrypted in my DNA,

pause and listen, the books

it took man ten thousand years to write

all resides within us, outside us,

Ripe for the taking. Learn more

from a rogue bee than all the men.

 

tiger

Is protected land just a geographic cage

with danger links, posts are heavy,

Like how emotional baggage carries

strained on the arms, budging bags

grip it tighter. The imaginary border

between home and the great big world,

boundaries, I know and do not know,

stepping over, under, beside, within.

It makes a messy time for sure.

trees and bees

Ecosystem in a tree;

Ecosystem that in me.

Bamboo leaves

                -Fall

from the sky;

from the heavens

we wait.

wish

Bunnies beyond the fence

and clouds over head

it's always tomorrow I think of, 

When I should be in today.

promise

When the time comes,

I will say "I'm a divorced widow."

with confidence even if

it's with the voice of a child.

estate sale

We show up late and get in line

the man before us explains 

he is the brother, 

"Oh you the brother of the former owner."

The doorman says,

And the man nods,

I turn away,

We are here to buy your dead brother's things.

There a wait-list, we are on it,

But the garage is open in the back.

Things you learn about people 

you'll never meet, buying the stuff

they left behind, with people we just met.

We discuss them like we knew them,

As we'll know their things.

She was a poet and gardener.

He a carpenter and grandfather.

I wish the brother was here 

to hear how we revere them and their things.

It's our turn in the house,

it smells like pee but that's where

the vinyl was, so is the brother.

"I'm sorry" I bleep as I scuttle by,

The brother points to an album in my arms,

"That was a gift, have you heard it?"

"No...just liked the cover."

I blush. I pay the cashier.

Money makes it feel transactional.

Money sanitizes the truth.

We are just soldiers slipping boots off a deadman,

Neanderthals fighting over the good cave,

Proudly holding up objects now ours,

back to our lives and our homes,

The former owners have not.