Poetry
The Beloved Leaves Without Goodbye
Roses from Susan and a christening
into what I have no idea of.
Time Benders!
On Terminal Disease Square, at the intersection of Doubt and Despair, live the Benders of time,
The Art of Sighing
The art of sighing isn’t hard to master;
each day greets us with news of fresh disaster.
Summer Ash
You could fly for an instant
whole body in separate hands
cupped and held hands
you could fly when they let you
Iwo Jima Diary
In a slot of Grandma Ada’s rolltop
I found a hand-colored photo
of Uncle D. in his Marine uniform, smiling,
eyes bluer than the overbright sky
of the hand-tinted tropical backdrop
Impossible Objects
Her mom’s been bleeding for days.
Transfusion after transfusion
As if her veins were sieves
Going Out on the Ice
Nanuk thought it was time,
time to go out on the ice,
to relieve her family of one more useless
mouth to feed during this hungry time
Gatsby
We’re all Gatsby, always have been, standing lonely on our own pier,
Looking for the certain future, rich as Croesus, really, in this world,
Food, rent, man, and printed books online. It’s all on line!
Flashbulb Memory
Under the dresser
a small plastic button
uncovered as if
all of the sudden,
Field Notebook at Tinicum
I could have used the set of traveling colors,
the brush with its barrel of water.
Day Job
They still call it that
Even though now it’s all just screen time
Of course it is day
Definitely.
Code Blue
In the beginning there is chaos.
Alarms and running and pressured orders.
A conglomerate of people with a shared goal.
Chameleon
I laugh when others laugh,
but offer naught to conversation;
standing still against a shaded wall
observing without participation.
Night Sounds in the Time of Covid
Midnight. Sleep eludes me.
As hours pass, my brain is full
of the usual black dogs
Med School Interview, 1975
I’m twenty-one, touring a Chicago hospital in a dirty-snow winter, trailing a student who raves about the school, its illustrious doctors.
Lucky
I remember her clumping tread
the rubber-tipped cane
striking the floor before
the halt-slide step
Writing Checks After Death
The guy in charge of the cemetery
said I would like this site.
It has a seasonal view, Mead’s Mountain in winter,
and you can hear the stream year-round.
Worlds Apart
I saw geraniums
in the first snow,
blood-bright,
upright,
and one yellow daisy.
We Were Supposed to Grow Old Together
People flicker out. Each of us has an unknown
expiration date.
