Young Sons and Lovers

Go away
Don’t leave me
He looks over his shoulder
Pleading
Don’t touch me
Hold me
Sullen
He shrugs
Inveigling attention
He rejects
She remains
Steadfast

ONCE UPON A SUMMER NIGHT

A million little space ships
Lights blinking
Ferrying passengers
to and fro

A Puzzle

A Crossword
A walk
A bath
A book

Memorial Day

Once on a Memorial Day weekend
We were promised a day at the beach
Instead we were met with Police
Coming out of my mother's bedroom
I raised my eyebrows and thought
What has she done this time
It wasn't entirely unusual
To see the police
There was the time she totaled her Corvair
My mother was dead
But I didn't know it yet
The neighbors who took us in
Murmured about blood on the pillow
But I didn't know it yet
I knitted my eyebrows
Cocked my young head
It couldn't be true I said
To myself
She can't be dead
She promised to take us to the beach
It wasn't the first time
She broke her promise
It was the last

A Wake

I dreamt
Of standing on the Bridge
Regarding
Mountainous waves
On the horizon
Repelling
The draw
Of the tide
Gravity
Gaining sea legs
Riding out the storm
Sailing on a wind of change

To Wind in Lonely Fences

A hot dry summer
Afternoon
A maelstrom of dust
In light shafts

He drips cool water
Slowly
In the gully
Between her ribs
It pools in her navel

He inserts his tongue
It overflows
In rivulets down her sides
She shivers

A Tree Falls

Sheets wafting in the wind
Of cold rain
Hillsides blanketed
In mauve chenille
Acid green covers
Ground and solitary trees
White filigree stands out
In isolated tufts
I’ve made my bed