Oh Hide Those Hills of Snow

April, hide your hills of snow
they’re bursting from your frock

The customers who frequent here
quite often stare in shock

We’re here to serve mint lattes
not to bend and pout and wink

Forget how tips grow bigger
when your customers see pink

Inspired by POW prompt 19 from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, Act 4 Scene 1.

A Goose at Counting Zeros

I was never swayed by numbers.
our mutual rejection drove me straight
to the arms of letters, who embraced me
after no more than that first glance

I saw numbers make classmates cringe
especially the negative ones
while letters yearned to live together
performing acts of creation
forming words, then sentences
then stories that made me smile

As a young athlete, some numbers made us
weep and slam locker doors
while letters formed the language of learning
and winning when it was due
We earned and wore ours with pride
and yeah, they got us the girls

Numbers told the cost
for rites of passage in a world
filled with cannibalism and greed
and when we got the bill and learned
how even the sacred can be counted
our burdens got heavier

When we added letters after our names
in hopes of changing the world
it made for a magical passage
through new doors they caused to open

In the smelly, dusty marketplace
numbers made some people whores
desperate to steal from neighbors
sell flour sacks filled with stones
dance like exploited chimps

Too many numbers betrayed
grandmothers in mournful stories
of working at the drive-up window
discarding their dreams
slinging freedom fries

Being a goose at counting zeros
hasn’t left me lacking
I’ve seen numbers corrupt others
while letters save the world
and having felt the difference
I never had to choose

Inspired by POW prompt 18, what are you a goose at?

Our Own Paradise

When I won the sperm lottery
privilege was mine
that was my car pool, the front of the line

They taught me football
piano and drums
some taught their daughters to primp and to come

None of this was real
but yet it all was
none of this was real
we had no way of knowing

Everything held together
in a pause within the sea
held in the sweet coastal heat between you and me

We had been given
our own paradise
nobody warned us of the pain or the price

None of this was real
but yet it all was
none of this was real
so why didn’t you tell me?

Shouldn’t we ask for more than this?
Haven’t we already got more than we need?

Shouldn't we have asked for more
any more
any more than this?

Maybe cool shade trees
sorghum sweeps
and a little happiness?


Provoked by Rallentanda’s Poetry On Wednesday #17 prompt of Clean Straw for Nothing by George Johnston.

All I Know

I endured underwater
for a hundred million years
under a shimmering inland sea
then tectonic might enough
to birth sapphires and raise high peaks

My leonine people grew strong
repelling plagues of criss-crossing crusaders
Darius and Alex
Ghaznavids, Mongols
Timurids, Persians
all learned how every foot of ground
is like a well of steel

I’ve endured the most recent lot
Brits, Pakistanis, Russians, Talibs
and Americans with their idols
porn, iPods, fast food, drones
and have to wonder
don't their leaders learn?

So as you look ahead to leaving
and there is no doubt you’re leaving
just remember
endurance is all I know


[Inspired by Poetry on Wednesday prompt #16, Endurance. I missed you all and look forward to resuming relations with this esteemed group.]

Only Stones

It’s impossible to imagine
the time and pressure needed
to create these smooth
round stones

More patience than I have

More pressure than I’ll ever know

Sure, they’re only stones
but they’re impressive
and they inspire me

Brink

The final grain of sand
clings to the smooth shoulder
of the hourglass
as if to halt time
or to make it beg

Lately that’s how life feels

It takes courage to defy gravity
but a grain of sand perched alone
can’t feel the power of community
or the velocity of a stone

How My Year Began

My year began with water
gentle mists soaking green tufts of moss
rising streams taunt but never threaten
clouds who say because I can
birthing small agnostic rainbows

My year got better with a visit
from the fat squirrel couple
still pretending that they’re dating
she still laughs at all his jokes

Had I read the news
it might’ve caused a dismal start
so I set aside the papers
longed for news inspired by dreams

We’re asked to pause this day
feel the pull of our reflections
not the kind that killed Narcissus
but the kind that give us hope

Could this be the one day
when I cast away chimera?
Start the year by understanding
I’ve more power than I know