Krystallnacht

 We're not the same

As them

Store windows smashed

Streets filled

With broken glass

Capitol breached

We're not the same

We would never do

Such things

Not us

Not us

Surely

Not us

Connected

We are connected

One device to another

Telephone

Computer

My sleep doctor reads my sleep machine

On line

Begs to differ with me

When I say

I'm doing fine

 

No, you're not

He states firmly

Over Zoom 

 

My seizure watch

Alerts the family

To seizures on the horizon

Because most often

I do not know

They are galloping in

Until after

I have been left

In the dust

 

 

Booth

Peter

 

Stood excited next to Him

On the mountain

Was Jesus tempted to let him

Build it? 

Was he tempted

To  consider companionship

With Moses and Elijah

The ones who got the drift 

Send the disciples back down to the valley

After the construction

 

 Mary

The house down the road  matches the robin's

Egg-blue shrine to Mary

She chuckles 

When we drive by

My friend's son called from Labrador

He will have three days in Kuwait to get acclimated

Before he arrives in Baghdad

I prayed the Stations of the Cross last night

 I  never could get why the Roman Catholics

Worshiped Mary so much

I believe I understand now

But now I realize she allowed

Her Son to be sacrificed

Mine is not the same thing

Of course  not

I whispered

But it is

Sukkoth

During the Feast of Booths

A temporary shelter is raised

In backyards

Roof open to the sky 

Meals are shared there

The kids camp out 

For days

A remembrance of the forty years

We are always meant to move on

Roof open to the sky

 

Home

 

Let us build a booth

See the stars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revision

Do you revise

Your poetry?

Sure 

You write every day

But what about

Another look

At the same poem

Don't leave her behind

Take another gander

Not a goose

But a gander 

Are there other ways

You may say the same thing

Are there other ways

The same subject calls

Have you said enough

We'd like to hear more

 

 

 

Jellybeans

Erik, age five,

Got one watermelon jelly bean

When he finished his breakfast

My mother visited

She said

We don't eat jelly beans

For breakfast

Here we do

I said

Here we do

Simply and Wonderfully Made

 All is

Simply and wonderfully

Made

Whether we notice

Or not 

We must put on

Our noticing eyes

Our noticing ears

Then 

The world changes

No

The world speaks to us

The world swoops

Like the goldfinch

In the backyard

Treasure mined

Next to the linden

Doctor's Notes

The notes arrive

After the visit

They remind me

Of my physical history

The medications I take

When the follow-up

Will come

There is always

A follow-up

Next month

Of course 

Next month 

 

Retired

The more people I tell

I'm retired

The more real

It feels

Retirement does not come

Easy

Still

One person 

At a time

With

That a girl

That a girl

You can do it 

I may get there yet

 

Sensible Shoes

I learned the importance

Of sensible shoes

From my mother

She is gone 

But sensible

Comfortable shoes

Stay

I remain grateful

For the lasting knowledge

Of sensible shoes

It is knowledge

I have passed on

To my daughter

Full-Blossomed

 Full-blossomed

The crab apple out back

Catch it before

The blooms

Are blown away 

 

Full-blossomed

The singular red tulips

Catch them before 

The petals fall off

In the wind

Full-blossomed

The spring

Catch it before

It moves

To summer

The fruits arrive

 

Full-blossomed

Our children

Catch and hug them before

The wind

Has its way with them

Then

Hug them again