Uber

Want to get a workout? Order Uber in your PJs.

Learning ins and outs

Of Uber.

I had heard

It did not work

Where I live.

Apparently it does.

I was trying it out

In my pajamas

Car arriving in seven minutes

It said.

Car arriving

In five minutes

I did not want a car

To arrive.

Destination?

Destination?

Destination?

Cancel ride

Cancel ride

Cancel ride

I am now more awake

Than I ever was.

Fresh kitten eyes

The world of the kitten is ever new.

The Christmas tree

Is down.

It has found its home

In the basement.

The living room

Is as it was

Mid-December.

The kitten has found

New things to climb,

New things

To knock to the floor,

New things

To watch

Out the window.

The life of a kitten

Is ever-changing,

Always new.

She offers

Fresh kitten eyes

On the world.

Bishop dreams

Remembering and reclaiming chutzpah.

In my dreams

Pieces of the past

Make themselves present,

Weave new stories.

One of my first bishops

Arrives for Thanksgiving dinner.

I introduce him

To the family.

He praises the seasoning

On the filet mignon.

Awake

I tell stories

Real stories

Non-dreamed stories

To my beloved

Of this bishop

How I redefined the rules,

How he let me

Redefine the rules

So I could vote at Convention:

Me

A priest in my late twenties..

I had chutzpah then.

I guess that’s where

It came from.

Melt line

I am glad for signs of spring, an end to winter.

It sort of snowed

Last night.

This morning

Where the sun is

The snow isn’t.

The melt line says:

It’s more spring

Than winter now.

The robins have arrived.

The juncos will soon

Be on their way north.

I saw a goldfinch

At the thistle seed sock.

In the sun

He has begun

To gleam

Only a hint

But it’s there.

The melt line:

White on one side,

Green on the other,

Says

It’s more spring

Than winter.

I see it.

I swear I do.

When I die

When I die

Whenever it is

However it is

I would like a service

Calling to mind

The Resurrection

And me

With it

And

In it.

When I die

I would like a party

In celebration of my life

Including the difficult bits.

We all have

Difficult bits.

When I die

I would like to become ashes

And spread

And scattered

And strewn

Somewhere the family

Deems fit

Where I can nourish

Nematodes

Prairie flowers

A scrub pine,

perhaps,

A black panther

Maybe even

A hawk.

When I die

I would like to be returned

To the earth.

When I die

I would like to see

What comes next.

Fishing for socks

Life with kitten. Always something new.

She fishes for socks

In the laundry basket

Adept

At pulling them out

Through the holes

One by one.

No matter how much

I squish them down

Her front legs have grown,

Her claws

Kitten-sharp

Find them

One by one.

We play

Fishing for socks

Until something else

Catches her attention.

To hear

Thank you, my friend (you know who you are), for the lovely green, bamboo imprinted batik with this quotation from Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy. A worthy reminder.

To hear,

   one must be silent.

-Ursula Le Guin

I know this

Until I forget.

I am prone

To forgetting,

Until I remember again.

This seems the way

It goes:

Knowing

Forgetting

Only to remember again.

I build buffers of silence

So I can hear.

I stop speaking

So I can hear,

Maybe then

I speak.

If I remember.