Dear Senator

Dear Senator

A clean bill of health requires
A clean Health Bill-
No attachments for new tires
Accoutrements to decorate the Hill

Parasitic riders for bridges to nowhere
Or studies for synthetic aeries
Or high altitude habitations of bears
Or birds of prey or dental caries

One bill, one purpose, a simple duty
A nation's wellbeing the ultimate goal
No muss or fuss, a thing of beauty
A struggle for America's soul.

Death by Cell Phone

Death by Cell Phone

They text
From sun to moon
Erudite messages
Wandering busy city roadways
Bridging the boundaries of common sense
Irrational writers in cars
Teenagers seeing stars
Dangerously dense
They text

Drooling Dreams of a Septuagenarian

Drooling Dreams of a Septuagenarian

The edgy uneasiness of growing old
saps the strength from daily life, which must
ease from habit to routine to a slow trust
in tomorrow and embrace a greater need,
and hold in tender arms a new deed.
Vacating employment a decade ago,
unsure which way the winds would blow,
like a sprig, a newly planted seed-

my path turned thoughtful, meditative.
I thought of careless days gone by,
of nights living a glorious high,
and the carnage strewn everywhere;
then I fell asleep in my old, worn chair,
dreaming of warm milk in my underwear.

Chernobyl Ant

Chernobyl Ant

A bit of oval buoyant foam
Some soft coxcomb
Four rubber legs
A skein of eggs
Tied with red thread in a vise
Wound around twice
To keep it real
A buggy feel
Meant to fool a crafty swimmer
As light grows dimmer
The quiet mood
Becomes trout food

The Homestead

The Homestead

Heat waves and tobacco-spitting
grasshoppers in late summer arrive.
She sways in her rocker, pearling, knitting,
Mormon crickets swirl and dive.

Grasshoppers in late summer arrive,
and threshers level the winter wheat.
Mormon crickets swirl and dive,
she knits and pearls in radiant heat

And threshers level the winter wheat.
The old man counts his chickens.
She knits and pearls in radiant heat.
Dust in the air from a combine thickens,

and the old man counts his chickens,
like gold nuggets in a miner's pouch.
Dust in the air from a combine thickens-
She says "Smile Papa, Don't be a grouch!"

Like gold nuggets in a miner's pouch,
his gold teeth flash with a crooked smile.
He ambles to the porch in a tired slouch,
and she pleads with him to sit a while

His gold teeth flash to where she's sitting.
She always makes him feel alive.
Heat waves and tobacco-spitting
grasshoppers in late summer, still thrive

The Gospel According to Lil Abner

The Gospel According to Lil Abner

If I had my druthers
I’d druther have my druthers
Than anything else I know…Bobby Darin

I’d druther be a pair of ragged claws
And etc. than live without my druthers

I’d druther be born in Arkansas
Then live with a woman who smothers

My druthers, keeps me locked inside a cage
Hates the fact all men are brothers

I’d druther be my sorry self
Than a stagnant wimp upon a shelf

I’d druther live as a spirit free
And choose the way I wanna be

So dear you’d better find another,
I’ll never give up until my dying druther

The Longest Day of the Year

The Longest day of the Year

Fly fisherman imagine that the rivers
are running only for them, there where the spring
from the high lakes form with a trickle
of snow-melt. Yawning in the spring run-off of sleep,
flow memories of flora and fauna, children, labor,
family and comedy and tragedy, the quiet thoughts
of loss, and the odor of love and the pulse
of the heart that is beating now, at this moment,
where the fish are rising in each of us, and no-one else.

Not So Plain Bill

Not So Plain Bill

Today another Billy passed
Billies are vast
Twas Billy May
Billy the kid, another day
dead on Boot Hill
Buffalo Bill
Then William Tell, another Bill fell
Where archers dwell
Billy Carter and Billy Bob
Joined the mob
It's been a thrill
We'll see ya Bill!