This One’s for You

Ear ring guy pops open
the first Bud of the day from the 12 pack
On the trunk of a beat up Volvo
No pretense here
Beginning the numb down
At 10:15 AM.

John Walker and Sons and I are
Watching across the parking lot
Witnesses to a steady stream of congregants
Sacramentally tampering down the brewing tempest
Brown bags in hand
We keep our doubts and fears mostly private this morning
Except for our soft cries and
Our silent anguishes
As we wait vainly for our savior to arrive.
I hear he is coming
Sometime later this month...
Meanwhile there is always Bud.

 

Persistence

The sycamores come earthward soon
They say goodbye and tawny down
They are not shy nor do they tease.
Their story is of letting go
Of what was once flushed bright in green
They give up and accept their change.
 
The maples hang by threads up high
As if to say “just one more day.”
And so I am amused by them
Turning red, then brown, then down
These sunsets beckon us goodbye
Once blushed against the cobalt sky
Their story is of holding on
Fearful of the days to come.
 
The beech persists throughout the year
They carve their names upon the heart
Both green and brown are seen above
They charm us with their dignity
Leaves rattle against the wind and cold
Their story is so often told
New life is born out of the old
By holding tight then letting go.

 

Turning

The grass nods and sways
Bent by the plump pendulums of their prosperity
And small birds ride and forage
Springing and swaying at the seeded ends.
They fill the sky as they wing about,
More today
Than yesterday
They listen as they feed
To the Katydid's crescendos
They too gorge on the bounty
And sing their boundary song:
Soon, soon they signal
Of times coming when days will grow short
Can you hear it too?

Can you see the change in the light?
Golden early morning glimmers 
Off the dew draped orbs

photo by Virginia Levasseur

Spiders harvesting an orgy of insects
Eating the fat plump bodies, leaving
The stiff delicate wings to decorate their webs,
A warning few seem to heed.

All is taken as it is given
All living while they may,
As sweet ripeness fill guts
Energizing for their long journeys...

Can you smell the richness
Just before the rot?

The change will surely come
Soon enough,
Turn, turn
Soon enough.

Arbitrator

 Life or death
good and bad
pendulum swings
arcing wide
and so judgmentally
we arbitrate
Plowing through
the drifts of our days
deciding
parting reality into
left and right
this way and that
defining
sorting
naming
categorizing
and faulting.

Seems a bit of a curse
perhaps,
says I,
Who has no one else
to blame.

Soap Bubbles

I'm probably the only one at this moment
who is thinking of Ernie.
Of the 7 billion humans who awake to see this day
I am the one;
The perpetuator
The bearer of memories
The transmitter of genes.

It is said that after you are dead
you live on in the memories
and the mind wanderings of those who loved you
-A kind and selfish hope-
as all of us will surely follow him.
But in a generation or two
these ties will wear thin
Stretched, with the elastic that draws us
growing weaker and slacked
And then finally
...snap...

So then perhaps we are truly free
of all that has bound us to our life,
Our human form, such a temporary state:
We are soap bubbles rising
straining to exist
then at last
failing and fading and finally
invisible to the eye and mind and heart,
but never truly gone.

Honu

We meet at the edge Honu,
Old ones who have just now crossed paths.
You have roamed the ocean
  many days and years
  swam and swam...
  so what do you know, Kumu?
-I watch and wait
  and smile-
To be strong and quiet and steady?
Such a marvel.
And to meet today for a lunch:
You some shoreline algae
Me an apple banana.
Both with sunshine on our backs
Both with our feet in the water.


What I know of you Honu,
  of your struggles and triumphs,
  is because you have the courage and the will
  to come to this shore
  and to share your wisdom and way.
-Sometimes you rest quietly in the warm sun
-Sometimes you paddle strong against the tide
and storms
-Sometimes you move with the greater flow.

I know of these ways too Honu,
And to see you today
  shows me this truth,
  reminds me of these lessons,
  refreshes me,
As I wait and watch and smile.