Time Release

What bufferin for swallows sent
to agitate for resolutions
set aside, as found money
neutralizes the need for them?
Rather the symmetry
of the fearless crow ,
breast shuddering with indignation,
as when in spring,
the nesting tree passed by...
shit outta luck
at the birdfeeder tonight.

Pine Jacking

Full moon lenses
resins on a
smoke-baked
charcoal path
for heroics ,
scavenging the fallen tree.
Congratulations
to a hard place
and cozy
vengeance.

Rather Merry

Practical life in a country town
needs nothing more than
flaming brandy poured
from a snakeskin purse,
tempering crushed glass
to curriculum vitae,
making palatable gall
of simmering feuds
in the taffy stage
of pulling

The Tree Knows Where It Is

Forty numbered rules
for living well
smirch ephemeral
snow scenes,
dead on the page
sloganeering beneath
the bright white
patch of blue;
frozen eyes
locked with
the Windego,
his sun gone down
while it was yet day.

Exhortation

Don't go there!
ice around the edges
of the pond is
suitable only for
viruses more stable
in cold weather;
tissues of molecules
obedient to
duration of
light...

Fiscally Responsible

Fine arts like arithmetic,
printing their names...
what, you're five years old
and you haven't got
a business plan?
how are you ever going
to distinguish yourself
child, when you want to play
while the others know
from birth
that the teacher
is the only person
in the room
with any power

Meritocracy

The bride of the west
sends all her lovers
to a glittery
Versailles paradise;
there, war is peace
on just another
day for dynamite

Silicone Redacted

For your next prank,
cutting a swath
through the fabric of materialism
might be an interesting follow-up
to the way you massacred spirit
at the gym and the mall and the bars
and the plastic surgeon's.
Just sayin'...
try winding that swath
sari-fashion...
gold threads at the hem,
henna hair,
light all around you
and your child
returning...
change of a dress.

The Orangery Is On Fire

The Orangery is on fire:
Shackelton has left the building
to his sons and daughters.
Stuck in bio-chemical ice,
quick thawed DNA
reveals Spanish influence:
Lodge of the beaver people
flooded: overland,
electric cars on ice roads:
"prediction very difficult,
especially if it's about the future"
-Niels Bohr

Jovial Songs

A valkyrie rides a snowflake into
a streetlight and it does not melt:
retire early for the unconscious
feast that betrays no one.

Serious Alchemy

Trade winds brought precious
ingredients, stolen whence they
first emerged: peridot, chalcedony
... 17 jewels , wound once a day:
Bonfires at night delighted all
along the levees in the time of
fool/kings practising piracy
to create the wealth of nations.
-inspired by Samuel Pepys, 1666

Pomaceous

Been eating apple seeds
a good many years now.
Hear that they are
hell... toxic
Warn the little ones:
If the first bite
disappoints
throw it away
Devour good ones
bitter- sweet
seeds and all

Where we walk...

"where we walk
to school each day
Indian children
used to play
Not a church
and not a steeple
Only woods
and Indian people"
circa 1958
elementary school songbook