Working Things Out

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090228

PERILOUS PATH

If you haven’t made
the breakthrough
(said the talk-show guru),
you probably haven’t yet
suffered enough:
enlightenment is tough.


090227

FIFTY WAYS

There must be fifty ways
to make a living.

Be an errand runner.
Walk other peoples’ dogs.
Keep their books
and business logs;
help them with their moolah.

Write and edit resumes.
Be handyman or doula.
Train or coach in what you know
(unless it’s obsolete).

Turn hypnotist or fung shui-ist.
Massage the public’s feet.

Be creative, smart, and thrifty.
Make gift-baskets if you’re “gifty.”
Clowns, consider party-giving.

‘Cause if your age is over fifty,
there must be fifty ways—
oh, all of fifty ways
to make a living.


090226

AIR LAUNCH

Taking the rise
of a lakeside hill at dawn,
I get overflown (barely)
by a squadron of geese
taking the rise
from the opposite side.

Lifted
by sudden wonder,
I soar, too.


090225

SUSPENSE

This sword—
this sword of Damocles—
let it fall!

Let it all
be over, please.


090224

B’CUZ

Why write
words and lines
so short?

Why write
so little
and so slow?

Why write poems
of this sort?

I write about
what I know.


090223

POME
PRODUX

Uh?
Oh!
Ah!


090222

UNACCOMPLISHED

What’s that word?

The word for a good-looking
home interior; the one that means
clean, cared-for, inviting, organized,
welcoming, nurturing, picked-up,
uncluttered or decluttered, aesthetic,
tidy? I keep fumbling toward it;
toward or away.


090221

IN TIME OF TROUBLE

When others sorrowed, did I care?
When they succumbed, was I there?
How then, now, can I plea
for someone to be with me?


090220

PAIN

I’m told it isn’t real,
just the breaking of the shell
of understanding; just part of
life as a dream or play.

That tells me
I am an exceptionally talented
method actor.


090219

FIT, OR SPLIT

Square peg.
Round hole.
You don’t fit the job.

Round hole.
Square peg.
The job; it doesn’t fit.

Some jobs bolster.

Others clobber:
these you have to quit.


090218

I ASK YOU

What earthly use
is a cat—
but heavenly delight?


090217

THE SNEEZIES

Baby, when you get the sneezies,
that can lead to icky queezies
in your chest and in your head.

Please-y, please-y, take it easy.
You don’t want some bad disease-y.
Come, let’s get you into bed!


090216

HE READS ME

I try not to consider
newspapers, internet,
magazines, and books.

Words, words, words;
everywhere he looks.

All of these are fine.
But I, by now, have learned
not to be concerned:
the words he wants are mine.


090215

FEB FIFTEEN

No valentine of poetry
were these words
that came to me:

The ides of February
never got famous,
nor will you, you ignoramus.


***