Red Bird Return

Out in our garden,

your hands and the smell of earth.

A red bird observes.

~for Becky, whose mother visits us in spring as a cardinal.

Woman / Water ~ A Cinquain

Jesus:

What have you done?

You travel a hard road.

I am blessed by your hair and tears,

Woman

The Great Garbage Strike Tornado ~ Triolet

I’ll never forget the great garbage tornado

that trashed Manhattan in nineteen eighty three.

It began uncollecting from rot piles in SoHo,

We'll not soon forget the great garbage tornado,

Omnivorous Eddy, the landfill dynamo.

When the city was hostage, the mayor held the key,

never to forget the great garbage tornado,

oh, stinky Manhattan, nineteen eighty three!

For Martin ~ A Tritina

When he came down from the mountain,

he wasn't worried anymore; his joy was not withheld.

He knew the struggle would take them home.

Not again to ride in the rear of these buses home.

Without him, they would cross the mountain,

prejudice, abuse, mistrust, and murder, finally withheld.

In the promised land, grace will not be withheld;

together, we will find our freedom's home.

We will know his courage, when we cross the mountain.

He saw it all from the mountain; the promise not withheld, and the bullet that would take him home.

Martin Luther King was assassinated at 6:01 April 4th, 1968

Quarry

Sunlight surrounds her

like limestone dust on the air.

Transfixed, she waits.

Again, the red maples bud

under shelter of the oak.

crow outpaces the clock ~after Ted Hughes and Werner Heisenberg

time is the abyss, the bridge, the long fall

time is the staunch resistance to now

time is a lagging indicator

measured cold new

grows old waiting for time

to catch up and still

no one understood

what Heisenberg meant

those 2.6 billion moments ago,

on a trajectory mocking the arc

of the crow,

. nothing

upon nothing below

for Caitlin and her boyfriend, Abstract Algebra

The Grate

in a moment

his hands were gone

.

he found himself in the water

water and bread / the grate

time was stronger than stone

.

go, look through the key-hole and see

she was red silk with fiery eyes

.