alzheimer's one

- public domain -

BREAKFAST IS OVER, we lie side to side.
Her head warms the crook of my arm.
This will be our conversation for the morning.

SLEEPY TIME

between the neurons

and quasars,

quarks and anti-quarks,

and sleepy time for you especially,
my pillow-headed

pumpkin guy.

- public domain -

EITHER SEEN OR BEEN OR BOTH -

Now that’s an easy string of words to say.

They say that Charley Schultz he died today.

So long LucySnoop and LinusCharlie.

Either seen or been or both -

Well, that’s an epitaph, what say?
They say that Charlie Schultz he died today.

- public domain -

FOR ME,
snap a dry stick.
Flick it upwater
like you might flick a fly.
Drop it down ripple
where the bulltrout lie.
And honor me
as it eddies by.

- peter ford -

REEDS

are round me, mate.

Perhaps I see you,
Perhaps I feel your soft
breast feathers rising.
Perhaps.

And so I wait.
And so we wait.

- public domain -

- jenna dalton -

CHARLIE

One time in the main house dining room

I thought I heard a god at song.

Big god, little god, I couldn't tell -

it might even have been
Miss Jesus flirtin'.

So I turned, looked, I listened -

ah Lady J do kiss me
if it wasn't Charlie Sheppard,

little Charlie Sheppard,

laughin'.
             -for Nomi - 3/11/09 -

NOW COME NOW

Sunday sister -

kiss this hand,

this boardwalk boy.

Upon the soft cursing of the moon

we'll ride and play

all the sandy castle songs

that daddy taught us

when the moon was new.

Now come now

Sunday sister -

the Lord's away -
Let's play.

-public domain-

SLOW WINTER LIGHT

dells the meadow

and the little deer go home.

I'll be here when you come

and like an old broken
leaf beneath the snow,

I'll hear you go.

- public domain -

- peter ford -

MY BROTHER BILL - EPITAPH

Once there grew a sapling, deep in a glade

of willows. Screened and cool in noonday sun,

he lived in a world of vespers and evening shade.

Above the sapling greater willows laid

sheltering boughs in sky-crossed benediction.

Once there grew a sapling deep in a glade

with a young summer stream that chuckled and played

and nursed the green rootweb the sapling had spun.

He lived in a world of vespers and evening shade.

And light from a high moon that sometimes strayed

into the wood where, by a willow run,

once there grew a sapling. Deep in a glade

and greyed by early dawn, his shadow made

a green and darkened image of druid genuflection.

He lived in a world of vespers and evening shade

and most dry death when that chuckling water maid

grew humorless under a brown September sun.

Once there grew a sapling deep in a glade.

He lived in a world of vespers and evening shade.

- public domain -

LET ONLY THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

come by.

Those sounds the heart makes
when you say goodbye

or when your partner

begins to cry.

And as you watch there

all your importancies

just die,
just turn to air.

GREAT GREY
STONE RAIN
DADDY -

Mercy.
Grant mercy.

- public domain -

NINE ORPHANS
of the morning came to me.

They came like hooves sans horses.

And they came shouting too,

"Peter, Peter, Pumpkin's mother wants you!"

And I knew they knew me

and had the right one

in the snow.

- public domain -

O MOTHER

do you hear me
down the long white howl
of the white valley wind?

My mouth has arms
that reach down all this long valley,
over frozen waters and empty trees,
stiff in their February days.

O Mother, do you hear me?
Do you hear the white foot
of the rabbit -
a-thump    a-thump?

- public domain -

- public domain -

WHAT DID YOU SEE, THRUSH,

in the windowpane?

Why choose such a glass-snapped death?

Out of all proportion

to your avian fragility

rang your fine whistle of bird bone.

I know there is no turning back from death.

But still  I wonder, can't help but wonder,

what did you see, Anne, in the windowpane?

WHITE MAN
in your blood
crawl sick white things.

Step with me now
 - a brother -
step into the machine.

(So what did you expect -
several thousand years of racist genes
exorcised by aspirin?)

Through these doors
- don't bump your head -
have a seat.

You may fasten your own straps
- or I will -
as you choose.

And let us see now
- you and I -
just how we exit.

Are you ready
white man,
white brother?

Turn on the switch
Mr. Cleaver, Mr. X.
Aahhhh...
GERONIMO!

- public domain -

SNAPSHOT

So it shall be a plenitude of small children

in chaotic placement about the swimming hole.

Three boys kneel in the crawdad catcher's stance.

A young and pretty girl, american blonde,

vibing so sure to be another lost

shopping cart mama when she grows tall,

dreams a breast stroke revery.

- public domain -

ANNA'S EYES

see heart sound.
Anna's blue blue eyes.

- public domain -

SOME LUCKY MATTER TO ME -

that mountain daisy sprouting
from my compost pile.

- public domain -

WHOM SHALL SHE FANG

this day

this Interstate?

-public domain -

DREAM WISP RISING
from a cold dream -

Ice water hands
extract!
Pull out!
Get out!

Death rooms there.

- peter ford -

BLESS THE DANCING LORD
that walks with me upon the turf.
In raindrops do I grow
and where the moss melts liquid
there do I drink.

It is a stallion morning!

- Castle McLaughlin -

- larry calloway -

DOG, NAME CURLY BAKER
snow don't bother him
mud don't, or
water and he
find some place out of wind.
Three sore feet, four, maybe just one, don't matter
nothin' ever bother Curly Baker.
Don't stop movin' 'cept for sleep or
try figger somethin'.
Never succeed figger nothin', make no difference
sit in one place quivver keep in shape
tongue in or out, he never know.

Seem have sense of humor, seldom bark.
Plenty smart but never take trouble.
to learn nothin'. S'posed to be sheep dog.
Nobody hate.
Nobody hate Curly Baker, treatum like Indian
say "GOGETUM", laugh when he go
"no savvy you bet" wag tail.
Too dirty go in house never seem be cold.
He like kids. Wish I
never be cold like Curly Baker and have fun
do no harm nobody hate
maybe even catch muskrat.

Black Curly Baker sit in white snow
breathe frost, keep sharp lookout, wait.
Somebody say: "Looka stupid Dumb Dog".
Ludicrous appearance suggest complete disorder
but simple setup never get out of whack.
Curly Baker okay.
Cavort back and forth cross front bumper pickup, yell
"Curly GEDDOU THERE" him simply put down ears
run jump in irrigation ditch, run long side pickup

down in fields couple mile, couple mile back
get loosened up good, run smooth like lubricated
two piece synchronize dog.

What happen when Curly Baker die?
Nothin'. Brother-in-law prob'ly get new dog.
No hurry. Curly don't do nothin', not even
help feed sheep. Knows how to
work gates, go in, out.
Ask Brother-law: "Looka that Curly Baker",
him only shake head.

I think Brother-in-law like Curly, Curly
think so too. He like be told
"Curly GEDDOU THERE". Put nose in glove,
make joke. Curly not likely die easy.
Been run over twice, still young dog.
 
- Joe Griggs

YOUR HOME IS LIKE A TREE
I climbed as a boy.
It gives and gives,
surprising at every asking
with what it holds,
and yet so easy.
Common as daylight
on the rocks it is,
or sunlight through
an old glass bottle
in the window.

- peter ford -

TEWINOT -
           MIGHTY  MIGHTY

There is no moral to a mountain.
I accept that.
I am coming.

- public domain -

- peter ford -

SNAKE VALLEY

Not much here:
mormons and gentiles,
coyote and crows.

Silence so dear
you can hear for miles
after it snows.

Light so clear
you could put it in vials
if daylight chose.

PAINTIN'S A LOT HARDER 

than pickin’ cotton.

Cotton right there

for you to pick off the stalk.

But to paint,

you gotta sweat your mind.

- Clementine Hunter

- public domain -

MY FRIENDS HAVE BROWN HANDS

brown arms

I laugh in brown.
I sob in white.

- marco layton -

- public domain -

SHELL,
that's not surf I hear

when I put you to ear.

Tidal mama is gone,

took her lullaby too.

Shell, that lonely thirsty
dreaming I hear

is you.

NO
my swallow,

my pretty little,
finding you always

another Capistrano.

No.

- public domain -

AMEN

Except for quiet waters
there's nothing left to say.

- public domain -

ON BEING THREE IN TEXAS

Tomato bush -

my grandpa's garden.

Hideout, hideout

sounded the boy.

Nourish, nourish

sounded his toddling soul.

- public domain -