20210731.0430

Again I long to hear the dice
Roll and clatter among lies
Told with friends as we all fight
The challenges with our feigned might
That others yet to us present--
And that we might actually win.

20210730.0430

Not yet two score
Certainly not more
Yet I am sore
As rare before
I think I tore
Something loose

20210729.0430

The Ides of March
Do not approach
But the Julian ending
Does encroach
And Augustine rising
Comes in fire
That burns with heat
Not of desire

20210728.0430

To say
I told you so
Is cold comfort when
The thing predicted
Happens
And you and I and others are
Fucked
As I well know
Because
Well
I told you so

20210727.0430

Staggering forward though
Not a drop has passed the lip
Of malted barley or pressed-out grape
Nor head-strike suffered
But drunk on something else
Not taken in but given out
Again and again until
Only dregs remain
And soon they will be swallowed, too

20210726.0430

The singer sings
The presence of absence disappears
The paradox resolving in a line not quite crooned out
A tenor never really can croon quite right
But it remains in place
The hole where once there was remains gaping
And no amount of fill really takes its place
Making other holes in other places
And there is no gain

20210725.0430

Only five months yet remain
Until the day comes once again
Beleaguered in the red-voiced words
That fall stinking like the turds
Of pachyderms that plod along
To find a place where they belong
And trample places that they go
In passing through creating woe
So stuff and garnish all your homes
For who knows where that one will roam
Who by calling out for more
On the day has declared war
That in five short months will be today--
Or so the squawking pundits say

20210724.0430

O, city of a President,
To you today I me commit,
Entering you once again and
Thinking, this time, not to leave

20210723.0430

So
This is it
The end of things
Little pomp and less fanfare
No tattoo to march on out on
Just shutting the doors and turning off the lights
And heading off into the growing night

20210722.0430

The day approaches when
I will leave what I have known again
And will once again begin
To learn something new
But the journey is not so long this time
And it is easier for having been done before

20210721.0430

It may be that
A tape stretches taut across the road ahead
Some banner suspended above it
But this is at least a triathlon
If not penta or septa
And I think I only trained for the one event

20210720.0430

It is not the sound of
The screaming clock that vexes me
When I wake up in the morning
No birdsong or cock-crow
Nor even dogs' barking or caterwauling from
The horny feral felines flocking down the street
Oh, no
It is yet other noise
Quiet to the ear perhaps
But not less loud elsewhere
And harder to shut out because of it

20210719.0430

What a joy it is
Counting down the last few days until
A joy expected should occur
Yet I well know that
Any drink taken too much
Too often
Makes the drinker ill

20210718.0430

I linger yet where I have camped
The sides of the tent still flexing, somehow
And know the stay has been good
If longer than I had intended
But I look at last to return home
As I thought I never would
And I am glad of it.

20210717.0430

Freed at last
From one long task
I search for another to take
The bond that I wear
The burden I bear
Is one I for me make

20210716.0430

Expatriate that I am
I still travel from time to time
To that country to which I am not native
But into which I immigrated
Went through all the tests to become a citizen
And had to leave again
Finding no steady work
No place that would have me and keep me
No place where I could put down roots
And grow
And I am just now ending such a trip
A sojourn through what might have been
And it was good
But it never would have been

20210715.0430

How I miss the clattering dice
Shining stonelike things singing
Falling from my fingers
Their percussion beating out the tempo of
Adventures in the mind!
But how much more do I miss the friends
With whom I play such music!
The band is often better than the gig.

20210714.0430

They said to me
Both no and yes
But they had not risen
Beside Cuiviénen, so
After just a bit of prodding
I got a straight answer

20210713.0430

I might be thought to wave a banner
From the word that would apply
But it is no pennant of victory I wave
Nor is the pole erect

20210712.0430

They invite us back to
Simpler times but
The times were never simple
Save that the complexity was
Kept from us
Or some of us
And we were sheltered
Some of us
I
Know too many who were not
Cannot ignore their tears
My own have flowed to greet them

20210711.0430

The work keeps going
A juggernaut under the wheels of which
Sacrifices are made
Not all willingly
But not all not
The hulking stone luchring forward
Inexorable
New stones added as
Others crumble off

20210710.0430

The hydra sits and snarls and snaps
And I strike off head after head
Nor am I alone in the blade-wielding
But it seems none of us has a brand
Or not one hot enough to sear the stumps
Even if there's one fit to our hands
That sizzles in the leather's parent
And so more heads arise

20210709.0430

I hate the phrase
I'm here to say
A tired cliché
Used as filler
Nothing more
Because saying where it can be heard
Demands a form of presence
At least
And all of us are where we are
Speaking or silent

20210708.0430

The work goes ever on and on
Though it needs to leave no door to do it
Or I do not
Laboring at home as outside it
And there is no pile of gold
Or shining jewel
A kingdom's ransom
Waiting at the end of it

20210707.0430

The lush carpet that had been spread
Is fading into brown again
As always happens when
Arien drags her boat on by
Drags because
There is usually little water to float it

20210706.0430

For now
Things will get back to normal
Aestas settling into her residency
Dancing the same dance most every day
And her audience will soon grow tired of the show
Though she will sometimes change her
Scanty white costume for
Something more concealing
Heavy and gray
And to those shows
On limestone hills
We will flock
Gladly

20210705.0430

Those displaced
Have ever faced
Great peril and pain
I had not thought
I would be caught
Among that group again

20210704.0430

Many think to have a blast
As they look back into a past
That never was but that they prize
And still perpetuate the lies
That they were told in days gone by
Not stopping oft to wonder why
The tales rehearsed endure despite
The tendency long to benight
Those who would mouth freedom's praise
On this and many other days

20210703.0430

With one thing done
And another accomplished
Yet more have joined the line
To ride me
Screaming in joy as my
Joints and rails rattle

20210702.0430

Not yet in the idyll at the park's back
Still I hold its entry in my hands
Key to a paradise for a lock
I am about to change over.

20210701.0430

Nine to five your work has been
Since the day that you began
And I, glad, join you for yet more
Another five and double score
Happy birthday, Sonya!