Hidden Straws

art is a deal
something to do
a way of life
between meals

after dinner I
pick berries
countable blues
hidden straws

slap at a fly
with a rasp ouch
think fast
feral chicken

Soft Sky

is this what I always wanted
summer on my own porch
my own soft sky with horses

nothing to envy anymore I
made it be thus by choices
leading as they lean to this

there's more the other calls
faintly or demands I come
if I have something to do

not only the situation but I
have changed wanting less
thrill more chill still warm

Keeping Clean

here I am again washing dishes
doing laundry washing clothes
myself floors windows the car
keeping clean a major activity

likewise cleaning stove dusting
sweeping the driveway pulling
weeds mowing the grass again
the very least of constant tasks

this begins after making the bed
preliminary teeth hair skin face
same clothes brought out season
after season working at a life

Extra Time

"If you are happy and contented, getting older is just something that happens." —C.E.S.

necessary blankness refreshes
more and more until all blank
possibly regrettable enjoy it
while it lasts a while longer

reset like the tennis players
get no extra time but they are
twenty-something trained to
max gorgeous confrontations

still bounce back after short
intermission half-hour nap
enough but horizontality has
me glued to bed get up go on

Just Words

what you call thoughts is really just
words you talk to yourself tell you how
to feel feed on themselves resonate
take on unstoppable life of their own

without them you are worse than blind
but they never stop asking questions
urging wrong answers fumbles slips
internal propaganda rules the mind

just words can be changed for others
or a chant or breathing or playing
solitaire rise above it you are free
words are playthings embrace them

Worth It

drooping after effort I made
sponge cake with marionberries and whipped cream
for our Fourth of July
under the walnut
worth it scrumptious

good to have traditions one or two
every year different and the same
this summer all the berries are early strawberries over
now I appreciate our own
named for the county

Question

has everything changed
or is it just me

Only One

if I am a plant I mind less
unless exotic I am one of
many a group struggling
if I am a person I am only
one is it enough not really

Not Dead

words are not things pull up
the grass it is not dead it has
many roots comes right back

still effort rewards a brown
deer appears silently coolly
eyeing the hollihocks we love

glowing sky restless horses
birds in evidence machinery
murmurs reminder of wars

Better Choices

everything is melting brains
overheating legs giving out
sit down all comes clear the
purposings of the day gotta
listen to the body do it says

thought is a sponge provide
rich effluents crazy colors
moisten frequently imagine
what else is possible better
choices more widely known