Usually Wrong

belly up to the shaker in your homespuns
tell me all about your plans and pleasure

I was there and you are gone but this is
not it anywhere the weather usually wrong

Cinnamon Toast

how one habit or actor replaces another
how freely I offer my fondest hopes
how much less I should have said
but the truth will out and soon forgot

enjoy it while you can remember
how the show reminded me of you
or someone else decades earlier
still young enough to think so

go through the whole story one by one
is so much fun I can't stop eating it
appears to be cinnamon toast with
honey instead of sugar just as good

Soul Legacy

underlying dismay goes on
regretting another possible life
shipwreck not to be repeated

uniqueness matters but
who to
to put it crudely

pattern of mind soul legacy
needs patient nurture
no one to do it

Act Real

what who might have said remains
unspoken projects absorb energy
move closer speak natural thought
forms twisted sister morphine act
real good time karma wearing thin

then well then absent alternatives
alter everything in flux or matrix
once you start the former engine
parse the matter phonic logically
assembled gets you safely home

New Job

now I've lost Betty where can she
be sure she'll reappear in time I
can't imagine how they get it to
happen "Oedipus" in Japanese

flocks of crows across the sky
caw on cue hundreds of people
on hard benches for two and a
half hours liking it very much

Ophelia is starting a new job
no pressure take the night off
or rather not I want to work as
much as I can capable of more

Wayward Skim

I mean it the way you think
without explaining excuse
for nothing unsaid and yet
this wayward skim is thin

I don't say everything think
twice or hesitate nor let it
all out only what I mean to
keep quiet mornings alone

enough but not too much
my motto modesty of aim
discretion open invitation
couched in sparest words

non-critical but still know
how I feel what judge right
or not wonder if different
ways are equal or superior

Hungry Birds

he doesn't hunt he kills
this human mind works
backward drinking beer
and sure it feels good

even sober fellow love
unites the lonely parts
leaves the wasp alive
but wastes the enemy

he kills for food nest
full of hungry birds
one elk months meat
beats selling his time

Honest Weight

what of myself can I invest for profit
in a falling market attention my only
capital intention only honest weight

I must do it for pleasure or pleasure
in the doing and I do what emerges
is the measure of improving wealth

keep it going is the challenge share
manifest value each can understand
want to willing voyagers toward flow

Such Fun (for Mary Lucas)

even long or wrong lives end
sooner one you've known for
seventy years the later gaps
can't erase it is all past now

I distanced myself but didn't
judge unfortunate choices or
bad luck only sorry you lost
your knack for elegant living

such fun to visit on Russian
Hill or Nob or Chinatown or
Oakland piano hot tub with
Julian I have no ear for jazz

nothing personal if I prefer
Chopin egotistical indulgent
I shouldn't have beat you up
with my supposed normality

still don't you had to be you
I me incompatible directions
beyond therapy conversation
regular living could not go on

Flying Visit

equal night full moon call across mountains
read across all borders imaginary drawing

Cascades opposite coasts weather patterns
fail to break aims for uncommon language

if that isn't it I don't know what is is what
he said tell everyone I said you know I try

I think in Norwegian act in flowers kisses
cousins foresee a flying visit well deserved

this accounts for another season passing
flow moments resonate the work begins