Die Cast

being is what you are wearing
what you are doing knowing better
who told you to act this way
when was the die cast by whom
and on what ineluctable authority
why is it impossible to escape
you don't want to you are happy
you don't want to do anything else
these are the clothes you have

Nothing Else

how deep in the bed are dreams
found out by the questing body

glimpses only exist sufficiently
to inform inevitable adaptation

separate thoughts flash crossing
tables of play and necessary food

what meant heard in translation
serves when there's nothing else

Long Lost

looking for the normal that this
is how it is supposed to be it is
reality not some perversion of it

this animal can adapt to clothes
and clocks anything really what
essence remains intact inside it

we are trying to make life good
being sincere and honest loving
each other and our fellow humans

while all this is accidental an odd
accretion of historical errors and
disasters dressed in natural fibers

within we have the usual somatic
fate predating machinery that has
to wear out and be thrown away

or remain and clutter up the land
signifying efforts to bring order
where natural order is long lost

Aging Out

creative flash jumps out of the chair
like the cat playing hide and seek in
trees aging out dying or flourishing
in the face of drought and cold nights

this is natural he thinks staggering
boldly into the center of the room I
will not get over being old but still
have the sense to move when I can

A Tease

we are still not looking at the sun
glad when it warms us once more

the warmth of the pilot light is too
much I must throw off the covers

I feel I am getting warm but it's
just a tease I am actually losing

Right Way

not a good idea to act on thought
common sense may kick in later
you think I should have known I
should have thought before acting
but thought may be the problem
feelings are more likely the right
way to go Robin Crusoe realizes

Here I Am

is this the same me sitting
on my cushion as on the
balcony at the Zen Center
only older though no time
passes as I count breaths
or merely sit and breathe
thinking here I am then
letting the thought fly away

Good Intentions

I always think something
will come to me and it
usually does in time for
midnight bedtime tired
and ready to go to sleep

time is as bad as gravity
pulling on memory and
good intentions tied to
earth seasons the body
realizing its continuity

Four Nights

I thought I could be anywhere
it could be anytime then it was
time to pack and drive fly drive
to be back where I started from
as if those three days elsewhere
might not have really happened
though perfectly real at the time
a birthday a staged engagement
all romantically coupled though
three women actually elsewhere
four nights gone entirely enough

After Croquet

yellow-bellied magpies alert birders
in oaks of Neverland where Russian
fans mourn the doubly dead security
still on salary despite the closed road

that was after croquet and a picnic
before stupendous revolving dinner
round a perfect family weekend to
celebrate life dog child a marriage