January Poetry

First Four

Women waltzing in a beer hall

Handful of grapes in the rain

Old photo on a wall

Memory of a fall

Climb into a plane

Climb into the sky

Shepitko

Nighttime in a high-rise

Taipei reflects on the glass

Mother’s streetlight heartbeat flashes

While her sock-feet son

Snaps photos of mosquitos 

To see the other half of the truth 

Yang

Phosphor snow and fallout

Counting cans in the pantry

And her children’s every breath

Reluctantly repurposing the batteries

From the answering machine

With her missing husband’s voice

Littman

Broken jars of ajvar

Red like broken bodies in Kosovo

Red like the girl’s second menses

Red like the mother’s bee stings

From the honey she sells

Golden like her spirit

Basholli

______________

Little Agents of Chaos

Good morning butts!

What’s up my butts?

What do you want?

I know

Shut up, you don’t know

Why do you think you know?

I’m giving you food and water

What more do you want from me?

Are you my butts?

Do I like you?

Do I even like you?

Are you birds?

Do you even know you are a bird?

What are you?

Are you my bird?

Wat wil je?

Ik houd heel veel mijn vogels!

Why are you like this?

Wat wat wat?

I love you

I love you my dumb dumbs

Are you my dumb dumbs?

My dumb dumb butts

Shut up butts

What are you doing?

Why must you destroy my house?

Ohhhh my dumb dumb I love you

Why are you a bird?

You’re the dumbest dumbs that ever dumbed

Do you need squeezing?

Sometimes you need to be squozen

I’m just giving you squeezings

You like squeezings

You’re my favourite butts

I love you

Shut up

Alright it’s time, you’re clearly done

Come down now, time for bed

Time for beds, let’s go

Go to bed now

I know

I love you butts

Goodnight, my dumbs

__________

Husband Zodiac

The Laughing Cowboy

Cleansing, Timeless, Purity

A gold nugget

Earth

The Jesting Anchor

Revealing, Relentless, Honesty

A Tiger’s Eye

Air

The Singing Bookworm

Uplifting, Ageless, Integrity 

Raw Opal

Fire

The Shakespeare Knight

Edifying, Fearless, Tenacity

A flawed diamond

Fire

The Poet Marshall

Fortifying, Dauntless, Virility

Polished jet

Earth

The Wise Duderino

Humanizing, Egoless, Positivity

Labradorite

Air

The Masked Mountaineer

Mesmerizing, Peerless, Fluidity

A baroque pearl

Water

____________

For Coco

You are always there

At the base of the stair

At the top of the chair

In the center of our heart

A puddle, a loaf, a ninja

Sipping soup

Begging treats

Scaring the vogels 

With their scaly feets

A classy gal

With beans of rose

And eyes of jade

Sitting on the sill

As dinner is made

The blessing of your purr

And a touch of your fur

Made us all coo “poes”

Delight in bonheur

My Cococo echoes 

Through time and space

Carries us to that English place

Where we were so blessed

Where you shall now rest

But you’re always near

Your mew so clear

In our memories lock’d

And held so dear