“It’s Oveeerrr”

Start again?

April 30th - Tombstones

Seven of Hearts - Tombstones

Cut flowers decay
In light autumn rain. After:
Moss thrives on cold stones!

April 29th - Easter Eggs

Nine of Hearts - Easter Eggs

Spring Festival

My nostrils flare with the memory of smells

White vinegar, aluminum, sulfurous eggs

The friction from muslin cloth still felt by

Fingertips stained blue and green and red

Small heart beating fast as I think of

All the early-morning sweets and all

Potential hiding places - unfathomable!

April 28th - Pack Animals

Seven of Spades - Pack Animals

Abundance

The animal coughs and sputters

Struggling under weight of overflowing

Saddlebags, under your abundance

Your mule, mad-eyed and wheezing

Edges closer to the precipice while

You gaze at your treasures

Oh, the weight of your saddlebags!

April 27th - Subway Riders

Eight of Clubs - Subway Riders

R Train, Downtown 

We sway in unison

Looking at ads for mattress

Ads for dating apps

Whatever is outside

Scuffed Plexiglas windows

Anything but

The strange small woman

Shouting about Jesus

April 26th - The Sandwich Question

Six of Spades - The Sandwich Question

Is A Hamburger a Sandwich?

How can you define anything?

What is Truth or

What is between us?

When you can’t even

Define a sandwich 

April 25th - Statue at Lee Circle

Six of Hearts - Statue at Lee Circle

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Maybe

Drunk on the new

Drunk off a fifth of whisky

I sang in the streets 

Convinced I had found my twin

Convinced I was in love

With the smell of magnolia

With the near-morning dew

I galloped the streets smiling

Like some conquering northern general

Riding by the sad bronze face of

Robert E. Lee - a statue 

Staring into the past forever while

I sang in the sunrise streets

Of a new New Orleans

April 24th - Bodhisattvas

Queen of Clubs - Bodhisattvas

Bodhisattva at 3am

Welcome overstayed 

Jawing and wild-eyed 

You credit compassion

You have for all beings

The spontaneous

Glory of compassion!

Have you awoken?

Or are you just

Hanging around?

April 23rd - The Myth of Sisyphus

Two of Hearts - The Myth of Sisyphus 

Impotence

It was the clock on her bedside table

That you focused on after

You both agreed it was not 

A big deal and she tried to fall

Asleep and you just stared at a clock

Doing what it is designed to do

A clock with a second hand that never

Stops moving designed so the tip

Looks like Sisyphus pushing 

A boulder around and around

And you watched that 

Boulder turn until the sun’s

Presence proved to you 

You were not dreaming

April 22nd - The Myth of Entitlement Reform

Two of Spades - The Myth of Entitlement Reform

Entitlements

“The number-one way to be thrifty

Is to privatize benefits swiftly”

This is easy to say

When Americans pay

For you to retire at fifty