Long Skittered Poems

Deva Ossig, the landlady (and property owner) turned rogue

Just a couple weeks shy 
and seven years ago to the day,
I still remember contractual obligations
our previous residential abode
724 West Railroad Avenue, 
Bryn Mawr 19010 zip code
volatile...

Read More

The morn's alive with skylarks singing

o'er the greening meadow and the pliant pasture,

the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer.

A sudden shower would see me running

fancy free between the rain drops,

I cried 'Excelsior!' and...

Read More

You throw a rock into a pool.

Watch the concentric ring slowly expand
from its point of origin.
Its curvature infinite. Shape pristine.
And yet... there it dissipates
at the subtle sternness of the wind.
To blend with all the other...

Read More

He was there, He told me so!
On that cloudy morning a few years ago,
When a shaft of light from the Montana sky
Fell on his grave and caught my eye.
The raindrops that fell as if tears...

Read More

The morning soars with skylarks singing
o'er the greening meadow and the pliant pasture,
the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer.
A sudden shower would see me running
fancy free between the rain drops,
I cried 'Excelsior!' and...

Read More

The morn's alive with skylarks singing
o'er the greening meadow and the pliant pasture,
the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer.
A sudden shower would see me running
fancy free between the rain drops,
I cried 'Excelsior!' and...

Read More

...inspired by 'Poem In October' by Dylan Thomas


The morning rings with skylarks singing,
o'er the greening meadow and the pliant pasture,
the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer.
A sudden shower would see me running
fancy free...

Read More

Mornings shrill with skylarks singing 
o'er the greening meadow and the pliant pasture, 
the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer. 
A sudden shower would see me running 
fancy free between the rain drops,...

Read More

The morning soars with skylarks singing
o'er the greening meadow and the pliant pasture,
the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer.
A sudden shower would see me running
fancy free between the rain drops,
I cried 'Excelsior!' and...

Read More

As the darkness reaching out for the darkness, 
her black scalpel eyes met mine across 
the crushing divide of a revelling throng. 
The amateur axe band strangled a bargain basement 
hard rock song, born of...

Read More

November 13th 2017 
Happy 83rd birthday to thy cremated mom

Harriet Harris fought tooth and nail
Mother succumbed 
to terminal illness without fail 
Ovarian/ Uterine Cancer to no avail
hosted by death feasted fancy 
at Oyster Bay metastasized...

Read More

The Morning Speaks With Skylarks Singing

....inspired by 'Poem in October' by Dylan Thomas



The morning speaks with skylarks singing
o'er the greening meadows and the pliant pasture,
crisp and clear, like God's first measure of
   ...

Read More

I set out from Chicago town
in spring, eighteen seventy-nine,
offered one hundred and a stake
in the new Kennevor gold mine.
Had to provide security
and keep all of the miner’s safe,
in the mountains of Montana,
out beyond the Missouri...

Read More

....inspired by 'Poem in October' by Dylan Thomas



The air is filled with skylarks singing
o'er the greening meadows and the pliant pasture,
crisp and clear, like God's first measure of
       ...

Read More

Perched upon a behemoth
A mountain, a companion to a lonely god
Perched is a man
Scanning the Mother
He eyes the ground
As a hawk would spot his prey
He made that world his captivating obsession
There skittered people of a...

Read More

On the wind-swept Nebraska prairie sits a building in wretched shambles,
Surrounded by a sagging fence and overgrown with prickly brambles.
It was once a bustling one-room school house, abandoned long ago.
Its weather-beaten clapboards, I judged to...

Read More

The stately ash by the fence that provided welcome summer shade,
Has exchanged its sheltering leaves of opulent jade,
To don an elegant golden robe for a few short-lived days.
Its brilliance is enhanced by the sun's mellow...

Read More

Ambling along a country lane, a weathered barn caught my eye.
Nigh it stood a crumbling silo, yet reaching for the sky.
Oaks raised leafless arms heavenward, on that bleak autumn day,
As if in supplication, pleading to...

Read More

A deserted old house stood off the county road a little way.
To keep apace of living I rushed by it almost every day.
For years I'd wanted to visit there to see what secrets it held,
And...

Read More

Sassy calico cat climbed the tree and took it down
Children of the house thought this was a hoot all around
Mother baked herself into a frenzied ball of worry
Tiny mouse skittered across the floor in a...

Read More

The car crashed with death. 
The force of fate could not hold the wheels.
Our sky shattered to million pieces hither and thither...........
My wife died.
An ear splitting yowling reverberant sound silenced all.
A blue flash of lightning...

Read More

I went to bed a mouse,
Scared to be immersed,
I ran through a wood
Of above unseen whispering owls, 
Thinking I would not know,
But I know 
taunting
when my heart raced 
as a squirrel 
skittered through the leaves,
I...

Read More

In the tunnel, cobweb-stricken and dank, a rat skittered to and fro, hitting his shoe as if drunk. The cockroaches joined in, slicking the floor with a beetle-black sheen. Unable to keep his footing he...

Read More

The sun illuminates where former smile,
a crimson sunset into the crypsis
fades. Optical illusion - boat upside-
down, sails sullied, the upheaval of grit.

My sight ebbs and flows, a buoy beholds
the odd. I grasp the folds of...

Read More

Slowly as it approached, my body began to quiver.
Finally, I became valiant and up the stairs I slivered.
Apprehension built up in me and I stood there, frozen
 Why was this the school my parents have...

Read More