Long Thermos Poems

The young lady's car slowed to a stop ...

As she pulled as far off the highway, (onto the shoulder), as she could
(Allowing for any snow plow that might come along).
She had chosen poorly this time
Believing...

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The Gospel according to The Bluesman
Gianni watched the clouds move in
Closed his window for the rain
It was spring and that meant
That it was gonna storm again

He looked out at the street outside
He saw a man...

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When We Were Young

He left for work each morning, 
Wearing steel-toed boots and a tin hat.
He took long strides that were three times 
The length of mine.
In one hand he carried a lunch pail and...

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This little light of mine
I'm gonna let it shine

Wide and longing
for committed dialogue
not surrounded
by elitist debate,

Win/lose games,
Zero-sum asinine assumptions
requiring ego-infested shadows

Resisting win/win opportunities
of healthy
democratic dialogue

Between constituencies,
residents sufficiently humble
to become students together
and unschooled 
unprofessional parents
and not...

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LETTER TO A SOLDIER
A Trilogy


I.  SONGS OF LOVE

Love walked with me
In the crisp fall air
In a shower of gold and red.
Love showed me the print
Of a doe’s foot
And where she made her bed.

Love sat...

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I see us
cowering within
our safety walls
of sterile
nonorganic comfort

I feel us,
almost smell us,
struggling
vacillating between pungent stink
of fear inside
and acrid
acidic anger
about life sucks outside

Emerging toward viral hate
directed against entitled Others
unwelcomed emoting immigrants
encroaching on our safe home space

It...

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THE DRAGLINE  for Pete Brett 

One hundred foot boom 
 7-½-yard bucket 
The tracks are like 
 Ones on the tracks of a tank
They go chunk clunk and clank  

Arm of the boom...

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A preconception in my mind
Of a nudist beach in the sun
Men of pervy persuasion 
Roam the sands 
Eyes behind dark glasses
Men with their dangly bits 
A display of exhibitionism?
A desire to be seen?
A legalised flasher...

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There was something spectacular
about a winter, long and hard,
on the Miles River.
Some days will never be the same.

Greying skies, heavy hung
with crystal burdens
of the wind, and air. Twenty above,
after sunset, zero.

And the snow was the...

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I wake to a monochrome world and I yawn
The reds, greens and yellows awaiting the dawn
Out on the water, my luminous float
Rides unseen ripples in fear of no boat

This morning my roof is my fishing...

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As the sun peaks up into the sky
	the blue pickup truck goes down the dusty road
to the field that barren laid
	and the red tractor waiting there

father and son in blue jeans clad
	walked from the truck...

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 ~The Sun Faded Wooden Chair~
The light on the road shimmers, the heat making pools
We think we know what’s going on, we are nobody’s fools
The tree lined road, thick with dust and with heat
Nobody about...

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The alarm goes off and I rise up, for a moment foggy from sleep.
I look through the curtain and stare out at the world in front of me.
Where am I ?  My mind is...

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He scorns all these young potheads and their habits.
He vows he’d never do a thing like that.
He pours himself a glass of amber liquid,
Locates his keys and dons his tattered hat.

He drives down the street...

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I backpacked a chair
to the top of a hill
far away
from the city
 one thermos had Earl Grey tea
another black coffee and
a flask of the good
for
the wee hours
of morning
 
with the city lights in the distance
the...

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An unhurried sun slides across the horizon
Preparing for slumber behind distant waves
And daylight’s last seagull rides thermals in search
Of a late night fish supper - the herring he craves 

A paint shop explosion enlivens the...

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Using the snow spade to once again clear out the driveway,
I couldn't help but notice the lights that shimmered all day,
twinkling at me from the sunlight playing off of the snow,
giving the silver sparkling look...

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Storm 

The waves in the storm raged Pacific Ocean waves became 
deep ravines and tall mountains; in the binoculars, I saw 
an American hangar ship, its massive deck was glistering iron 
swept of all human...

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He went to war each morn
Armed with thermos and lunch pail
Gearldine wasn’t his firstborn
As a girl – just a tomboy with a pigtail

He knew her from her first breath
Prayed for her when he thought to
No...

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It's another Sunday morning
Almost Thanksgiving and brisk
Dontcha just love optimists
Brisk 
The sun is shining 
The rhody's leaves are wide open
Clouds are everywhere
Trying their damndest to thwart the sun
The blue patches are spreading rapidly
Puddles from last...

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This very morning when I awoke, I thought someone had played a joke. I checked the pot, it was bone dry. I checked the pantry and started to cry - no coffee!

So, I got dressed...

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From start to finish
today my sister and I walked the woods. 
We mimicked the wildlife and crossed the creek.
We told stories in the sunlight and shade
and peeped at the birds.

Thirty years ago 
these same birds'...

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Epiphany 

It was an incredible summer in 1950 the war was over things were getting 
back to normal, mother's new boyfriend who worked at a factory had 
a rowboat and paid holiday leave. A Sunday...

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Epiphany 

It was an incredible summer in 1950 the war was over things were getting 
back to normal, mother`s new boyfriend who worked at a factory had 
a rowboat and paid holiday leave. A Sunday...

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You may shoot a round of golf with your goofy neighbor Rolf,
or smack handballs 'round until your fingers bleed.
You may pump your mountain bike up the peak named after Pike,
and I'm sure we'll all applaud...

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