poem
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When Women Step Out of Songs
Alison and Billie Jean party through the night; Their aim is true, they dance on the floor in the round. Run into Carrie Ann and Delta Dawn, to their delight, Just playing games and waiting to be found. .. Elenore… Continue reading
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You Put the Villain in the Villanelle: Modern Pet Peeves
You put the villain in the villanelle, Your SUV sprawled cross two parking spots. A little act that brings a little hell. – In shops and trains you yell into your cell As if the whole world hung upon your… Continue reading
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Trench(coat) Warfare
I didn’t realize people pack When heading off to Nordstrom Rack So I was taken quite aback To see this sign upon the door. ** You brought your gun to Nordstrom Rack – do you expect trench(coat) warfare? ** I’d… Continue reading
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Whence My Line?
I It’s little known that Robert Frost Worked in a golf club’s Found and Lost Where one day he said to the pro Whose woods these are I think I know. II Emily Dickinson tore out her hair – Insomnia… Continue reading
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Aesthetic Synaesthesia
I like singers who write large stories about small worlds – Mitchell and Dylan and Isbell And Cohen and Wonder and Darnielle And Swift and Prine and Raitt And Browne and Simon and Waits And so many others whose songs… Continue reading
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Why Shoes?
Why shoes? Left-right memorials, black even Before the soot from the ovens. Why shoes? Where are the shirts, dresses, pants, Stockings, skirts, watches, socks, Sweaters, rings, neckties, pins, Eyeglasses, underwear? Who claimed them after? Why shoes? They wait to walk… Continue reading
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My Cousin’s Hand
Thirty thousand years ago, give or take a few, Leaving handprints on the wall was quite the thing to do. (Nowadays of course, like so much else, it’s just taboo.) We don’t know why and never will, but sometimes when… Continue reading
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What Fables We’d Forge
Erase from your thoughts molten lava and chalk, The crusting and cooling and cracking. Step back a while before Hutton and Lyell, Let tall tales supply what is lacking. Because we like legends and love to pretend, A causeway the… Continue reading
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No More and Nothing Less
Why face the wall when food and danger lie the other way? It’s not that we’re shy or can’t abide the skies of steely gray. Why build our nests on window frames when cliffs and rocks abound? It’s not that… Continue reading
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Feathered Data Points
Feathered data points on an avian graph, We gather and gabble and brood and breed And slumber and squabble and chatter and chill, Warming our futures in the midnight sun As gulls have always done. [Photo taken in Nusfjord, Lofoten… Continue reading
