Family

I’ve been trying to get here all along   To the END   Walking a new trail is like reading a book Twists, turns, surprising perspectives Memories are summoned Like ghosts in the wind And I read myself into every word Every footstep And I just keep turning pages And walking Eager for the conclusion And yet I somehow hope The End will never come   Today I found it here   “END OF TRAIL”...

I am many things I am a roller coaster I am an overpriced funnel cake I am a long line for a short ride I am in on the take I am an unneeded traffic roundabout I am the price of gasoline I am pretty sure that I am self-doubt I am the spent remains of the Fourth of July I am climate change I am the spit in your eye I am death on...

Baptism 1: 1975 Born of Machine At the gates of the Magic Kingdom In a room with a view Disneyland across the street But after nine months in line The ride malfunctioned Lungs not working No time to linger in my mother’s arms To be held close I would have died then and there Without the second womb Made of metal And oxygen   Baptism 2: 1980 Born of Freshwater When I was held At...

When two bodies collide There will always be A fault line to find In you or in me But not now For today we are lovers Folded one around the other Cliffs and chasms Metamorphic And sedimentary flesh Thrust like beating hearts Love is a precipice We stand on the edge And as we spill over We fall into the wind And rise like mountains On the updraft And from these higher heavens We wonder...

Oxidizing minerals form A pattern of Rorschach tests Across my chiseled face As I lay here quietly Holding the roof over our heads And the seven miles of air above it While you raise the family In the home beneath Where I am overlooked Not as warm as the bones of trees Nor as pure as the crushed bones of cattle I long to be seen To be read like a book A favorite novel...

In the home where I grew up A porcelain monk lived on the kitchen counter Belly full of cookies Admonishing us not to steal Back when the house was full of sneaky fingers   I saw him enter the kitchen one day 30 years ago Something clearly wrong Part of him had vanished Struggling for the words To tell me that my grandpa was gone His father The pastor The preacher Thou Shalt Not Steal...

There was a song my father sang Not really a song at all Just a rhythm of syllables Rising and falling With every step And a pause with Every breath   There were never any words Neither for the song itself Nor for the way It brings me home   It would often be sung Out in the wilderness Surrounded by wonders Sometimes emerging From an ice cold pool Formed by a beaver dam In...

As you know We held your memorial last weekend While your laughter still hung in the air Like chandeliers From the heavy wooden beams Of the empty sanctuary You’ve left us   Where we reminded ourselves For a time, times, and half a time again That you would have heard by now “Well done, good and faithful servant…” Words of acceptance Approval Even affection That we all so long to hear   Yes, there were...

Heather Road Long Beach, California The actual street sign Hung on the wall In her room down the hall   She was just a child Leading a rebellion With discarded toys Striking out At them At us At herself And though she made a fool of the enemy Throughout the Ten Year War She lost the final battle yesterday And now she’s gone   She left home too soon There was heaviness in the entry...

1981 She sat in her chair Laughing (With concern) I’d put 27 grapes in my mouth at once And got one stuck up my nose Again   1982 She sat in her chair Sleeping (Blissfully unaware) While I dug a hole All the way to China Again   1983 She sat in her chair Pondering (With me) When I sat beside her and asked Why the sand was full of plastic Again   1984 She...