I sit with my back against a cool wall
the last dancer has gone
leaving pleasant, unsettled air from the cuff of movement
and strains of music that linger through a sleeve of silence
remaining footprints bid me to cover them before they fade
with my own
one more time

Published – Coe Review, Fall 2010

upon the taste of color
in a ruddy pear
and my hands at the keyboard
into Brahms

upon people’s voices
that pass without consequence
as garbage trucks roll
with rain possible

upon trying to be less wordless
as water runs in the kitchen sink
and minutes fast forward
on the clock face

upon the blueness of a blue sky
the truth of each day
and my steps in rhythm
lightly on the avenue

upon soundless wishing
and the never ending shock
at the swift departure of days
as they slip silently away

upon my need to give voice
to the dancer within
insisting on spoonfuls and spoonfuls
of time now offered on the winter street

upon rubbed out beginnings
marked cancel
and how to move those moments across the board

upon my sister’s death
and the autumn
in all the leaves that fall
missing her

upon this new year without her
it goes on
it goes on darling without you
the pain of that

upon holding the neck of the shiny horse
as the merry-go-round swirls
and turning to see are you watching for me
as i come ’round?

upon the sudden brightness
of the present day
as I pick up time
and sling it forward.

Eclipse, 2009

Seasons, reasons, bridges half willed
Unconvinced you walk on a pattern already laid
Reasonably played
You know this is not the way as you follow each day
Walk the stairs
Scattered with remains of treks made before
Always followed never taken

On the street
Shadowed by what you left behind
Drifting light rain through your mind
Clamped by memory
Your legs walk free uncertainly until you collide by chance
With the root slam bite
Of your will