midair goldfish

even the people are covered with graffiti

from the knothole, a curlicued line
from a snail’s silvery pen

lightning pulled the string
that liquified a cloud

rap accented with robin
car screeching out of the side street
tricked out in dew and white petals

and I can almost believe
the adolescents in hoodies and sag
loitering in the apartment house driveway
by the pink blooming magnolias
are up to good

on the rooftop, a light
entangled in the TV antenna
and on every TV channel it's
moon moon moon

the universe is neutral
does not need our hugs
she says, dogs do

hurrying past the window
on the way to school again
professional children

above the sleepy ducks and coots and grebes
riding long slow swells

dark walls of skyscrapers, hard edged

free-form clouds, drifting, draping, obscuring

silver jet to Seattle, straight and purposeful

the machines have been set in motion
on rails, on pavement, or throbbing
overhead in air
to haul a living human freight
to daily obligations

*

by the dusty freeway
taste the haste

thundering herd of workers
galloping home on tires

she was used to having great demands of life
expectations, ambitions

such triumphs! such disappointments!

see her hobbling along behind her walker
grateful for a little sunshine
a little existence

the tree tips golden
and the golden towhees courting in the trees
and the gold scribbles on the door mat by her feet
as the sun rises on another day in her dwindling
what will she do with her pain?

one man’s money and
a commotion of bridges

in those lands, men cannot be expected to control themselves
if they see skin, or hair, they automatically have to rape it

a swelling of air

air swelling to a point

in a corner of the office ceiling
dark spider the size of a hole

he moves through the gardens nodding
as if every plant, every bird needed recognition

their names live just below the surface now

thank you neighbors who gave me
three more races of people to admire

and the others, who were not so lucky
how they suffer

they predicted rain again, but here's
another reluctant little shower

two seasons here--a dry season and
a season when we wish it would rain

cat ears, white-tufted
I like your fur-do

short days, winter-squeezed

ah the tyranny
of the preceding lines

you were one of those little boys born honorable,
defending your sister from a dangerous bully--
a foster witch/mother

so, did they knock it out of you?

even the jays are grappling in the branches
falling, locked together to the grass
in a blue noise, where the cat...

zeppelin over Oakland
silent, improbable

now lurking in the distant trees
now overhead

dragging, after all,
a motor sound

as former nurse, I’m cognizant

they’ve put me here to die, I know
and I will try

though having seen so many deaths
does not help at all

so anyway, how do you go about
this dying?

big, big man
with lots of fabric across the back--
expanse of sand, sea, palm trees
between me and the stage

it was only after her eighth life expired
that she fell in love again--
with everything

like a hawk, drive straight to the doctor’s office

like a vulture, circle round and round
inside the Kaiser parking garage

sunny sides of a perfect cone
slanting into a cloud hat
*
wavering snow stripes
converging on a peak

when posting these phrases,
I’m aware of empty spaces
vast areas around the words

and know that whatever I say
it is always too much, never enough

takes the dead notes in his fingers
warms them over black and white keys

eyebrows crimping and waving, intense
above round glasses

mouth grinding and chewing
the notes while they're hot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Rj3w869bg&feature=related

he was turning the dirt for planting
a clay he had nurtured over the decades
with compost from his own household

whacked with a spade, it crumbles
into a dark, rich soil full of life and worms

nevertheless he was surprised
to feel himself saying
“I love the soil and wish I could go there”

on the wide path to the sun
coots and ducks serene among the glitter

overhead tern, all points and sharp edges, veers
white dart into the water, silvery splash

piano music in the kitchen--
turkey Appassionata

he eats with enthusiasm
one hand lifting the bowl,
the other raking the savory
noodles out of the broth and into his mouth

my grandmother
would have hired him in a heartbeat
“when you interview a servant
give them a bowl of soup to eat

if they eat slowly, picking at their food
send them on their way”

I can’t dance, she said, but he grabbed her anyway
and they stumbled through a few bars

47 years later, the music still playing in the background
stumbling more and more

hymns to the unknowable
whence we have been projected

God we are holding you
up to yourself

cork, she kept wending her way down river
bobbing back to the surface after every waterfall
till finally--out at sea

hay trucks heading north
meet hay trucks going south
society not over-organized as yet

sorry, no dire news today
reporters are on holiday

but I did experience it
catching mid-air goldfish
in my hands

when they all began to pray
they sent her dreams of a preacher
then the preacher herself
agent in the grocery store
next to the gourmet cheeses...

sting of happiness
like the cake, honey-sweet

I used to be able
to cook a dinner for the family
complete with dessert--a five layer torte
and play with the grandchildren afterwards...

now I get lost on the way to the kitchen

What’s happening to me?

Oh Mom... don’t you remember...?
the last time you got old...?

cursing, shrieking, slamming doors
barking, whining, meowing, sobbing
piled into a U-Haul yesterday

I think I might also
dismantle the water splash
pull down the chiming winds

When the wind blows the wooden chimes
and the sun comes and goes at the open window
I bounce with energy from task to task

Reminded of a time when the world was fresh,
unexplored, and full of possibilities, I just realized
it is still like that

the toucan's merry bird face
imprisoned in a beak

“women just naturally drawn to the kitchen,
men show their favor by eating”

we are not perfected
yet for this world
though buffeted, cuffed
and shone upon

(stones, wave-washed
did not count the centuries
and even they
are still on the path
to perfection)

color in the sky
between the lines

the crows are singing in concert
the weed seedlings have decided who they will be
and from the wooden fences it is raining up

relaxing in the garden shade
over his head, a ghost--
the gnats
have gathered for a frenzied dance

his green parrot paces
before the blank computer screen
where is Kiri te Kanawa
why is there no music

hardly any traffic
until you stop the flow
behind calamity’s dam

underneath the basement
the layers will not lay

the squirrel did not build
rectangular
sleeps unaffected by the sway

anger squirts in all directions
the bespattered cheer

“in the night forest
I felt her fear flow into me”

within her body, an affliction
no philosophy would cure

“I married him because he asked me.
I did not know him well enough
for love, you understand?”

she named her son M___
so her father would have
something that continues in this world

coffee--liquid incentive

he was squeamish about bodily functions
and from the blemished she had seen him turn away
as he fiddled with her feeding tube, she asked him
and he answered yes of course, but this is you

not fully descended
said the eurythmy teacher
there’s going to be trouble later on
and indeed, an incredible lightness
a floating, particularly close to dreaming
(fluffy, on the edge of disappearance)
a downright bottom-refusal

Feed the chicken fish
and her eggs taste of fish
The shark does not like to eat
at Macdonald’s He spits
those French fries out

that night I fell down a staircase
the 32 labeled steps that lead to God

the teenagers went on cheering
each other’s progress
praise to God, praise to Jesus

it was obvious to me that they had not
been raised in a forest

single oak
on a yellow hill
leaning over black cows

this land stretching away,
organized and fenced right up
to the haphazard hills,
leftovers from a stormier past

imported vegetation
in the yards, in the streets
raising heads above the houses

by an empty lot, overgrown with weeds
with upturned face, she said
this is real, isn’t it

in a dog’s dictionary there is no word for yucky!

24 hour restaurant
no skinny on the menu

Driving home from his funeral
they watched a fireball blazing a bright path
over the darkening mountains and beyond

They pointed and exclaimed with delight
It was as if on his way past the planets
he had kicked a meteorite their way

red winged blackbirds
jubilant in the stunted trees
cheering our carts full of purchases
our colorful cars
our temporary asphalt
concealing the marshes

last hot days
nature hangs its spiders out to dry

she, on the fringe of one
he, on the margin of another

“I’m not the type of person who goes there”
does not apply

she reached the doorway, did not hesitate
stepped lightly over the threshold
into freedom, into perfect existence
“just me and the sun!”
all the answers to why arriving on light

twisting old ideas into new pretzels
for voter consumption

eagle's head in a noose

I actually saw her use a broom once--
to bar entrance where an orb spider
had tacked its magnified web

I erased something

two girls in giggling conversation
side by side through the tree trunks
on magnified rear ends

gull on the sidewalk
holding out a broken wing
and no one to fix it

color of darkness, he waits by the door
and when it opens, escapes into the night
plays catch-me for hours

*
she holds it in her arms
in its length
large cat, radiating darkness
moon-colored eyes