Poetry Page

The Daisies Are Blooming
  June 1998

The day is ours
No one else came
The creek is clear
The graves are old

You fish for brookies & rainbows
While I ponder the deaths of children
This one was three
These brothers died a month apart
You drown the nymph
You practice the cast, it's a thrill

It's your fish for a moment then you slip it back into the comfort of the icy water
Who puts flowers on a grave that is 90 years old
Strangers?
Relatives?
Would I?

The daisies are blooming 
The monarchs are here
They migrate to this place
They stay for only a moment
Then they move on
Like the tourists who hike on sidewalk feet

Our relatives have been here on this very spot
Your parents
My parents
And maybe their parents too
The daisies are blooming




Turning to Stone
  January 1999

The child cries
I’m here she says
Why do you ignore me 
Hush, I say, you are not important
Give up childish things
Be big

I feel her sadness
She wants to play, to run, to laugh 
No
We must work now, Clean now
Play will come later when all the work is done
 
The child cries
She dies a little
She turns grayer and turns colder
She must understand 
Life is gray and cold 
And we have work to do
 
She is the life inside
She is who I work for
She is why I wake & why I dream
If she dies 
I die 
I will be stone




For Shawn
  October 1999

searching
through windows
have you seen them
they are parts of me
taken




Untitled
  December 1999
You can make me happy with a word
Or crush me with a look
But I am always breathless from your touch




The Park 

January 2000

I went for a walk in the park today
I was thinking of you 
 
I want to drown in your eyes
Just once more
Like before

I miss you

I watched the ducks in the park today
They floated by
In pairs

Duck Couples

I cried for a while in the park today
I was thinking of you

I lent you my trust 
But I gave you my heart
Now I can’t get it back though I try

I walked through the snow in the park today
With warm thoughts of you
And I smiled

I laughed out loud in the park today
I was thinking of you




Untitled

February 2000

You reached in through my soul
Took my heart in your hand
And gently squeezed
Love back into my life.



Puppet Love
April 2000

“I could love you”
he baits
“Step Back”

eyes tease
don’t touch

“Do it for me”
shaken
“Step Back”

toes grasp
cord waits

“Because you love me”
sweet breath
“Step Back”

stepping
falling
suspended

no air
no light
no love