RECONCILIATION

While the body rests,

Repairs are made

After yet another day

Of life’s abuses,

The mind must consolidate

What it has gained,

Versus what it has lost,

And while it balances its books,

It entertains itself with our dreams:

Sometimes it makes sense

Of the actions and responses

We experienced,

But sometimes there are

No reasons for what flits across

The inner screen.

While the movie plays,

Everything we learned

Is set against everything

We forgot.

And when it’s done,

It’s time

For another day

To begin.

All accounts

Are balanced

And ready for

Debits and credits.

(c) 201010 by the author

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

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SOME BIRDS

SOME BIRDS

Some birds still chirp,

Though night has all

But fallen now.

The birds will come again

When dawn breaks,

When the wrapping is

Removed

On a brand new day.

The birds--I wish

I knew the names--

Will be outside my window

Once a gain

When all that remains

Of night is swept aside.

Sing me awake.

Sing me to sleep.

I don’t care.

Whatever their names,

The birds are welcome.

COPYRIGHT (C) 2010 by the author

MARKS

For Jane Martin

I willl forever

]be paying off

The debts incurred

Every time I skinned my knee,

Sprained my hand

Or my heart..

Encounters brought new knowledge,

And now

It’s my obligation,

No, my pleasure

To teach what I learned

By explaining all the marks,

Nicks and cuts,

Their histories,

Their geographies,

Their biographies.

Can others learn from

My mistakes?

Have I learned from

The miscues,

The wrong words

At the wrong time?

Now

I serve...

copyright (c) 2010 by the author

IN THE SHADOW OF MONEY

In the shadow of money,

Where the homeless move

Their shopping carts,

Where there’s only the aroma

Of a good hot meal.

Currencies zing overhead,

Dollars and cents in all directions

But down.

Men in suits and ties hurry

To catch up with their leader.

The homeless man doesn’t wave hello or goodbye.

“A nickel or a dime,

A quarter if you will,

A dollar if you cancan.”

And still no one looks

The man--a thin dollar falls his way.

Between fast food

And faster pedestrians,

It’s a wonder anything

Catches the eye.

No one notices.

“Good morning...could you...

Never mind,

Hi there, do you have...

I just want a cup of coffee...

It’s cold, right?”

The lawyers come.

The bankers go.

The tourists--

They take pictures

Another hungry day flees the scene.

“I can watch your car

For an hour, for a dollar?”

“I can open the door for you

For just one thin dollar.”

Just a dollar...

KEARNY STREET BECKONS

ALL COMERS TO EAT, TO DRINK,

TO EARN A LIVING

TO SELL ONE’S SOUL.

“A NICKEL OR A DIME...:

Copyright (c) 2010 by the author

SOMETIMES

Sometimes caught/

Sometimes free.

Sometimes beautiful/

Sometimes hideous.

Sometimes injured/

Sometimes healed.

Sometimes loud/

Sometimes quiet.

Sometimes fast/

Sometimes at a crawl.

Sometimes hungry/

Sometimes thirsty.

Sometimes attentive/

Sometimes lost in thought

Sometimes the question/

Sometimes the answer

Sometimes there/

Sometimes here.

Sometimes loving/

Sometimes envious.

Sometimes music/

Sometimes silence.

Sometimes broken/

Sometimes repaired.

Sometimes a flower/

Sometimes a weed.

Sometimes sinful/

Sometimes holy.

UNTITLED III

The dream begins

As the ambulance

Pulls away:

I’m still bleeding.

Weakness.

Having taken control

Of something of my own body.

I am not weak!

I am not unworthy of love!

See my pain

In red ink,

Indicating

That someone--

Who, I wondered-

Could read my letters

Written on my skin.

I’ve overdrawn my account.

In the dream I am moved

From room to room.

They don’t know where to put me.

They can’t find a square hole

For this square peg.

I am silent.

I stay quiet.

From room to room,

Briefly intersecting other lives,

We share a silence,

Then I’m gone again,

And the air I’ve displaced

Rushes back in as I leave.

Where to next?