Alphabet City

Something odd’s going on here
details I can’t figure out
so couldn’t recant
at some future

setting it up now
for later

some times
are more real
than others

remember?

Chagall 2018

saga rain
soaks Gaia

a queen without
need for a king

royally scented
scantily clad

wears just wind
earth now water

we are all
born drowning

Chagall 2018

Beyond lies sunset
No shadow cast upon ground
Light not everywhere

Chagall 2018

I indicate the space of less than an inch
between thumb to index finger and say
to the dying vine of the indeterminate
cherry tomato girdled about the trellis,
its golden leaves in the onset of autumn:
I remember you when you were only this tall

How I ache for Spring that has passed.

Chagall 2018

Under diffuse spray
silicate particles wash down
the filament, style and stigma,
of the strikingly gold squash petal.

Chagall 2018

I am not the sum of the words that describe me
nor the flow of blood inside veins under skin

I understand very little of life
yet I live

In quiet repose under stellar night sky
I am lost in a song brushed by wind

Hushed, I am humble
so small

Chagall 2018

I am haunted by this song and Blossom’s voice.

Lyrics and translation are here

I wash the last remaining member of
my Mom’s set of Blue Ridge hand-painted plates,
green rim encircling apples on a stem, and remember when
those were new, a complete set, and the world held all its promise.

Chagall 2018

At 32 feet
per second
each second,
the planet falls up
to snare fallen angels.

Chagall 2018

Rapidly moving clouds beget fleeting shadows,
a panoply of ocular mosaic, designs
of photon, figure, and ground.

Chagall 2018