call and response

my own father
not unlike yours
once pronounced
but not quite unctuously,
a dire verdict on the
same sort of
choice my heart had made
perhaps not too unlike your sister's.

it worried me for years
even as you still stew over
his grime prediction
comparing my choice to his sister's and
of the estrangement
made by the demands of a jealous lover
and isolation
the kept her from her mother and brother.


were my father's perceptions 
of melancholy and desparation
even close to reality
the truth from all aspects of
the reality of my life and my aunt's
fiercely independence
and the men we still love deeply

Day XVIII

moaning, roaring,
flags out straight
tin rooves in the next county

head and tail
pushing, pulling, ripping, tearing
flattening

turbining

Day XVII

on the horizon, full sail ahead,
prayers for steady winds,
calm seas,
open skies.

setting sights for the Old World
the soil from whence our fathers sprang,
the stems from which our mothers bloomed,
vines wending over walls and wells.

stones, weathered, moss covered,
broken, standing vigil
over dust to dust
ashes to ashes

sand, soil through my fingers,
inhale, taste, feel, listen -- listen
for echoes from the canyons of yestercentury
along the streets of Saints Stephen and Maria

shhhhh . . . listen.

Day XVI

fluer-de-lis

compass points
emblem of cities, states,
whole countries,
families,
the Virgin Mother,
the Trinity

boy scouts

Day XV

Damn it! Damn it! Damn
It!  I thought we were long past
This kind of fighting.


Haiku!

Day XIV

forever changed in an instant
the instant between happy baby
rolling on the floor

to dog bitten baby
blood gushing
down her face

panic, screaming,
baby to the hospital
dog to the kennel

needing stitches
but she won't hold still
until drug induced

oh, baby, baby
black-eyed baby
darling baby

oh, doggie, doggie,
precious doggie,
banned until the baby leaves.

but never trusted again.

Day XIII

why the heck do I wait
until the eleventh hour
day after day
after day

if it weren't for the last
minute, well, yeah,
that's me.

tomorrow may be better
but don't count
on it!