a different sky

eerie morning light
not eerie but different
not surreal either
it was very real
just different

low cloud post rain dawning
driving westward
there was a hole
in the eastern clouds
an autumn golden sun...
shined through

the illumination
the aura
the gold gray pinkish
misty billows dark and light
(no amber waves or shining seas)
something that jolted
still sleepy me
to a level of
anxious serenity

lake forest
september 2011

A Thin Slice of Life

in a coffee shop
i won't say which
named for the first mate

you got it...
Eve's Kafe Klatch

just me and five women
diverse all
and apparently
living better lives
than i even aspire to
aspire to

being in a human zoo
observing others
in the same cage
only i feel imprisoned

the medical student
i could tell from reading
her perfect printing
upside-down

the reader reading on
one of them little TVs
know clue what she is reading
on her nook bookie thing

me...
typing on my little TV

I'ld rather have
a slice of pie...

libertyville
20 August 2011

Translate this Poem

Translate my poem
Any poem or even
This poem would do

Make it read deeper
More nuanced and symbolic
Make it help change
How people think and dream

Have it rhyme in Turkish
And brook babble in Armenian
Over the stones that
I might have been staring at
If  nothing happened and
I could be writing there
In one of these tongues

Poem II - June 10, 2011

You were a black her
She kind of a white you
You are a younger her
She an older you
There is an uncanny sameness
A mother and daughter that
Never met and never really happened.
You look alike proving
That Ararat Ark Caucasian
Babely thing may have happened.
How else do you explain it…

Well OK… Her Dad and Your Mom
Or maybe marauders and rapists and
Slave owning mysogenists
From oh so long ago
Or maybe it’s just the luck
Of the genetic draw…

Poem I - June 10, 2011

I want to have a drink.
I probably will.
I want to write a novel
I will not begin that project tonight.
I want to write a poem
This one specifically.

I want to help achieve world peace
I have convinced myself that
Having that drink is the first step
I have deluded myself to believe
That there can be world peace
Men and women, different races
Religious harmony and acceptance
Peoples helping each other
Eliminating world hunger
Making real communism work
Saving the earth, focusing on the whales
(no one talks about them anymore)
Stopping the driving consumption of things
No one really needs and basically living
The Nirvane Heaven on Earth that is only in my mind

And to think it all began with my
Scotch on the rocks…

I have poured this magic elixir
I have sipped from the dime store chalice
My parched soul, on this one sip,
Has calmed and believes this barely
Poor excuse for poem will change the world.
I might even try going outside in
The mist rainy cool of this night
And wave my hands solemnly
Mutter a silent incantation and just see
If a good decent well intentioned thought
Can set the world right.

There is no need for credit
I don’t even need to ever know
I catalyzed it all

Where is my Saul slash Paul?
There is no one out there to proselytize
For this macculately conceived.

What ‘til I post it…

Slow Ride to Work

yesterday almost winter
suddenly summer
only 6 a.m. and warm
an hour into dawn
all sunny and green
driving to work slowly

not wanting to go?
savoring the solitude?
cool story on npr?
looking at trees and tulips in bloom?
just enjoying the coffee?
wishing something else?
something more?

no real answers for
these not real questions

just driving slow to work

Typing on an Airplane

I want to write a poem

No type a poem

Who the hell hand writes but me?

I was poised to type

Devoid of thought or idea

No poetic notion at all

When the seat in front of me

Tilted back making it harder yet

To type and see

But it jolted this...

Little lame thing
Out of me