Pierre

A Swede by stately heritage

Tho Frenchman by the makers’ hands

Was more than sold for less a grand

He’s like an orphaned dog, a sage

She cleans Pierre with careful care;

He was waxed with pine tree sap

And where once he had a tick to tap

No longer rattles like a snare

His accoutrements are cold and chrome

His contortion bears a stolid air

He breathes out the city’s sullied air

And tucks away beside our home

He roams wherever we roam

And when he tarries at a halt

She isn’t addled by his faults

But learns the way he’s knit and sewn

A progressive work is his stave

We will learn him till we know him

And even if his chance is slim

Everyone wants to be saved

"To An Impetuous Snowflake" (On Her Birthday) by Nina Ricci

I. Dedication

Ten years

Adjacent storybooks forced to a far end,

Seven shelved reference books

spread to meet the first ten

And the latest past, a chapter book

a required text, a must-needs read

was volume 17 of your anthology



II. Bookends, dividers
Years are markers to sort and order time

There are no portals entitled to enter

-no swing-hinge doorways:

we are door-makers

We walk long halls,

not that they are long,

We just get stuck, or stay lost, or slay time

Long, because our indirect steps and

latent footfall, we are

Lackadaisical.



III. Memories

Clips of confetti fluttering

catch our eye, a pence of what was-

They are dramas re-mastered

sequences quantized,

the shorts we store-

Those that inform on ourselves-

Impressions kept



IV. Reveries

Films we spasmodically score

set to the music we dream by

Reticent elaborations-

Thought-spun illusions;

Be careful of them.



V. Commencement
On the first chapter of your 18th book,

Do not scribble on the page.

Take notes, stick post-its.

Have confidence and confide in

The Caretaker,

Most dreams are pipe schemes

Ask for a bearing and row


Don’t let sincerity be a dullness

You won’t knock off your shine for

Smile at violets,

To an impetuous snowflake

On her birthday

Whispers From The Engineer

It was a train ride and I held the brakes                     

I turned the nozzle, I scoped the lines                                   

I turned the curves and pounded time                                   

As we shuttled past the railroad stakes                     

The engine ground, the piston pined

And whined within its steely gates

I counted stocky wind-turbines

Flailing at us from a ways away

I shut an eye, the other fluttered

Signs were bland and very vague

Little ladies talked and tittered

Men read pamphlets children played

Droning, droning ever forward

In the milky, sleepy dull

The coals cried dry and wispy whimpers

In the cistern’s muggy lull

I watched a light show from my window

It was the train light’s flashing X’s

I was dazzled then my vexes

Faded black and faded slow

I went where most people go

I didn’t know anything anymore

But they did, all the rest on board

They saw us heading past the shore

We danced on tight ropes not ballast

I knew nothing of our waltz

I tell you it was not my fault!

I was not conscious of our stance

I felt a rush that woke me up

A siren squealed and jarred me

My heart burned hot, my blood caught fire

I cast the light upon the water

  

I could see the end I could hear them wail

They clutched their children by them

They prayed to God to save their lives,

I prayed to God He’d hear them

The water caught us, cold and fast

We stayed afloat on perilous pillows

We were blindfolded under steaming billows

And sunk into the watery pasture

Pleas and calls drowned out forever

They departed to eternal stations

Save me, I was carried on the waters

By a Hand with expectations

Where the locomotive sank

I now return to squat

Bowing towards the wreckage,

Stooping on the dock

Whispering rueful sentiments

Mixing my tears with the ocean’s salt

They’ll not hear but I wish to tell them “Sorry”

For, in truth, it was my fault

I Am A Brave Heart (Villanelle)

                I Am A Brave Heart

       

            
                                    I am a brave heart and I have no fear

Truly I stand in the midst of danger without a flinch

I shiver as I grip my spear

People die all throughout the year

And if my moment is coming, why should I shrink away?

I am a brave heart and I have no fear

My friend was thrust though by a steer

He lost such blood he would not part his eyelids again

I shiver as I grip my spear

I will turn eighteen next year

Some say I am a firebrand and I’ll not disagree

I am a brave heart and I have no fear

Men wielding knives at the front, and bowers at the rear

Surely, now I am older, I am ready for my first fight?

I shiver as I grip my spear

The war hour is close and the enemy is near

I can’t brave this one I can’t flee from here

I shiver as I grip my spear

I am a brave heart and I have no fear

She Wore It As A Tilt Hat Ought To Be Worn

Someone stuck it atop her head

And told her it was how it should look She swallowed their words

Like greens that are good for you.

She half decided it was vogue

So, on a half-thought, she bought it

It was waxy like a navy blue candle

With two pie-sized pin stripes

Darting like menos and banding the crown-

She wore it like a tilt hat ought to be worn, Confidently.

Instead of the by and by niceties

A contrary sentiment, and that alone dedicated:

A weird little hat, like the House of Stuart.

No lickspittle there, instead one with loose hinges

And spinning machinery in need of no oil.

She checked all of her usual pockets for pride

And found the contusion just surfaced her scalp.

Doubts deluged the decks of her mind:

Was her confidence a cloud that could bear no weight?

Which source of the two could be trusted?

Was the pleasant or wounding response the right?

Was the first affirmation less than a compliment and

The contradiction, an endearment just impolite?

Some words cross blades with other words,

Some steel is ore and hard

And some swords break other swords-

Words break words

And some words break even though they swore

People break on what they trust more

And decide from what they want, and what they’ve heard.

She could have put it in a cheese box,

Rolled it down a pier to meet the bay

But she stored it in the peak of her closet

She tilted her feet on the day of her choosing,

Because she believed her hat wasn’t half bad.

She put it on in front of a mirror

Pursed her lips and posed

If the glass was lying: she wasn’t listening

She liked the hat and wore it once more

She wore it as a tilt hat ought to be worn,

Elegantly

Mer's Flies' Ears

Flies have small ears so you have to speak extra loud

They don’t have ears they pick up vibrations

Maybe it’s like, what is that?

-Taps two flat fingers on ledge of table and

nasally phonates dit, dit, dah-dit-

Morse Code

He’s picking up your vibrations in Morse Code!

Mer, flies don’t speak English

But they listen in it!

Maybe your vibrations aren’t in English

How do you know that fly is a he?

He’s not listening

And he just landed on your slice of lemon pie

-Amber gasps and rushes to the counter

at the plate supporting her slice

and puts a dismal spin on the delicate dish

which sends the cool frothy sliver to the floor

(Squish)

Then not a breath passes as the girls

watch the small circle progressing

in ravenous aerials eating up the counter space

as it travels and stops halfway on the ledge and

halfway off

Amber snatches it with grievous grip

like she holds her life savings in a public place-

Mom would have killed you

Muriel, get the newspaper!

I’m going to slap his ears off!

Don’t do that!

Just tell him to go outside!

I’m not talking to a fly!

Hold open the door and I’ll talk to him

Loudly she speaks:

Go out fly, you don’t want to stay in here,

Amber will kill you!

-Amber opens the West End apartment door-

The air outside is spiced with the aromas of autumn:

Damp dirt, burnt wood, and the smells that rise

when rainwater vaporizes,

combined with cinnamon and pumpkin

broiling with cloves on the stove-

Then a breeze like a breath sweeps the curls

of Muriel’s hair-

-The fly meanderers in wide slow revolutions

and tumbles in the whirling wind.

Muriel follows behind like a stern sheepdog

and the fly swerves around Amber’s face

before disappearing into the world

Like a passing car down a distant highway-

Flies do too have ears!

Boston Has A Bedtime

Boston Has A Bedtime

The storefront faces wrinkle

Till they part a gaping yawn

Eyelid-doorways shut up

And leave only the twinkles

Of the mind, the switches of thought

To be cast down

At which point no admittance is permitted.

No annoyance, nor disturbance,

Or even change jingling

Can pry the portals open for further transaction

The clatter of china dishes

From diners, brasseries and bistros

Makes a chinking like a music box:

An enchantment

Composed nightly

Enhancing the desire to dream,

The aspiration to sleep-

To follow the fingernail moon wherever it glows, 

Even to cradle in the scoop of its bow

And balance on the end of its cape with your feet

The city lights encircle street occupants

They streak like a whitewash smirch

On an ebon-even sky

And play ring around the rosy

Till the tenants come tumbling down

They are as fool’s gold against the genuine.

What is a streetlight to a star?

The twinkles make a frenzy

And dizzy city-dwellers into a drowsy, comfortable

Tranquility

The owls–

The dream-seam rippers and the

Page-turners,

They are the disobedient ones!

They blink at the sun like a mismatched stocking,

And ignore the night like a gutter dime

They pull out the feathers and pellets-

Tear out the stuffings of time

And rattle the corridors like they rattle their minds

Boston has a bedtime