Lullaby

when you wake tonight trembling
sensing presence on your brow
each Bellagio faux cloud
on your wall leering
through the quiet dark
pointing hidden teeth to streetlights
glowing crimson through the Roman shades
remember daddy put them there
washing the clouds on the Behr Eggshell sky
with natural ocean sponge

when you hear a murmur from above
your head a monster speaks
the mattress creaks
the bedframe squeaks
subglottal noises from a ghoulish
flatulent throat threaten to eat
the little girl that lies in the bunk below
remember daddy built your bed
the ghoul is just your brother
fighting with a nightmare

when you hear a shivering
gust that shakes the flimsy window
frames in frames in plastic sheeting
water beating
off the storm frame air is freezing
trapped in plastic pillows scraping fibers
of that crimson Roman shade
remember daddy tacked it up
capturing the wind and weather
you feel the radiator, instead

when the teddy by your pillow
starts to shake while you hear gentle
engine sounds like a motorbike
next to your ears not unpleasant
unexpected yes but friendly, soft
paw reaches out and pets you silent
the cycle sounds were Whisper, purring
remember daddy brought this cotton
ball of caring teaching you
you can bring a purr to her grateful throat

with tomorrow yet in leisure
hours in the future over Greenland
you sense the noiseless paw falls
of your pillow partner, then a door
calls you forth into the hallway
you and cat into my room creep
both alight on my bed I sleep
remember daddy’s soul forever
opened like a sand casting
like a casting just your size

Fibromyalgia

factory opens
haze precipitates
precious sleep dances mockingly away
from my gnarled form

millions of jagged crystals
each unique beyond remediation
millions of crystals
myriad million sawblades
whirring abrading debriding

diamond grit spread on a grindstone
flay fibers in a fan like a
fishmonger lays out flounder
cheloid chemicals cut my soleus cell by cell
diatoms fillet a million mignons
from mangled muscle

On the First Green Tendril

was that the manager of the water ice
shadowed by the lattice of aluminum
sheltering the window from the impact
of an errant snowball

did i see the quickening of the vital sap
lifting up the greening tendril of ground pine moss
twisting up the muddy brick, still clad in grey brown crystals
seeping life and sun admixed

has the crumbled edifice from the snow wars
toppled in a reckless rush born of deception
ending in an eight-year-old's body slam,
grown a stubble beard of grit

as one more nor'easter threatens icy havoc
twigs waken roots, stoma open eyelids
tubers bathed in thawing runoff shiver, swelling
school's closed while my world opens

Pink

I. (In the beginning there was the Word)

there
has not
been such a
breathless moment

not
such a
blush fluted
inflorescence

blood
coursing
cascading
nothing stronger

pulled
breathless
blinding flash
of creating

exploding into life

II. (standing on common ground)

have you ever
looked a baby in the foot
from profile and, not noticing
where the melanin begins
if it does at all?

gnarled walnut finger
traces image held in
tanned maple hands
Burnt Siena-cherry baby
teeters on pink soles

just like my baby
coos grandma

III. (Seek ye beauty where it may be found)

the thicket threatened

twisting viny imports from
bowels of a casual bird
what chokes worse,
sumac or shade grass?

blades and hatchets
merge with muscle
air infused with sunlight
whispers warmth across the crown
of rose of sharon

one bud unbows its head
chartreuse grey-veined sepals stretch
makes way for the blossom

IV. (To sleep, perchance to dream)

i've been here before
dim light glows pink off the live ones
dusty pigments pinken up the dead ones
they don't call them icicle roses for nothing

see how the pink gold threads
forming candles in the misty carpet
bare pink-gold candlelight
reflected warm yet wan
The color of birth
dimmed to pallor

Dregs of the American Dream

Shambling to the door, the old man
Split the Post-Gazette as follows:
Things that matter; adverts, weather,
Real estate he'd sell, excuses.
Then the pace of war, of taxes,
Last, the sports, once to his manhood
Central. Now decried as worthless,
More a torment to the man who
Stares into his cold reflection
In the china case just past the
Pile in which recycled dreams die.

never could i gain
no man will obtain
excellence! my brain

rigidly declares
triumph flees before
boredom's pall prepares
frailty
kowtowing
to death

Forty years of struggle locked in
Seventy years of mist, of memory.
Wed a fertile mind soul body
Planted monoculture there
Five lost children call you "other"
Only grandchild bears your witness
By a bird call you once taught him

Legacy written under claims of
Rights of age and skill of rhetoric
Finally, power fading, shame
Strategies could not assemble
What was born already broken
Broken now, your body resting
Freed from one last lecture given
Look at what is left - a relic
Of his time cast bitterly
Into ours.

one took one who could not love him
one found an angel
one joined with another victim
two so certain of their path
they stayed alone

surveying my aging body
my shopworn life I
see my father's footsteps lengthen
( He a 10 1/2, I a 12)
overtaken by his shadow
his pain my shame
am I more or less

more polished yes
spit-shine on canvas sneakers
more money no - more debt
degrees lie fallow
more waist line tells a different story

less healthy less fit
failed heart in a strong body
less confident less brash
tagged by this century's introspection
aware the success machine
the American Century
is broken, rusting

Father, we are one - failures!
Dregs of the drink called American Dream!

A Good Day

i can't do this with mama
snow angels in his eyes she plunges in hip deep
walls i can't climb

she's worky real watchy dad's sportsy
my soul dances over this snow blanket
no food for days

filling buckets full of snow pack
packing hours into memories
i'm cold mama

bombs fly. Abomasnow!
eyes fixed on plum plaid jacket
paws sink in drifts

watch me hide behind the wood crate
not a care for cold for time for hunger
hide in bamboo

dad's not watching rush the castle
fusillade of cloying crystals
tracks in the field

GOTCHA overturned a turret
(changes rules while plowing forward)
hush stalk pounce kill

jumped his castle! daddy, how?!
Special Forces dad detachment
did i do that

now i surrender daddy tackles
tumbling in reflected sun-blind
claws slice mouse guts

how come you never hurt me daddy
hoist him like a sun-bronzed trophy
thanks old deu-who?

three times my weight yet never crushing
the image of my soul eclipses sun
i eat at last

this is the best day of my life
this is the best day of my life
this is a good day

White

winter blossoms grow by the hour
pampas grass waves white
frozen flowers born in wind
plucked by the next gust

transported, i
walk the fields of winter wheat
waving white as donkey carts
drag a scythe promising
chlyeb for the weekdays
challah for Sabbath
potato vines threaten to withhold their tubers
hiding under blankets

cold cotton crumbles across my cheeks
fluffy frozen memories
shtetl children in bomb shelters
stitched from rags and skins
escape the hungerby throwing snow
eating snowcones
without syrup

retreating to black bread and cholent
potatoes bob in the pot like marshmallows
in our chocolate milk