Monthly Archives: January 2021

Your Choice

Sensing the poignancy of the moment
I speak into it, "There is a tension 
between exerting control and letting go."

She looks up from the book she always 
reads and says, "Perhaps it is time to tend
to the craft of making faithfulness."

Not wanting to be undone, I say,
"The challenge is to see the text for now,
avoid cliché, and live in the moment."

"Nice," she laughs.  "Heaven 
can be on earth if we dare 
to make new connections."

I pause.  Intrigued. Thinking aloud,
"Radical intricacies come and unfold
in this time and in this space."

She turns back to the book she always
reads, "Your choice: performance
or completion."

Magic Summer

Adults sit on folding lawn chairs
set in a circle around a fire along
the south bank of the Rock River.
Their laughter, the cicada buzz
and the occasional boat throttling
mixed with children shouts 
from joyful jumps off the dock 
into the water create summer 
for me in my mind.

But not until Grandpa poured 
his Old Style into a clear, tall glass; 
not until he handed me the salt shaker 
to tap a few times into the foam;
not until the salt settling at the bottom 
began to work the magic of bubbles in beer;
not until I saw alchemy before my very eyes
was I then free to run and leap into water
endlessly flowing by the party.

Peaceful Pointing

Peace is a nice goal and all
but does not help making peace for all.
A Minister of the Word stepped down from the Pulpit,
bowed his head as if to Pray and began to cry.
     They didn't get it from me;
     Faith formation starts in the family.
The Bible is just a little tale of tension between
Creation and human ways of de-creating.
God points to the Man.
The Man points to the Woman.  
The Woman points to the Snake.
The Snake, with its tongue, points to God.
Nothing new under the sun.

Avoiding Why

The force of moral imagination is not enough
to push against the comfort of the couch
and the chosen show to binge for an hour or four, 
nibbling and crunching one popcorn at a time
sipping bubble-impregnated, kiwi, fructose drinks.
I remember all those youngsters on the clown's show
trying to underhand toss a ping pong ball
into one, red bucket after another.
Bucket one. 
Bucket two.
Bucket three.
Bucket four.
Bucket five.
Bucket six.
Ball in bucket.  Success!  On to the next bucket.
Unfortunately, ping pong balls bounce.
Too many times the ping pong ball bounces out.
Life now amounts to bucket avoidance by
limiting exposure to difficult words ending in 'y' 
like volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity,
while embracing eat, drink and be merry.

Only Ands

With the mirror of possibilities all scratched & warped
facets added by unknown toilers in glass
faces blurred twisted kinked crooked & wry
so that eyes become ears & smiles morph into sneers
nothing is more important in this inviolable time 
than for talking heads to quote commentaries 
on commentaries on interpretations of realities.

Stay as far away from the truth as viable knowing
that it will be incredibly difficult to avoid spinning
with at least one true partner when the dance floor
is filled with thousands or more floating versions
moving in time to the latest sound 
from the Titanic's last gasp band combo.
(One truth: Always play to keep the people calm.)

Unite unite unite is today's plea
a call to all that dare - or is it deign -
to glance into the glass with silver on its back
in hopes of catching some gold reaching
into the binges we prefer & have grown to love.

But remember, with God, 
the one who almost touches Adam,
there are no buts
only ruts well-furnished 
by the less serious lifers
& for those who reach further 
only ands.

How I Talk With My Aged Dog

yous comings to bes with mes
is the bees knees

im going to say say anyway
because say always needs to be said

you look very cute
in your pink sweater

look at you
looking so self important and special

o look at you again
doin some sausage rollin

stretchins
just being a stretcher mcgee

just enough of this 
just enough

but not too much 
you know this

oh thank you for deigning
to give me a licky

Grass in Snow

1.
Where does a blade of grass find the ferocity
to stand through the covering of heavy snow?

2.
A blade of grass
stands through the covering of
newly fallen snow.

3.
Enough snow 
has fallen
to cover
each blade
of grass
still present
under the
cladding
crystal.

4.
I love the tracks I make with my feet
when walking across frosted blades of grass.

5.
Even 
better, 
the expanding 
line of exposed grass
in warm snow that ends 
at the foot of a child's creation.

Petal Me

"Take your time with the one you love
while avoiding the sucking rush
of the vacuumer of souls.
For Death is the only one who waits
at the end of that vicious pull."

She said, "There you go again.
Turning a romcom into a tragedy."

I paused and said, 
"The only good thing to come out 
of constantly being disappointed 
is becoming good at assuaging 
the disappointment in others."

She said, patting the cushion, 
"Come.  Sit back down.
Here.  Next to me."

I said, "The world is full of roles 
and a role is but a gesture in time."

She said, "Some say love is like a rose.
Leave your thorns in the kitchen.
Petal me."