You still see our smiles
but it’s dark and we’re
dropping through the bottom.
It’s as in the two-act dream
where the kiss leads to the search
and the path disappears.
Swimming upstream
Oudegracht
In the harbor of dark
The light ghost came sailing
The weight
What God will and will not do
Takes some getting used to
Early dad / Saturday game day
I love a fishbone tree
Draw a sailboat in a circle:
I’ll sail you to the sea.
Give me your triangles,
your loopy clouds,
your beach-stick fire
with swoopy flame:
we’ll squiggle up in happy smoke –
you won’t regret you came.
House in IJsselstein
Face of a changing tradition
See my article, “Holland’s ‘Zwarte Piet’ Problem,” now online at Commonweal (www.commonwealmagazine.org).
