After her rough entanglement
and dalliance with the gods
she returned to whistling tea
and biscuits rich in butter
After her rough entanglement
and dalliance with the gods
she returned to whistling tea
and biscuits rich in butter
What love can do
Yes, you
with jelly dried
on your table.
See the jelly.
See the grape
the vine
the shine and the wine
it would’ve become
if not sent to you
to grace your toast
and table.
O Lord, take this wine.
O Lord, am I able?
Muddy furrows thoroughly filled –
the yard’s a lake.
You came across,
you in your boots
and green wax coat.
You had the mail,
the first in weeks.
The sun was shining then,
except for the clouds,
and where it was shallow
the grass poked through.
You ran rings around yourself
every year until you were
full grown – dominant and
petulant. Then down you went.
Their job was to cut off everything
that stuck out. Which they did.
They limbed and bucked and sanded you smooth.
Slicked you tight and stood you up,
and now you’re dead alive, a lonesome beam.
But I know, I know:
those rings inside are circling still.
There’s glory in a block of wood.
There’s glory in a dream.
Do you live
and what do you do there
far afield, a pair?
I’ve got people in me,
they don’t even know.
And somewhere, too, I’m gone from myself.
I’m doing things I never will guess.
I was trying
to get back to that
huckleberry muffin
at the Blackbird Café
on Bainbridge Island
till my wife came a day later
with a blueberry muffin.
She said, “It’s not huckleberry but”
Paper airplane
that’s landed in your lap.
The lines are mine,
pressed together,
but the point they find
is ever you.
A mild but festive ambush
fills the air with you and me
She makes the world go when she drives