16
Stars make faces
When they tread the spaces
Between themselves and Earth
17
Full summer-moon
And arch of garden hose—
You too can make a moonbow
18
Mississippi
And Ohio confluence—
Almost an ocean
19
Spending a summer’s night reading—
June bug fights the window screen
20
Can I love everyone at once?
Moon shrouded
By only a bit of haze
Coal porter can’t sing but he brings us barges of energy from the dermis of Earth & that sounds good to me.
Southeastern summer
Star chart took us miles away.
Unlit road brought us back
To sleep the sleep of myths.
In our dreams we spoke
to the after-image.
O, brightest star,
O, distant bug of lightning,
You’re a dying pinprick,
Poised to explode
First Then
And then Now.
You were in all of our dreams
That night.
You swallowed us
Like a drop of fuel
On your colorless voyage
To nowhere.
You became your own constellation.
The end of the light,
The beginning.
6
I’d take out a loan
to get at those nachos—
yes to jalapeños
7
Out-of-town scoreboard
illuminates the moon—
pennant race deepens
8
Only one of these teams
will see October—
nighthawks catch flies under lights
9
Oh, why couldn’t we
have scored some runs earlier—
closer warming
10
Father and son speechless
at a game in June.
Pitcher comes up lame again.
6
Pure black
laced with violets—
nothingness.
7
Stop
forest fires, fight
lightning—
8
My robes torn,
slowly I descend
the mountain.
9
Even God laughed
when the preacher
told us jokes.
10
No-one can resist
gossip in your cafés—
oh, Paris.
A fish jumped and
I remembered
what it was like
jumping off
the low-dive and
landing on my belly.
Over yonder a tree
on its side
that the beaver hauled down.
A bird.
Until it drops,
until it alights silently
in the extended arms
of the willow.
A thousand lightning bugs
once invisible sting the
twilight like branding irons.
Soon it will be dark,
though the moon
(I’m sure)
grows brighter.
1
The distant percussion
of a woodpecker—
Let’s make ice cream!
2
Asleep on the edge
of the bed,
marriage is not for cynics
3
Sitting here waiting
for the coming disease,
smoking my cigarette
4
Moon bright enough
to read your poems by,
the yard aglow with dew
5
Sunflowers
break the cloudbank,
feeding eagles
by Thom Kortkamp once, we childrenset out together on the golden roadacross big prairie… among the stalks of goldenrod& queen anne’s lace,hands rose: pale & insipid,menacing our flanks swiftly along to the mothertree haven on thin soilfallen branches caressingbeing consumed by buttery … Continue reading last winter’s quest
Here I am hanging onto your wretchedly wonderful world.
1
Complete games
aren’t what they used to be—
bullpens exploding
2
Pitcher wipes his brow,
sun peaks out from clouds—
there goes the runner!
3
It’s lonely on the bench
when you’re pitching well—
no-hitter brewing
4
Ash tree gave its life
for a thousand home runs—
Hall of Fame material
5
It’s past my bedtime
but I’ll listen all night—
extra innings
JBR.com 