Advice for Endangered Species

   The ruddy turnstone of America
       died before my eyes.   This
    poem is inspired by
           but not about her.

     I tried to convince the great libraries
     to pump me full of rotten fruit.
     I tried and died?
     No I tried and failed.

  NASCAR cars awake to find themselves
  empty of engines but slathered in spit and lipstick.
      The Vice Presidents have all
      gone to pasture, revving
      like Alzheimer cows.

Meanwhile, on the North Slopes...
  The polar bears are all dead,
   even the ones we've eaten. The polar bears are all dead,
   even the ones we've eaten. The polar bears are all dead,
   even the ones we've eaten. The polar bears are all dead,

        I admit
        it's late and I don't know
        who to vote for.

 Sunrise in my eyes, coffee and rubles.
 This is the American Dream.

Please wait while I await another line.

Acer Rubric

When he shook
the once-sand bottle

what was left made the sound
of a maple leaf growing

It is not possible, he thought,
and it would not be appropriate
for me to shake hands
with a leaf’s three jagged hands

Who needs leaves anyway?
Nothing but the fruited conspiracy
of seed and soil    repetitive, hogwash

But the aging leaf in the bottle
interrupted him saying,

Leaves run their veins in all directions
hoping to report most sun

They are green when they need to be,
and red in their rest        allegiant to none
but the season

When he finished drinking the leaf
he searched for a sunrise, any sunrise,
his head tilted back,
in sun-loving obeisance

The Reward of Daybreak

The sunlight wraps its arms
around the place.
The cats lap milk and
lick themselves clean.
If it is a weekend
time stretches out before you
like a state you've never been in.
Maybe Nebraska, or the Dakotas.
Nothing but rock and wheat and
where you'll be sleeping tonight.
You go to bed old but wake up young.