wobegone

once separate
now intertwined
you made me yours
you made you mine
stray kitten
mewling
abandoned
in a cardboard box
you found me
feral, wobegone and lost
but you saw
beyond my fleas
beyond the cost
one life gone
but 8 to go
all 8 yours
if you will it so

cabal

            moonlit silhouettes dance
         shifting in the fog
      shadowy cabal
   conspiring against us all
 and you call out
                   instagram Cassandra
               snapchat Pythia
         facebook Nostradamus
                      and you warn
                raise the alarm
          but are disarmed
    thwarted by a button

                   not
           a big red button
                marked
         
         DANGER

but one that says

                                unfollow?

vamoose

eagle dropping
from windy sky
and i crouch
sink into the snow
hope against hope
that tremors
of cold and fear
do not betray me
i weigh me
my chances
of outrunning claws
death from above
in iron-like jaws
vamoose or remain
talons approaching
wonder in vain
still my breath
as shadow passes
hear the squeak
and crunch ahead
sense of shame
in release of dread
that they, not i, are dead
before i shake
off the snowflakes
and fear
hop lazily away
as though the eagle
was never here

peculiar

odd moments
of connect & disconnect
wires not quite touching
still sparking
coruscation arcing
through darkness
illuminating the familiar
dressing it in shadows peculiar
coat new lined in flashes
brilliant and bold
contrast of new to old
ragged cuffs of night
shoes scuffed by light
in the moment before
the filaments charge the air
the coat is gone
and you are there
whispered kisses
breaking through despair

tantivy

my heart
a thoroughbred
thoroughly bred
to rush ahead
of my head
racing tantivy
through fields
of doubt
jumping hedges
as bystanders shout
watch out watch out
but heart gallops on
headlong
as I hang on 
looking beyond
to green pastures
on the horizon

iota

chaos like a cyclone
wall of sound and fury
marching inexorably towards me
in its path destruction

and After reconstruction
not one iota left
unchanged or rearranged
from Before estranged

reconcile

jumble sale cardboard boxes
filled with treasures and trash
scraps sewn together
in patterns that clash
velvet Elvises in gilded frames
painted over Picassos
dripping with bbq sauce stains
mother of pearl inlaid
in plywood toy chests
our worsts thoroughly
mixed with our bests
never quite able to reconcile
the mishmash myriad bits
stashed away for a rainy day
which came and stayed
so the fabric of us was made

mettle

those who say they know their worth
so oft over or under-estimate, approximate,
misjudge the thing that makes them wonderful
for weakness

and you whose mettle
time and temperament have proved
who justice sought, for rightness fought,
who does both what he must
as well as what he ought
you, poorest judge of all,
when deem yourself
too small to make a difference...

can't you see
the difference already wrought
for, by example, you have taught
the world
to better be
the world,
and in it, me

palpable

dew settling on grass
beautiful but ephemeral
quantifiable as desirable
so I while expectation
humidly hangs in the air
palpable presentiment
of sweet sentiment
the presumption of elation
almost as delightful
as the eventual sensation
of anticipation's evaporation
after darkness, dawn's arrival
in the sunshine of a smile

consigliere

sometimes I wish
I was the counseled
instead of consigliere
until the bullets fly
then happy I
my mattress for sleep
diurnal not eternal
and my just desserts
just dessert
I would always
rather take a cannoli
than a gun

nefarious

face once familiar
grown nefarious
and dissimilar
crooked grin a row
of gaping gravestones
quizzical eyebrows
now arched evilly
eyes alight no more
with laughter but cackles
to raise my hackles
and I wonder
which visage is truer
the one I thought I knew
or the newer?

eclogue

nightmare pastoral
in pastels painted
in eclogues deep
the forms keep
their counsel
mouths slathering
through their blathering
wolves in wool suits
shepherds not sheep
into gaping jaws
would that we were asleep

loll

decadently lazy
we loll about
lotus eaters on a
rainy Sunday afternoon
curled into each other
like cozy cats
and purr away the day
in softest murmur
languidly lounging

gadarene

exuberance
unencumbered by sense

overwhelmed diffidence
but not the difference
between maybe and yes
nuance was lost
in a gadarene rush
to possess
and be possessed
unfortunately
by one worth less
than initially assessed
false face
false hope
false pretense
finally redressed 

juggernaut

a steamroller in Candy Land
a flamethrower in a match factory
a Sherman tank in a toy store
all this and more
cannot be deterred
you are flattened & melted & conquered
destroyed by the inferred
the hope incurred
no escaping the inexorable
no giving this juggernaut a miss
you are stuck in it's path
planted there by one single kiss

implacable

i thought perhaps maybe...
so stupid now i see.
this flight of fancy
was always
going to crash.
too heavy with hope
to stay aloft long.
the ground
rushes up implacable.
life flashes
before my eyes
and i whisper my goodbyes
to the dreams about to die.

hare

urban oasis
patch of green
in the asphalt
park yourself there
to sit and repair
the fault line
cracks in composure
from exposure
to the frenzied pace
of the race in this maze
as you hare
from here to there
but for this
lunch hour bliss

kibosh

category five
caught on the
hurricane gale
of fancy
I fly
around the world
and back again
propelled by distant
butterfly wings
my chaos
theoretical no more
until I put the kibosh
on my crazy
calm the tempest
in my teapot
before devastation
is wrought
with errant thought

flippant

the riposte my dispatch
my armor a flippant rejoinder
my pen not sword but poniard
and so wield my words with care 
and I parry and thrust precisely
ducking and darting
from the pikes and broadswords
hoping I'm fleeter of foot
than those who would cut me
with the long reach of their catty criticism

myrmidon

to the ends of the earth
I would go
just a word from your lips
I would make it just so
no request is too small
I'd do anything at all
your myrmidon loyal I stand
my future, my fate
you hold in your hand
I would fight all the masses
I would kill if you asked it
whatever you wanted
I would not be daunted
your wishes are as my command

devolve

wry smile and devolve
into the past
a prime development
row house of has
and feeling mays
and maybes
in the once
windows to the soul
unshuttered and doors ajar
we never know what might be
with one who loves us
as we are

sylvan

I dream of you
in sylvan glade
the mists of mystery
and woodlands damp
your cloak
and there you stand
mighty oak
your words drip
like moss
and I bask in your shade
lean against your sturdy frame
and rest me in your coolness

bevy

world tugs at us
hectors and harries
a bevy of business
and busy-ness
building up our days
up to us to find
ways to unwind
peace serene we choose
ours to win or lose
not what but how
we make ourselves
to be
life a mirror
reflecting back
what we make to see

untoward

move through life

stately and serene 

keen to keep

appearances up

nothing untoward 

or misbegotten 

nothing misplaced 

no niceties forgotten 

faked until maked 

with head held high

and smile wide

so cross the divide

from yesterday to tomorrow 

will-o'-the-wisp

and we reach for the heavens
chasing after a will-o'-the-wisp
whispering on the wind
we may
we might
we must
we fly but for a moment
as we leap and laugh
and land and fall
and find not stars
but fireflies
not what we thought
to catch
but no less lovely
for that

sagacious

time in quick succession passes
seconds into years
love and learn to love again
despite our learned fears
hope found in the darkest days
light triumphs over grief
wisdom won through
getting up again against belief
that further falls await us
and that we can't rise once more
sagacious we grow greatest
when we let go despair before
we let it over take us
and we give the heart free rein
knowing love despite all heartbreaks
will never, ever, be in vain

asperse

most golden character
sweetest and most true
still some would asperse
with comments to cut
them that know themselves
as less than
them confusing kindness
with weakness
them that convinced that
chopping down the tree
makes the bushes tall
and they may grow
in the space they make
but never to the lofty heights
of those they caused to fall

quodlibet

from separate strands
songs combine
harmonies intertwined
all aligned
music of the highest
cosmic quodlibets
of stars spinning
nova in concert divine
with the light inside

adjuvant

silly
how simple
a smile
a soft word
tiny kindnesses
to solve
a sadness
we have to
heal ourselves
and make our happy
but easier with
adjuvant help
to halt calamity
to aid our sanity
better all is
in amity

oenophile

drink deeply
your delicate bouquet
envelopes me completely
the taste of you
heady and rich
and sweet too
Joni could drink
a case of you
while I
could happily drown
in your ocean
oenophile, I
content myself
to savor every sip
every drip drip drip
for in your vino,
my veritas