descry

adventure unfolds

both the place and oneself

small wonders as you descry

in the Braille of a cobblestone street 

the entire world at your feet

and in the mystery of alien air

you may both lose yourself 

as well as find yourself there

causerie

a pint and a chat

comparing and complaining and commiserating 

and in the space between the words

of our casual causerie 

we cease being him and her

and become you and me 

just ourselves 

no more 

no less

and never need we be

alfresco

a battered wooden bench
in the mist of an Irish morning
somewhere off the motorway
between Dublin and Tralee
a coffee alfresco and you and me
weary but unworried as the road
and adventure beckons

wardobe

passports and plans
and faraway lands
wardrobe to suitcase
jumpers and jammies
hands clammy
aeroplanes and hopes
taking flight

slapdash

I always fancied that I knew what to do
or I'd just know where to go

a vague projection of me there
queen of the castle in the air

but avoiding the doctrinaire
I never once looked at a map

my slapdash system cacophony
inertia interspersed with industry

spontaneity's ecstasy and injury
for the whims of others or my whimsy

draws me where it will
for good or ill

sure spirit's inner compass
would guide me here to there

but a dream is not a plan
and so I never land

quite where I thought I would
for ill or good

overwhelm

tantalizingly
just out of reach
the promise
of holidays' ways
anticipation clouded by
the "did I pack"
and "did I buy"
and I make
and remake lists
and certain am
I'll still forget
a thing or two
but sans regret
try not to let
the little things
overwhelm me
and mar
optimistic expectation
engendered by adventure
and a minibar

pelf

like beggar scrambling on the ground for paltry pelf
thrown by those with wealth to watch the destitute dance
for a penny

so I was for love

no more

pauperized
I'll count my coin in other currency than gilt and guilt
enumerate opulence by any other measure
or starve before I gambol at their gambles

burke

confrontation
stomach churn
and taste of tin
so i burke
the conversation
to shirk
the agitation
before it can set in
but cowardice
no consolation
just a different frustration
and my avoidance
will be my ruination

nuncupative

undeclared, his love remained
locked within and with his pain
he tried in vain her heart to win
but never would she know
and she loved him
in silence, too
the sadness that they never knew
but at last, they can rejoice
on the wind they find their voice
millennium since both have passed
and now their ghosts have peace at last
for when the wind blows just right
in the deepest dark of night
his will nuncupative strangers hear
whispered by leaves and over weir
"Lenore, I leave you all my heart
so that we may never part."
and her reply in susurration
whispered back with sweet elation
"Edgar, darling, my heart take"
lovers' balm for eternity's ache

adversity

adversity the stone
on which we're ground
sharpened to a point
or whittled clean away
never knowing
until the wheel
begins to spin
if our mettle
made of metal
though we
are made of clay

knee-jerk

endemic and inescapable
as one is connected
and retweet selected
the headline click-bait
knee-jerk response
only to be expected
and we all pass on
half-truths gleaned
from the lede
just scanned
in the endless feed
and it's on this
the ones in power rely
that we all have opinions
but never ask why
analysis rejected
in favor of a meme
as a rallying cry

hew

having clawed
her way up
you'd think
she'd lend a hand
to the women who follow
as she from broad perch
surveys the land
and yet instead
she waves an axe
and hews the branches
just below
with wild swings
as though
another woman's gain
would be her loss
it's disappointing
in a boss

malign

whether injury by accident or design
when injured the impulse is oft to malign
the injurer

except
for some reason I've yet to discern
when sex is involved

and then some people yearn to place the blame
on the one who names names
or on the one who can't

who can't stomach the thought
who know they can't change the past
so why relive it again

why face their rapist
or the one who harassed them
in ways big and small

and if they come forward or retreat to repair
what business of yours at all
except compassion to share

euphony

i can't discern
if dream
or hope
or memory
curled up
half asleep
whispered euphony
of sweet nothings
washing over me
and the warmth of one
against my back
as arms wrap round
the tsp to his tbsp
on a rainy
Sunday morning
that was
or will be

chary

rolled up paper
pops me
repeatedly
on the snoot
rubs my face
in my failures
to boot
and yet
like eager puppy
I leap again
when others
might be chary
never letting
enthusiasm dim
despite an outcome
that never
seems to vary

razzmatazz

distracted
by the dazzle
of the shiny light
and lost in
the razzmatazz
of the click
and the like
of the hope
as we wait
through the
dot dot dot
romance forgot
in the swipe

palliate

rip the band-aid off
and know
sometimes
naught can palliate
the fears and tears
but time and cheers
of many, many beers
with friends
forgetting faults
and fails and foes
without end

lagniappe

brief affair over
I expected no encore
and yet
a friendship blooms
in ground not suited to amore
and this lagniappe
ends up meaning more
than that which came before

interdigitate

jealousy unbidden
but undeniable
as I see
how you & she
interdigitate your lives
and I become wise
to the things I miss
and missed out on
in a time
not that far gone
when I had just
a toothbrush
on the shelf
granted by yourself
but now all around
her things are spread
on shelves and ground
and everywhere
and it's as if
I was never there

tendentious

no chance for anyone
to change their mind
when all new "news" streams
solely from tendentious sources
and every new thought already aligned
by catered curators with intention designed
to keep the populace locked in step
like horses in their designated courses
to confirm what they believe despite
any actual fact that may come to light

gregarious

oscillate like a butterfly
dancing with a dervish
from solitary splendour
to grandly gregarious
and both are me
and neither

denegation

it's not that
she didn't know
more that
she didn't want
to know
lost in
the hedge maze
of increasingly
forceful denegations
and rueful ruses
her credulity
followed gullibility
into a dead end
led astray by
his laughter
and a whisper
of truth

slake

the glimmer
of a glint
of a shimmer
of a hope
began when first
i saw the picture
of your grin
and grew when
first we met
and it was better
than i thought i'd get
and when you kissed me
the maybe became now
insatiable need
for the moment slaked
for i'd forgotten how
the sheer act of possibilty
can wipe away despair
romantics are never hopeless
if even the slightest,
slimmest, smallest chance
of love is in the air

prehension

light flicks on

and slowly 

the mind

fumbles with 

prehension

mixed with 

existential dread

as the wheres 

and whys 

and who am Is 

sort themselves 

before I rise 

bombard

in this day and age when atrocities
appear on every newspaper page
and the anchors on the tv screen
are full of tales violent and obscene
and the world it seems would bombard us
with a barrage of the worst it has to offer
importune, pernicious, disastrous, unpropitious
the richest stealing from the coffers
of those who have the least
infrastructures ruined by weather or by war
and what remains not fit for man nor beast
in times such as these
(and it's always such as these)
the best to do, I find,
is look at those we love
and in them
find peace of mind

vituperate

oh, the comments section
bitchy high school burn book
writ large for the world to see
all the infantile snark set free
as devolution follows from
disagreement to name calling
and a stranger vituperates opinions
that the other names as facts
and vitriol exchanged, by some,
for the courage to morally act
as they spew a hatred
they can never retract

agita

unsure
from whence it arose
but always
quick to laugh
quick to cry
quick to love
i don't know why
overly, according to an array
of former friends and loves,
sensitive
i know i take to heart
too easily minor slights
and yet i oft forgive too much
wanting to please
to be seen as a good sport
agita arising
as confrontation nears
and o'erwhelmed by fears
i freak out or fade away and fall
terrified that disrepute by one
means condemnation by all
not trusting that the ones i love will stay
having before seen others simply walk away

salubrious

in the hazy miasma
of strife and struggle
of life's trials juggled
there is no balm
more salubrious
than a smile
from one who sees
both forest and trees

farceur

on days like these
when bile rises
as humanity descends
it is hard to believe
our world not writ
by some dark dystopian farceur
whore for a bleak irony
relishing our fall from grace
into the fiery place
arranging our agonies
in an organized inventory
so we pray the page turns
and our tales retooled by
a kindlier author

censure

waiting with a growing dread
for the number of the dead
while one upon his golden throne
censures those who've lost their home
or censures those who take a knee
to protest the injustice they see
but at least he takes the time to tweet
between golf strokes, quite a feat