ransack

nimble fingered thief
with trash panda stealth
ransacking your stores
every precious thing
you thought was yours
is debt not wealth
and brings you grief

totem

of family made or born
tiny totems incorporeal
taken out to hold
in times of trouble
or time triumphant
emblems of community
greater than just you or me

passim

my love is not

the story writ

ink soaked into the paper 

set and printed on the page 

in format fixed

my love is this 

but more than this

my love is

annotations penciled passim 

hearts scribbled and then erased 

doodles drawn & wandering words 

underlined, circled and noted

marginalia most devoted

my love is

faze

I could wish
myself unflappable
unwavering in
tempest and gale
but slightest breeze
may faze me
depending on
which way
the wind blows
and yet though
the weather may
bend my boughs
I’ve yet to break
and so in the storm
there my comfort take

silly season

winter was wont
to sober the judge
and logic dominate
judgement but now
the silly season ceaseless is
and all the judges drunk

clarion

gumshoe stuck to the pavement
under damp fedora shadowfaced
one eyebrow raised in clarion claxon
of warning more obvious than
the trenchcoat advertisement or
dangling soggy cigarette creating
a one man fog softly obscuring
the long-legged, sequin-splashed dame
who'll take his heart and make his name

luftmensch

i envy the ones who float
  buoyant dreamers
  
my pursuits weigh me
          like to drowning
                                           

      and yet

            the luftmensch
                    
                       bobs 

disencumbered by anchoring anxiety

virtual Candides cascading over waterfalls still sound 

while the rest on rock founder