whirligig

spinning on a beach
under starlit sky
arms akimbo
pirouetting with gusto
the whiligig world
kaleidoscopic flies by
before we fall
into the soft dunes
into each others arms
where together we lie
until the creeping sun
tells us it is time to rise

abdicate

and thus it is
I abdicate my sense
when from his fingers
gentle text arrives
and in the smiling face
of an emoji
my icy resolve thaws
and yet again I find
myself in realms I swore
I would no more visit
on a well trodden path
whereon my feet
may guide themselves
towards one who considers
my affection but a trifle
and yet
and yet
and yet again
I ask myself
is false hope
better than
despair

skosh

rain patters
on eaves
the tap dancing
of a thousand
skittering leaves
in the wind
and you pull me
just a skosh closer
until I melt
into your skin
don't know where
you end
and I begin
and this is
morning bliss

unabashed

and in my joy

unabashed I triumph 

that in the whole world 

you see the me

I always hoped

you'd see

and revel in the oddness 

that others found 

obtrusive but you

you found elusive 

and tracked me 

to find the wholeness 

at the heart 

of who I try to be

concatenate

memory crocheted
each action concatenate
in ghostly chains
strung together
to form the shapes
that keep us warm
unless we pull too much
on the thread

torpedo

unexploded ordinance
torpedo in the kiddie pool
Little Boy in the sandbox
the words we should say
but never do
the quiet menace
that may destroy
or may just be
part of the scenery
a memory of a volatile age
that's lost the power to wound
but which
we'll never know
until we kick it
to see if it still goes boom

inanition

the world outside
is painted in grey
in smoke and rain
matching the inanition
of a city exhausted
by a spring that can't
decide if it will
leap toward summer
or melt back into the frost
it dithers and drags us
unwilling denizens
into its doldrums