There goes my home

Paradise is burning

It's been burning all day

Like the sacking of Rome 

Or the burial of Pompeii

There goes my home

Like Hiroshima flattened

Or Atlantis drowned

Don't care how it happened

Gotta Get out of town

There goes my home

This boom town went bust

And The rats had already fled

In God We Trusted

And Now we're all dead

There goes my home

Everything's burned 

burnedto the ground

everything’s lost, 

there’s nothing to be found

There goes my home

There's more plagues to endure

There's no way to prepare

There's nothing to insure

The system is burnt bare

There goes my home

Mom

There was nothing left

Before she left

Erosion stole her

And there was nothing

I could do for her

That birthed me 

And fed 

and sheltered

And comforted 

And clothed

And listened

And held

And taught

And scolded

And worried

And most of all

Loved.

"Hush little baby

Don't you cry,

You know your mama

Was born to die....

All my trials, lord

Soon be over"

(2017)

Not Today

Squadrons of geese

Flying in vees

Reminding me 

That today is to be seized

Time to plan ahead

Thankful I’m not dead

Preparing for the glorious

Swatches to burst into view

Then the cold hard scents

Of rotting leaves and 

Skeletal trees before the 

Inevitable freeze.

Flock off birds.

Not today!

Sept 2016

Matter

For three weeks.

There.

On the road.

By the curb.

Where each day

thousands accelerate

onto the highway

She started out a cat.

Somebody's cat to miss

or 

maybe feral, 

missed by her own

She's a cat no more.

Matter.

My glimpse is just a blip on my trip

Each day there is less of her 

Each day there is less of fur 

One day there will be none.

No one stopped and scooped

"Not my job", we say

Pass by passively every day

Unnoticed 

unwanted 

uncaring

These words are all that's left

Of a life that didn't matter.

Lightning Bugs

Fireflies flicker in the thicket at dusk

Winking in the warm breathless night

Little beacons luring mates or prey

Being neither, I delight in their display

I heard there were more this year

This evening bears that out

Sequins on the lawn 

before the dew settles

A week of calm before 

the Cicadas arrive to crow

The slow decline of summer

And the next turn of the page

The Dream Keeper

Bring me all of your dreams, You dreamer,

Bring me all your Heart melodies (2x)

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the rough hewn fingers

Of the world.

bring me all of your hurts, you hurter

bring me all your festering wounds  (2x)

that I may bind them

in cool white linen

away from the rough hewn fingers

of the world

bring me all of your fears you fearer,

bring me all your darkest nights (2x)

that I may wrap them 

in my bosom

away from the rough hewn fingers

of the world

Bring me all of your dreams, You dreamer,

Bring me all your Heart melodies (2x)

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the rough hewn fingers

Of the world.

Ami Bmi7(b5) E7

Fma7......E7    Ami

song adapted from Langston Hughes poem.

Tea

Chilly fall day

After school

A craving for tea

Not chai

Not coffee

First tea in years

Sweetened 

With maple

Syrup

Sitting in 

The ancestral 

chairs that

I inherited

And my dad

Inherited and

My kids

Will inherit

I think of 

cribbage

And 

Get Smart

Reruns

Fifteen two

Fifteen four 

Fifteen six

And a pair

Is eight

One day

my mum

Forgot

How

I hope

I never

Forget