Water Baby

Some fish are just fish.

I keep the chair, yes.
The Chair, the Fork, the Plate.
These are my constellations,
this is how I order the night,
this is how I eat on Fridays.

I never saw a rainbow
trout that I didn’t enjoy the hell out of
once he was de-boned and broiled
lightly, with butter and pepper.

I envied the ability to piss off the stern.

I ate Bambi too.
Thumper, occasionally.

But my favorite was the old Fass Bro’s Fish House
the hushpuppies
and sitting at the elbow of the fisherman
with the Chair, the Fork and the Plate.

Lyres072008

The Melon Scented Candles

were paid for with my credit card.
I signed the receipt, it must have been me.

I placed them on the armoire to gather dust,
to show signs of neglect
to count the days.

When the dust gets an inch deep
I shall strike the match, light the candle
and gently blow oooooOooooo

creating a flame surrounded by a field
of swirling dust motes

all of which I send to you;
all of the longing and all of the loneliness
all the missing and the wishing
and resentment- all of it sent
searching for the rind
separated from the pulp.

oooooOooooo.

oooooOooooo.

Two Kittens Unravel DNA

It was a sweater before it was a
ball of string before it was a sweater.

They bat it lightly this way, that way
they makes cats cradles, bend string
balls into ladders,

creation with kitten paws, clumsy.
No God, No God, No God.

They explore possiblities, discover universes
in grains of dust floating in the evening
of the world,see endless wonder

in a sweater that was once a ball of string.

Her Husband Jacob Buys Gala A Ladder

for her birthday…
its very practical

And the diamonds lay unused, ignored, in the jewelry box
strung on silver ropes
chains that tangle and look like spiderwebs

trapping dew- now where did he see that little excerpt
about the dew collectors that fired his imagination
with little firework pictures going off in his brain

pop pop
pop POP pop

little gadgets that collect the rain and feed
the tender shoots of plants- it would WORK

he thinks gleefully.

Gala climbs her new ladder, cleans gutters
Jacob thinks of stringing wire or maybe fishing net
to keep the leaves from damming up the flow

and how pretty it would look
the dew strung on the net
like diamonds.