Reversals

Just playing around with some famous images.  (Sandburg, Pound, Poe, and Frost if you're wondering.)  I'm not sure it means anything yet, but I'm having fun.

   Reversals

The cat comes
on little fog feet
then melts away.

White petals wait
on a wet, dark bough
as if the wind were a train
that’s always late.

I rap on the Raven’s chamber door
and call out, “Hiya, cutie. I’m Lenore.”

When two roads diverge,
I tromp through the yellow wood.

Memory Laps

This started with the pun. I hope it ended up with something more.

            Memory Laps

My one track mind circles the same
moments, runs round the same events –
always leaning towards the left, time
after time: counterclockwise to the past,
ending exactly where I began.

Just once I’d like to reverse my
run, lean right and race clockwise,
fast forward to a future where
I could begin again where I once
did end –

                  or better yet, break free
of all measurement to roam
with Roethke and find by going
where I need to go.

Apologia Pro Oblivio

I wrote this after leaving yet another umbrella someplace.

Apologia Pro Oblivio
                            -To the last of my lost umbrellas

Foul weather friend, forgive my forgetting
You every time it turns fair, leaving you
At some Cineplex or under a fast food
Chair. What is so expandable should not
Be so expendable, but what is easily
Carried is also easily left behind.
What can be replaced cheaply can be
Abandoned with just this second thought:
This time, I pledge to keep you close though we
Both be worn round the edges, slow to open,
And prone to sudden collapse. This is my
Compact with you since you have been compact
For me. And, perhaps, when the sun shines, you can
Be my parasol, and I, your anchor against the wind.

Family Plan

A short poem about communication problems.

     Family Plan

When you speed dial me
as I speed dial you,
we’re so busy calling
we never get through.