5:00 AM

Just an image.  May not be a poem yet.

    5:00 AM

Two joggers with headlamps
lope down the early morning
street in colored tights and matching
vests, like oddly fashionable
female miners eager to get
to work, keeping just ahead
of the darkness following
them in the hour before dawn.

Tautologies

Tautologies

I remember everything
I don’t forget.
I seldom know people
I haven’t met.
I’ve never done the things
I haven’t done yet.
And I’m sorry for
all the things I regret.

Circe

Another mythology poem. I wrote it a while ago, but it seems I never posted it.

               Circe

Can I help it if men are pigs?
They blame it on my wand, my wiles,
my wantonness, but I merely
show them the way they were
already headed; I simply herd the swine
and tame the wild stallions before
they meet a fitting fate – all but
Odysseus, whose resistance
proved irresistible, who loved
me and left me here, big-bellied
and broken-hearted, wondering
if there truly are other fish in the sea.

Gardening Tips

Another spring poem.

      Gardening Tips

               1.
The final frost always comes
after the first flower.

               2.
If you dig a garden
where the lawn has died,
that’s when the grass will grow.

             3.
When placing stepping stones,
clear a way wider
than the path you think
you’ll walk.

           4.
Almost level
is near enough.
The stones will settle
where they want to be.

          5.
Nothing is as boring
as a straight line.

         6.
Beneath the weed barrier
and the mulch,
the dandelion still dreams
of the sun.

        7.
It only rains right
after you’ve watered.

        8.
Potted plants are simpler
to grow but harder
to leave alone.

Spring in His Step

Yes, I bought some new sneakers.

   Spring in His Step

On a day when March seems more like May,
an old man’s fancy turns to shoes,
not for work but just for play –
to kick aside these winter blues
(and banish boots to closet’s back).
Though there are colder days to come,
today he’ll buy what he does lack –
running shoes that will let him run
down the long drive and halfway back.