1. Reverse-Binoculars the Magnolia Tree
A truck in a meadow
Scoops dirt, wheels clack to the mound
Fingers bleed sometimes
Mother has some stuff
"No, I don't know where he is -
I think he went to town"
"I like mustard"
Rug on the stairs, squish toes
Reverse-binoculars the magnolia tree
2. Hedge Maze
Hedge maze
Crunch gravel
Laces untied
Smooth cement
Fingers in the holes
She smacked her boy
His lips curled open
Apple-pattern pleats
White socks, black shoes
But where am I?
My mother gone
Run, stop, turn,
run
The sobbing boy
His mother's face
Frowns, looks, smiles,
Sends me home
3. (dawn) 4. One Fine Morning
One Fine Morning
Does' eyes glint wet
It's yours
It's handed down
Whether your sore soles feel like walking
Sticks and mud
This house will fall one day
The sky's alive with dragons
They're lost
Looking for home
Dragging old bodies through the marshes
Their scales and bones are everywhere
Rest for a while
Grass in driveway cracks
Hills burning in the evening light
No talk now, the table clatters
Like fireflies echo stars
It's time
Creak creaking stairs
No she's not here No she's not here
Just close your eyes and open them
5. (box) 6. After Practice
After practice she turns the page
It doesn't look too hard
Nina picks the two parts out
Slow and an old soul opens
Sees her face in mirror black finish
With bones and arms and hands
A draft of harmonizing thoughts
Hammers hit, strings sparkle
Deerhoof-beaten meadow beds
Laid simple in the dark
The old grey hart lulls trembling fawn
To the drawn-on dawn unbroken
A still-in-winter willow-spray
Crackles in the wind
Sunstruck frozen catkins flare
Hammers hit, strings sparkle
Teacher tries to look away
But still the charm abides
The contrapuntal screws have set
Like stars bolt sky to ocean
We stand outside the shaking house
Watch for it to fall
While Nina picks the two parts out
Hammers hit, strings sparkle
7. Easter Egg Hunting
Easter Egg Hunting
In the half-melt snow with boots on
In the green, brown, and blue, the colors peek through
The white snow makes them glow
And I know it's no rabbit
Last year I found one in May
Speckled and resting on a leaf pile
Left unhid and undyed
That egg never hatched, no no
I put it in your garden
But I saw a speckled bird today
And I guess that speckled birds lay speckled eggs in May
Easter Egg Hunting
8. I Watched a Grey Doggie
I watched a grey doggie on the rockslide out back
of the cabin yesterday when you wanted to pack
It was still as the sculptures you make when we're home
It whistled and whimpered like it was left alone
Oh Father the wind sounded like someone sighing
Why oh why why-o was that coyote crying
That grey doggie turned its nose to the dust
coming over the ridge, where you taught me to trust
It followed the path that you told me you made
It paced and it pawed like it felt afraid
Oh Father the shadows stretched out like people falling
Who oh who who-o was that coyote calling
Booo-yip! Booo-yip! Booo...
That doggie layed down sillouhetted in blue
on the spot where you told me what little you knew
It faded to darkness scattered with stars
It sparkled and sputtered like it came from afar
Oh Father the moon rose up like people hoping
Where oh where where-o is that coyote loping
And why oh why why-o is that coyote crying
Booo-yip. Booo-yip.
I watched a grey doggie on the rockslide out back.
9. Buffalo Commons
Burnt stone shell of a store on Carson Street
Arms stretched out, elbows hold against the wind and sun
Rain pools
Tattered paper cartons float with rusted cans
Carved wood crossed on the broken windowsill
Bright sharp shards reflecting something stopping up the door
A buffalo with shoulders wedged
Eyes wide
Watching the wind and weeds and telephone wires in the street
Stuck like a funny postcard from a bad place
Will concentrated in work
Splinters and pebbles and dust
and an illegible sign
That building falls down
Fire rises
Catches on a pile of papers on a faded desk
The prairies will burn
The prairies will burn
The buffalo burn
The prairies will burn
10. Cesar Chavez Park (Laveen, Ariz.)
A crust of Wonder wheat
crumbles off its slice
Ducks cross from lawn to pond
The heat waves
Choking pits can't reach
But stretch their smearing eyes
The rope that helps to understand
Enslaves
Scattered sons and daughters
Playing "Off to War"
Tell each other when to die
Or be saved
Drumbeats dim the water
With trumpets four and four
The bajo-sexto singer tries
To think of things to crave
...
Picnic table dwellers
Wait until the dark
To wash or fight or start to dream
Or misbehave
Ice-cream fortune-tellers
Push their glowing carts
Mumble nonsense in-between
Good flavors
This bench is getting cold
And it's hard and my bones are old
11. (traffic cameras) 12. Turn of the World
"Do not disturb my circles"
the sand-reckoner commands
as the sword comes down,
who was cutting up grains
to watch rearrange
into a square.
Oh
I feel
the turn of the world
"The great god Pan is dead"
a sea-spray voice shouts out
as the ship sails on.
Yet the oracle trusts
in her travertine crusted
three-legged chair.
Oh
I feel
the turn of the world
"The paradox is the passion of thought"
the leaflet-man cries out
through the murmuring crowd.
If we could just read him
we'd see back to Eden
in his apple-seed stare.
Oh
I feel
the turn of the world
13. It's Dark
It's dark
pondlets slip and lap
what's this cricket chorus
singing in my sleep?
what's that starlight
leaping from the lake?
wet fingers
lappy liminal skinlicks
muck-foot weed-floor
float-sink under-drift
turning toward the sky
who's that old one
hiding in the heavens?
peering out from the empty circle
