Pumpkins

“Pumpkin Patch” by Jani Freimann

 

pumpkins on a vine

press the weight of

their plumping identity

into the life-giving soil

sharing green leaf and

stem born and grown

of a season marked out

by sun-shortened days

in whose hurry of time

they have come to exist

cheek-to-jowl learned

the intimate character

each of the other yet

know not the least of

themselves introspection

a faculty much too

complex for the homely

simplicity settled by

untended botany wild

existence that waits

to be plucked from an

unaware field given

solipsist gifts of real

personal purpose

experiences never

dreamed now laid out

for a sentient month

or more mingling

with alien species now

blessed with a freedom

to think and enjoy feeling

live interaction with

affable beings possessed

of a healthy self-worth

personality even short

lived fully realizes all

that biology down in its

chemistry promises life

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Java

 

“Coffee Dreams 7” by Kathy Morton Stanion

 

home-brewed tonic
transforms small personalities
wakens the giant

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Riverthink

Instinct

“The Id” by Zsuzsanna Ardo

 

lash of lightning
tree split to its roots
critters quiver
fear strikes
in the heart of
the dinosaur brain
nothing rational
lives in such deep
primal creases
reflexive behavior
swift action reaction
necessity making it
hostile to thought

here’s where man
and beast share in
a feral neurology
some men disposed
to enjoy it too much
psyche fractured
allured by sheer
weightlessness free
from the burden of
even mere modestly
complex ideas
metaphysical concepts
as foreign as cinders
that blighten the eye

right or wrong
existential
concretely
self-evident
such are the views of
the men who from
time immemorial
shame our humanity

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Introvert

“Forgotten Fairy Tales” by zemotion

vernacular quietus
keeps its own counsel
wants no part of colloquy
rather content to stand stoic
ignore gabbling magpies
whose prattling platitudes
poison the mainstream

the penchant for secrets
a writer’s disease
benign social pathology
not to be judged
neither special nor sad
not a hashmark on some
psychological spectrum

sweet separateness
insular mental anatomy
suited to edit itself
geared for deepthink
at home in a hermitage
built in the maddening
midst of the crowd

a privacy loath to
the plastic aesthetics
of popular culture
ostensible friendship
too weighty too costly
there isn’t another
can see with your eyes

a reflective reserve
a distinctive abstraction
energy drawn from
the logical rigors of mind
pen as tongue speaks
its bold strokes of argot
secluded but surely not shy

lovely even as lonesome
this labor of writing
these preoccupations
of page and of ink
fill the hand with
particular means of
engaging the world

Net Worth

 

“Sourire” by Corinne Romand Maitrepierre

 

 

crinkled crow’s feet
mark a penchant for laughter
wealth in the creases

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Rosebud

Scene from “Citizen Kane”

(Regarding “Citizen Kane”)

end of innocence

imprints its tragedy

under the skin

upon lips in extremis

failed man of great

worthless success

in mad grip of

insatiable wants

all alone in a crowd

of dead lovers

forsaken by friends

held forever in pity

he deeply despised

bitter irony

ever remembered

as less than

he thought of himself

crystal snowglobe

of dreams

fallen shattered

a boyhood sled

source of his

long absent joy

now consigned to

indifferent cold

plebian flames

Bicameral Hostility

“Abstract Brain” by Adrian Nadeau

two brains may be
one brain too many
this constant contention
between left and right
takes a toll on the soul
each intelligent hemisphere
curbed and curtailed
by antagonist tendencies

forensics in combat with faith
language vying with music
calculus clashing with concepts
cold logic against intuition
well-reasoned analysis
fights well-imagined hypothesis
science a truculent foe
in the face of philosophy

thanks be to God for the poet
that singular lifeform
uniquely equipped
to collaborate truce
to bring synthesis from the division
and make of the mind
one astonishing whole
worth much more than its halves

Reunion

 

 

moribund friendships

push smiles through the room

eyeing clusters of cocktailers

passing their photos

with polishing cloths

wrapping histories no one believes

 

tender tenor sax moments

stir hesitant

long expired couples

in front of masked sneers

worn by unsteady spouses

who wish they stayed home

 

giddy juvenile glee

bubbles up through dense decades

beleaguered by

pained adolescence

enswirled in a sub rosa clash

of conflicting emotions

 

no doubt high school years

passed for many quite happily

worthy of lightheart reliving

others with maladroit memories

follow wise impulse to

burn invitations

 

Vitrine

Antique French Vitrine
Photo from rubylane.com

mementoes in a tiny museum
souvenirs of small moments
shiny stones fluted seashells
retained bits and baubles
quiet with personal histories
habits collected in childhood
displayed in their sentiments
carried by years into manhood
emotional artifacts telling brief
tales of diminutive journeys
now at prominent rest beneath
glass in the parlor available
handy to curious eyes seeking
insight from biograph markers
these temporal timeworn and
much caressed objects whose
conscious display reveals clues
to the heart of a taciturn man

Antagony

“Alter Ego”
Painting by Luis Duro
From ego-alterego.com

the world next door
behind my brain
mirror images
shimmer the
cranial ether
filling the space
in between us
the distance
dividing me here
from me there
one or both
of us real each
compelled by a
skeptic’s mistrust
turns away from
the other looking
off in opposing
directions of dreams
same but different
shared memories
spiked with conflicting
emotions one mind
with dissimilar
thoughts hiding
hard painful lines
metaphysical edges
the dual jagged blades
of antagony under
a single thin smile