answer with quiet

 answer with quiet and now i see

ways i could have done that

but at the time i only knew

how much time, effort and money

i had put into setting up the sale

so that my family would have help

since i can no longer do as much

as i want to do to help them without

risking an incapacitating stroke

my defense position is anger

bless the lord that my daughter’s

reaction is gentleness

she kept me laughing, and quiet                                          

emotional depths

i’m reading book after book

of play scripts to begin to feel

comfortable writing what

my imagination pictures

but i can find no magic formula

so few scripts lean hard on logic

instead, the moving ones glide

atop emotional connections

that carry me to places within

that i seldom visit on my own

opportunity to contribute

At the estate sale, a man fingered

the dust on the item he chose

I mentioned that we did not charge

extra for the dust, but he seemed

unsatisfied. Alisa then consoled him

by promising that is was ‘antique’

dust, so if he cared to make

a contribution…

i’m fat; how can i be invisible?

i appear to be invisible now

i wait over an hour past

my appointment time while

the nurse calls patient from

the lobby without even making

eye contact let alone explaining

to me why, after the long wait,

i am seeing someone else

rather than the physician

Sweet Sandy

sweet Sandy gave us water bottles

each choir member getting favored color

and name typed out ahead of time and

glued to the plastic when she knew

which bottle should go to which singer

Sandy does such things between tasks

she’s voluntarily taken on  

for the running of the church

She laughs when thanked and says

‘It’s nothing,’ but it is something more

wonderful than she can know

dear sol

dear sol, settling north

along our horizon, appears

to have definitely decided on cooler

weather for the summer

but, this morning, seems a bit lax

in filling the sky with color,

evidently satisfied to streak

his entrance with mauve, cerise, tangerine

and a bit of gold

look behind you

 musk must mess with us

believes only he knows best

sees not his damage

no thank you

i can never figure out how to say with little cartoon critter emojis that i am sad for the extended sickness within our leaders, and us, that i am also ANGRY that we seem willing to take that abuse as though we deserved it - WE DO NOT deserve to be abused. No one does.

blessed to accept

blessed by laughter

as my three kids take on

the world to protect

and shelter me - who

needs to learn

to accept graciously

whiner in chief

i need to respect

those in power over me

this president whines

enlightened but opaque

dawn’s blush rose mostly in the north

this morning; massed gray-indigo

guinea pig-shaped puff clouds gliding

in ranks including mother and child

extended family units, eager lean males

confining themselves to the uniform

pace of unity-become-uniformity

merging into dense blue-gray

to blot out the sun’s natural emergence

blanket of the faithful whitened

from behind but massed troops

crowding out our earth’s source

of sustenance and light

insane, or acting?

Maher senses a human being

dressed as Bluffo the Clown

but if the man he sees is acting

the role that encourages hatred

and bedlam, isn’t that man

even more to be feared

as someone who knows

what he is doing and yet wills

the tearing apart fellow humans

for whatever profit he sees

as gain for himself?

funeral japes

it must be hard on those who loved him

to watch the posing and the posturing

of those who came, not to honor,

but to be seen and to negotiate

with other leader-impersonators

over the further selling of the poor

What Do They Face?

What is behind the fear

that sends our Congress

cowering before a bully?

There are persons in both chambers

who can rise above immediate greed,

but have not – Why?

What is the threat?

And by what means is it applied?

By whom?

Why do we allow it?

Bluffo in Rome

poor Bluffo arriving in Rome

with solemn face as though

he understood the depth

of the man he cannot even

kneel to honor

last moment

gorgeous,  sloped acreage of dry soil

and wide patches of evergreen timber

gorgeous view sold to gentleman farmer

thrilled to have found the property in time

to out-bit at the last moment

night cloud color

at dawn, the clouds are blue-gray

mottling the brighter white-blue

of sky beneath them

past dusk, the clouds and sky

were blue-black and an eerie white

as though all civilization’s fear

of darkness were determined

to hold off night and it was difficult

to tell by color, which was cloud

and which was sky

emerging color

haiku

stone gray giving way

to brilliant colors of joy

hope of Easter Day

swept up laughter and joy

swept the porches and weeded

the front garden early this morning

before more scheduled viewings

of our house on the hill

rhodies bursting into pinks

and whites and iris into purple

three snow-capped peaks glistening

on the horizon while my heart

warms to the interest and melts

at the loss of the home for decades

of family laughter and joy

flimsy evidence

 wispy cloud with intricate

ridges and whorls

of vapor fingerprint

flimsy evidence

of the concept of rain