The Autumn

The autumn

Wind and sky

Leaves dance

Autumn

Beauty

Lasting

For a

Precious

Moment

Birds chatter call

Water ripples 

Spilling the reflection

Gold

Green

Yellow

The foothills roll

In the distance 

And the air is sweet

With dusk

The dogs pant

Whine

It's time

To move on

And so we do

Flying

Into this memory

Crackling the pebble walk 

Beneath our feet.

Our honored Dead

Dia de los muertos 

Our honored dead

Ancestors

Dead

Death another realm

Another place

Where flowers bloom

Fragrant everlasting 

And we, in this side,

Living

Smelling the flowers

Lost to us once they bloom;

Yet there

Another reaches us,

It's face

A glimpse

Delicate

Sweet

Caress

Of memory

That lives

Alongside

Our yearning,

Assuages the sharp breath

Of sunset 

The Stars 

appearing before us,

forever there, 

to behold.

Our imagined presumption

Our imagined presumption 

The blister erupts

Boils scrum

What is this infection

We spew?

The obsolescence 

A manufactured

Distortion,

Would we

Grasp

This

In

The light of

Truth?

What is truth?

When the later day

Social constructs blind

Our insight

We will be once and

Forever

Bereft 

Grief strangled

Upon a shore

Of our own drowned 

Vision.

Stark grace

Beheaded by ISIS

Acting

In their so-called

Name of God

Militant hands 

Held up 

The chubby little body.

The child's arms

Hung like a dolls

In the hands of

The dark, bearded man

Eyes showing blankly

Horrific,

She wore a ruffled dress

White tights over shoeless 

Small feet

She must have been

4 years old or 3

I imagine she had curly

Black hair

And her smile brought

Delight to those who

Cherished her

The toll 

Wretched minds

Wreck upon the world

She who was justly

Innocent

Her ruffled dress in bright colors

Caught

In the park

Playground 

Playing

With dolls

What is this descent  

Beyond hell?

Wretched place

Of ice

Black

Dark

Extinct of Light's

Shine?

Love

Unknown

To these monstrous 

Men,

It's gleam 

Of feeling 

Extinguished

So profoundly 

In their fiery 

blank

Eyes,

Holding the little one's

Life

In their own

Lifeless hands?

Sorrow runs

Deep

Bottomless

From them--

they who

have nothing

To hold 

Except a 

Heart 

bearing starvation's scars.

While the little one's

radiance

Sings

An Innocence

Transcendence 

Of darkness and

Dying

In ruffled dress,

White stocking feet

Plump baby arms 

From just a doll's

body.

Spring fever

Chicken love watermelon 

Spring and the flowers bloom

Oranges next to blossoms in the

Same tree

Early watermelon from Mexico

And the chickens love

The luscious sweet

But they don't like

Cantaloupe 

Soon the only thing left

Is watermelon juice stains

Beside drying pieces

Of cantaloupe 

Mint reaches towards sun

Open arms deep green

Mud is black and wet

Roses grandly flushed

Red leaves of the crabapple 

Tree catch and swirl 

In the wind

Dogs sleep and snore

Hummingbird clicks

A bee, then a wasp

Hover fly by

Wind chimes ring

And there I see the 

Hummingbird zoom zip

In the blue

Calling out

I am here

In this now

And me, I think,

On a day in spring 

I called in sick today

From work

Pizza pilgrims progress

A pizza Pilgrims progress 

Lo johns pizza 

Bleeker street

East village

New York City 

Holy shrine

Of pizza pies

From brick ovens shimmering

Crisp the sacred crust

Oh heaven on earth!

Is it the water?

Is it the tomatoey sweet sharp tang?

Cheese skimmed melty?

The seance in old long time

Greenwich village occupation?

The scratched scarred walls?

Generations of scrawled initials

Names dates years

Scratches on scratches

Story layers

Time travel

And time arrested

While all around Bleeker

The yogurt shops

And skinny model clothes shops

Shopping center for the few

Who can

Gucci

Gucci

Gucci

Jimmy Choo's

Live their priceless

Privilege

Lo

Johns

Pizza

Circ 1950s

I look up

At the neon sign

Glowing bright 

Look through the window

To outside

Through fluorescent 

Red letters

Caught suspect 

Spelling itself backwards

But shinning on. 

Meadowville time travel

Iridescent: 

Old house in meadowville Idaho

The things we see 

In the shimmering of time

The green fields burst with life

The sky above a dramatic 

blue-

-White cavalcade 

And the little house

Standing still

It's memories grasped

In rusted window latches

Rusted window shades

Littered floor-ceiling plastered

Broken glass

Old discarded trash

Yet alive

Dancing echoes in the air

Voices of children playing

Teacher's school bell ringing

Waiting horses swishing tails

In afternoon heat

Family home cooking at the stove

Setting sun gold sky

The windows filled by 

Exquisite meadowed landscape 

Then now today this moment

in tomorrow

Resting in heart and bone and blood

Eternal

And earth 

once and 

forever.

St Mary's all hail the uncles

St Mary's all hail the uncles

One day 

My uncle saw that BYU 

and St Mary's U 

In Moraga, Cali 

playing basketball

Or was it baseball

"I saw this as a place,"

My uncle said,

To sell my house (in Salt Lake City, UT) and move to"

Retire from retirement 

That is

"If the wife goes first"

He reiterated

Start a new life.

Then, Later, upon a separate visit (uncles not talking these live long years over an old maelstrom) 

my other uncle,

Upon hearing 

his (younger) brother 

was seeing something in 

St Mary's remembered 

Their grandfather 

Who was a janitor for

St Mary's school 

On the hills in SLC

Who said, (circa 1953 or so),

 pushing his broom,

"You should go to St Mary's 

College - it's a baseball college"

"But I never did," older uncle said, sweeping his hand out 

Over the street, yards, neighborhood,

"instead,

 I met Connie (the girl next door) and stayed right here"

Grandpa is long gone

Connie's gone now, too

The uncles are here

Caught in between 

St Mary's 

Then

And 

Now

Yearning,

Missing 

The living their life

and lonely 

All hail St Mary's,

Dear uncles.

LA X

LA X

The dinosaur of international 

Terminal travel

Wireless weak

No charging stations

Only tired 

Scratched plastic tables

And worn navy nagahid

Seating

Circa1992

So it goes

And I wait

Terminal B

Terminal Bore

Then hallelujah 

The phone rings

He's here landed

All the way from Dubai

From Basra from

Samawa, Iraq 

The old home town

Where bombs ring

The country

And the people are

"Their minds no good" 

He says

From all the war

So he comes back

Home away from home

California 

Come here and help me, he says

But doesn't understand I can't

Go past security 

Like we used to back in the day

September 10, 2001

He's tired 

Confused

Addled 

Come help me he insists

I can't 

Fuck you then

So it goes 

Welcome back

I love you 

2 hours pass

And finally he comes walking out

Dragging his carry on bag 

behind him

the big bag

Is gone

On -

Flying in

To home

Without him

February 1, 2014: Birthday Compost @ 56

February 1, 2014:
Birthday compost @ 56

The sun is beautiful
Despite the drought
Cali dry
Blue skies
Recently washed
With just a little rain
So the day unfolds
A path of thorns
And thistles that
Grasp soft
Downy self
The way paved
With rocks,
whithered
Weeds from last spring
And thin brave
Shoots of green crab grass
While a red-tailed hawk
Sweeps overhead
Great captain
Glides
I am this magnificence
I am the lost weeds of last spring
I am tender shoots
Green pushing through
The dry thorns
The sticky sharp thistle
Needles that prick
But fall away
Dissolved crushed
When picked out
The wind carrying
Bits and cloud
Leaves and soaring
Hawk captain
Into silent sky.

Tlahuiollin

Tlahuiollin

He stands so tall

The morning  sun

Glints upon

His obsidian hair

Sleek

Pulled back

Into a tight 

Thick dark braid

Held firm

Twisting to his waist

The neatness of his

White shirt and tie

The softness of deep brown

Eyes

Alive with all he sees and

Feels

So young

Yet a true warrior

He is a king 

His spirit

His body  

the soil in

Earth 

Wind

Fire

The clouds surrounding

Peaks

Mountains 

ancient

Volcanic

Jagged sheer

Shoots of yellow corn

Green forest

Moss

The gentleness 

Of family love

The tilled farmland 

And all the humble people

Who harvest its bounty

He is the summation --

 His hands holding the now

  His heart reaching all tomorrow. 

The Way

The way 

The clocks tick

The fire burns jumps red yellow 

Through the stove window

Molly cat sits watching the flames

The warmth of the silence

Then the soft voice unwavering --

Believe

Always

Let go of all doubt

This work is hard

The reward deep

The fire burns dances

The silence of a warm room

Of listening 

Waiting

Breathing the meaning

Into heart's blood,

Muscle's memory

Spirit's singing--

The moment living

The life unfurling

The mountains waiting to climb

The waters vast reach

To sail upon

This ocean 

These currents

Taking us 

To this way.