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August Days, Autumn Nights |
1.
Tougher to keep score
in summer than expected:
lost loves, lost again.
2.
Handfuls of weeds pulled
with the same passion as felt
when young and alone.
3.
The garden sparkles
from evening’s long watering–
wholly foolish kiss!
4.
Not a magic act:
enduring lovers stumble
together, apart.
5.
Her garden beckons
as if frequently ignored,
then astonishing.
6.
Every other hour,
startled dreamscapes flutter by
like loud young voices.
7.
If unhappy, step
outside at dawn. Breathe cool air
you might have slept in.
8.
Needing more hunger
as they understand its grip,
squirrels pause, then chase.
9.
Body lotion lolls:
for whose aching skin more needs
this scent to soak in?
10.
Droll end days amuse
proliferating details
forever ever.
11.
Thrift store: tall, pure blue
glass vase, plump with vanished blossoms –
the disregard of grief
12.
Yellow emulsions
of future perfect tense, tensed,
dispensed, flawless joy.
13.
Abet apocalypse!
Doubt all familiar syntax,
Even size before color.
14.
Salty chips, hummus.
Hours later, the sour power
Of a quiet fart.
15.
3:30 a.m. Too sleepy to guess
at the words underneath
the dreamers’ kisses.
16.
Scented soap – I would have
to be there with you to share
its pleasure – I am.
17.
low blood sugar graffiti --
edges fuzz toned
sotto voce riptide
18.
the easy way to tease
meaning from metaphor
is to rehearse an alternative
*
Tired, I feel my eyes shut,
hands soften, the pen daub
ink on paper: fluttering breeze
holding it down, here, here,
and here. Dreamless sleep:
A vacation from my life.
22. (The Big Event)
Not for the first time
has someone wanted to magnify
the merely modest.
23.
More than a month after
the holiday’s fireworks,
some fool pretends otherwise.
24.
The cat, exasperated
with August heat, begs me
to work magic! Fluth!!!!
25.
one could, in 10 minutes,
on a summer night, write
five haiku. sit still.
26.
twenty minutes pass.
syllables count otherwise.
form backs up slowly.
*
Like overripe fruit,
our anniversaries need
only their own gravity
to be swallowed whole
27.
waterfall rivulets
of time and love
still aching
deep inside
*
a circle is a line
that retraces its steps
grateful at each degree
for its humility
in yielding
yielding
to longitudes of folly
tried again –
couldn’t budge
the asterisk off-center
in this starless night
28.
imagine being able to
start far ahead of
the hoped for ending: watch it
catch you from behind
30.
burial grounds kneel
foreshortened eternity
confers with itself
31.
simultaneity
of writing and not-writing:
silence inside out
copyright 2019
William
Mohr |
