Los Arcos

to the waitress at Los Arcos, Hoquiam

I come in through the arch
and you come out of the kitchen,
we're two plants setting root,

I’m looking for earth, you're
looking for water. Tendrils reach
out in Victorian dance,

probing with no touching, I'm looking
for lunch, you're looking for a tip,
we negotiate a well-worn path

through a played out garden.
Tendrils contract, roots withdraw,
I go out through the arch,

you go back into the kitchen,
I'm looking for earth,
you're looking for water.

Living High

The winter rain beats a drum
roll on the window pane
into the night, I'm inside living high

with a hot buttered rum, listening to Igor
Kipness play Bach's 'Partita
Number Five in G Major',

on the computer I score thirty-one
thousand with seven purple squares
in a row, Igor finishes

and I switch to hot port
and 'Pioneers of the Jazz Guitar',
I don't need Jennifer to live high.

Fog

Sadie is fog sifting through
memory trees, dripping like tears
from cedar boughs.

A coastal trail weaves
like a dipper's song
through sword ferns and moss

covered logs. On a chill Tuesday
Sadie walks the trail north
to Third Rock and faces

lurking sharps,
her ghost uncouples
and enters the rain forest shadows.

Grumbling surf swallows footfalls
and bird calls,
Sadie drifting through the trees.

Waiting

protest groups united in their opposition, security forces … clear hundreds of anti-government demonstrators

A storm is coming across the desert,
the desiccated gather in small groups,
put their eyes down and walk
into the gritty wind.

The desiccated follow
the common sense
that inspires mystics,
a dog at their heels.

The desiccated story is hidden
behind a mask, smoke and dust,
it ends beaten into the hard sand,
spirits delivered to the desert people.

I travel ahead to see
how the story ends,
but I can't come back,
I wait for you to catch up.

Over and Over

insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

I go crazy in the morning,
what is wrong with that woman,
I get up early and lay out her clothes,
and she puts on something else,

I fix her tea, put cream cheese
on a toasted bagel, she makes coffee
and puts on orange marmalade,
it's like this every time,

I wait in the kitchen, she turns up the radio
and gets ready in the bathroom,
I tell her to call when she gets to work
and she says "bye sweetie" to the cat

as she goes out the door,
it will be different tomorrow.

Six Red Cows

1.
Six red cows in the pasture,
heads down in tall grass,
food factories, fodder vacs.

Old Bill leans and thinks
on the kids the pasture fed
and clothed, three days in Reno.

Now's the time to listen,
quit fighting thistles,
ground squirrels and ticks.

2.
Six red cows in the pasture,
heads down, happy
with the life they've built.

They don't clean the barn,
don't pay the bills,
calves grow fast.

There's a cow rumor now
that a new bull's coming,
and nobody dies of old age.

3.
The pasture gets ready
for the next go round,
a sage thrasher sings up.