Lady Luck

Please, take my feathers and my crown--
take too my love of regrets--
prepare the white striped lanes as I
never flew for profit. Now I fly for
my good looks and luck. And she is mine,
lady luck is mine--as long as I do not
touch the dice.

Church of the Holy Apostles

Red, yellow green--
the corner stoplight--
red, yellow, green--
our church garden--
plus tulips of all stripes--
yes, a Joseph's coat of tulips--

Like tulips in our window boxes,
the four poets sit in front, then read.
Mother, father, father mother, death,
destruction. Take your pick. Yes, I think
we take our own dear selves too seriously.
Just yesterday I had to cull the tulips.

Dawn swoops like a hawk
devouring the shooting stars--
animal this April

Over Sixty

Like villains,
the shadows creep closer
with each new birthday...

You are so turbulent river,
so devious is your course,
so deep your song,
so far to your distant stars.

Angel

She laughs and
Christ bounds off
my bare cross
theatrically
flexing his muscles.
Her doing. I smile.
She has him enter me.
I laugh,joke that
It's good to be home.

April comes raw,
yet with a song.
Down-soft her robin.

Fly sparrow fly,
dart in and dart out,
and sip,sip of her

Forgotten basements,
despite all their dark corners,
still harbor ping-pong

Me and the rain
we lie down on earth
beneath the sky
and we pray
for knowledge of her will,
for knowledge of her song.

Communion

Sip her wine,
kiss her mound,
tongue her wafer.

Such hard bark that tree--
I'm climbing still for apples--
such hard bark that tree

An old man's fancy--
always in love with tulips
and their big bottoms

Unfinished Country Song

We never began
No there was no beginning
so when are you leaving my heart?
yes, I'm kicking up old dust
from a pool of clear water
so when are you leaving my heart?
And when is my heart leaving you?