Poetry Three ~

Reconcile the Morning

POEM ONE  Reconcile the Mornining

Night is Fantastic

Morning is beautiful

birds before dawn

sing their songs
to make their food
appear to them

from the soil
and to make

delicate flight

like magicians

navigating the sky

landing with care

to open mouths

in an exquisite

and symmetrical nest

with careful precision

feeding their young

hatchlings sounding

terrified beaks almost

to the breaking point

with care natural

and complete
and then silence
sun and heat

placing the worm

perfectly

Another flight

changing to hunter

again perhaps to

worm’s delight

exposing the cycles

related between sky

and earth

to feed the feathered family

the sacrificial worm

I suppose reflects destiny

POEM TWO Colorado White Chili

Estes Park Colorado 1988

Driving along the highway
in the Colorado mountains

near a park around midnight

with radio songs filling
the beautiful Chevrolet Malibu
way out of our territory
along sad gray switchbacks
bullet-like stars began
to fall from the sky

Bottles were jangling under
the driver’s seat

music humming

wind splashing

from outside
brown long-legged
deer flying

like pagan angels

over my roof

Cracking a beer

to rinse the dryness

in the Sun’s first light

The big brown bear
ran across the highway

as if on fire
I raised the bottle
from my lips

stopped my Malibu

in the middle of nowhere

Got out of the car

Then threw the bottle

At the beast

Being drunk and stupid

But the giant had no anger

It roared cautiously

Then we met eye to eye

and we became parallel

in time and space

Oddly enough raindrops

Began falling and

the bear disappeared

Car-door open

I fell asleep

At the side of the road

I awoke by state patrol

Soaked in my clothes

Brought in for questioning

And then released

As there was nothing

To charge me with

I got back into the Malibu

And drove back to Denver

Parked my car

Then went across

The street and ordered

My favorite breakfast

Colorado White Chili

POEM THREE First Principles

A thousand arrows
pursued me as I rode
bullet-like from enemies
on my horse, Xenophanes

Blasting past illusions
delusions, and false claims
We rode out the night
and came to rest

On the river of death
my horse drank
and grew wings
We became immortal

We took flight
toward the sun
hoping to enter
the Elysian Fields

As we approached
Xenophanes with
burning mane
fell to the waters

And became
the father of
sea horses

while I sank
deeply in peace
mixing my flesh

with coral and light

POEM FOUR Love is a Stone

rolling down mountains
like an  avalanche

Mud slides
are inevitable and
the magnitude
of runaway
conversations
destroys homes

So many
good relationships
go south

some for winter
but others forever

when the credit
card was lost
the trigger cost
some lives
some the end

And the pretty
American Dream
will often
slip like fish

from our hands
into the gutters
of destinations

But
Who were we
If we did not try?

POEM FIVE Road Kill

Feeding Eagles

The deer laid on the side of the road

two left legs slightly risen

white belly bulging

from the organs beginning

to bloat looking absurd

to children in buses

Right legs crushed and tucked

under the carcass revealing

both origin and landing

The tow truck was pulling

the smashed gray car away

no make visible in the mist

Two men in a pick-up arrive

just the doors open and shut

“What do you figure, one-thirty?”

“Yah, about that. Good meat.”

they roped the neck and dragged

it onto the bed of the truck

Driving down the road

they imagined vultures circling

and following them

“Bare-headed bastards gone south.”

“Yah, about time. Ugly-shouldered

bastards… but majestic in flight.”

Listening to the wind

and other evening sounds

the men drove

calm and quiet

watching the roadside

and the sky as always

later

when the sun

left the horizon

the two men unloaded

the deer near the shore

of a river

One lantern permitting

they opened the carcass

on the sandy bank

reverence unspoken

their blood red hands

finally washed clean

In darkness

They pitched tents

and slept

The moon

disappeared

and dawn emerged

As they woke

the eagles came to feed

landing on high perches

then on birch branches

then on the shore

beautiful scavengers in morning light

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