Collected Poetry

I normally only write poetry for poetry readings.  I don't publish it professionally.  I'm sticking it up on Gather for the fun of it.   My professional work is at www.stinz.com

Reprieve

12/16/06

Outcrop of mother rock

Tide-carved into home

Full of food and gentle currents..

The hunter above is sleeping

Too sun-addled to drop hooks.

Wandering

12/16/06

This path believed

To be already investigated:

But no -- look -- it's new to us

And only recently abandoned.

A clear trail to the mountaintop;

Easy walking, and all to ourselves.

Perhaps there's a view.

Mushrooms

12/16/06

Oh no -- there's more of them.

After an afternoon of hunting

full bags and wet feet

the whole evening

spent cleaning and sorting

planning soup and sautes and omelets --

We've more than enough.

But now we've developed the eye --

we see them everywhere.

Oh, no, there's more of them.

Return

12/16/06

He's back! Poor thing.

We thought he'd frozen during the storm,

or finally succumbed to illness..

Now he just wants to eat.

He doesn't run from us.

He's learned to trust.

"It's an ill wind...."

Saddled

12/16/06

Riding horses is dangerous,

But no one turns it down.

Who knows when next

We'll get the chance

To be rolled over

At a gallop?

Tough meat

12/16/06

Nobody wants the tough pieces.

They're happy to get rid of them.

But with a slow fire and an afternoon

The meat just falls off the bone.

Distance

12/16/06

The city is far away.

The young eagles

On their maiden flight

Circle low,

Wondering if we're edible.

Boss Dog

12/16/06

She's going blind

But the neighbor's pup

Has found a pack leader.

He rolls over in joy

Every time she snaps her teeth at him.

He takes home fake flowers

Stem and pot and all

In joy because she let him.

Her owner knows he's there

By her special growl.

Vagina Head

12/16/06

The nicest thing

About these kids

Is their mothers think

Everybody loves them too.

The saddest thing

About those kids

Was that their mothers thought

Everybody loved them too.

Brat

12/17/06

She's little more than a girl

Thin and weak and worried.

The kid is big and strong

with a big hard head.

Small enough to loll

in the grocery-cart kid seat.

Big enough for the whole store

to hear him roaring.

She turns away a moment

thin shoulders hunched

embarrassed and helpless.

In that moment

he finds a face in his.

A glazed stare like a hungry eagle.

The ancient message

of cannibal aunt

to howling child,

hyena bait, abandoned,

endangering the whole troop:

“Keep screaming.

To protect the others

I'll eat you on the spot.”

Ancient understanding

in his eyes

his mouth claps shut.

Good boy now.

The thin mother

shocked by the silence

turns and sees

what transformed her son.

Her sad face lights up,

and she says,

“Thank you.”

Happy

12/16/06

There's exhilaration

in the sun

in cold air

in being alone

in finding someone lost

who disappeared again

so soon.

In being wet

and cold

and shivering

and finding a way

with another person

to get warm again.

In one

really

good drunk -

a shaman drunk --

a forget-everything

feel-nothing

spirit-journey --

with no

hangover.

In awakening from

a dreamless sleep

with no pain

a harbinger

of an eternity

of oblivion;

if there's an afterlife

the possibility

of sweet, sweet nothing.

Assured

that every second

every click

of the clock

brings the end

that much closer.

With the knowledge

that time is unmeasured

in billions upon billions

of eons,

and a life

is so short

it doesn't break

the time line.

And knowing

that everything --

that this too --

shall pass.

Glass Prairie

11/05/06

"Fat, dumb and happy."

That's supposed to be a slur.

It's not gender-specific;

but a wish for him and her.

Over-specialization

Evolved us too much brain

We make all the connections

That shock us on this plane.

Living on the prairie,

Unwalled, made of glass.

Nothing there to block the view,

Anything can pass.

Every word and memory

Chained to one another.

Dead cats, school days, tyrants

Hurt as much as Mother.

If we didn't have the grey cells

We couldn't see the link.

If we had any choice at all

We wouldn't think.

Scars

11/05/06

No one says a word

When she hesitates up and down

The red hallway,

Carving knife under an armpit

Ink-bottle cupped

In the other hand.

The intent is a tattoo

So the memory won't fade.

Long slashes drawn roughly

Across a forearm,

Blood dripping

When tears aren't enough.

She won't do it;

Thoughts of what

It will remind her of

When the memory fades

Stop the blade.

Suicide Pact

11/06/06

It's like a door

In a corner

We can't be backed into.

Or get backed

Into the door

Through the door

And go willingly.

We can step backwards

Out of reach

No longer available.

Flip into a drop

That no one can

Pull us up out of,

Not even bleeding on a hook.

Rum

11/06/06

The flask is empty.

No more drops

Of anything

In that container.

A blood clot

collapsed the whole rear end.

Refusal to eat

Refusal to drink

Vomiting everything

Agonizing, until starvation

And thirst brought comfort.

The vet was out of town

Killing other animals

So he could eat them.

Rum was all we had,

Syringed in past clamped jaws

Making a toxic condition more toxic

Crying between blackouts

Dehydration dehydrating

mommy mommy dont

She knew we were going to kill her.

She wasn't ready.

There was no choice.

Nothing we did could be right.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

January 17, 2006

1. All

Pity, grief, anger.

Rock, paper, scissors.

2. Success

Don't quit.

Die quiet.

3. Pain

This too shall pass.

4. Anger

Do something.

You'll feel better.

5. Poetry

All.

Kings

Dragons have scales.

Dragons have teeth.

Dragons live above

Dragons hunt beneath.

Angels

Firey sword and feathers

Obedient as slaves.

Out in any weather for

Whatever God craves.

Cross

Bad Daddy with a whip in hand,

Big brother sworn to save.

Little children praying to be spared,

Before we were enslaved.