Frozen Syrup

My aunt keeps cubes of frozen syrup

for her hummingbird feeder. Because

those tiny engines (a hummer's heart

can weigh as little as 0.00875 ounces)

heat up fast, can break from their own

intensity. These little dynamos come,

drink, go away refreshed. Save what

you can. Even if it's only 0.00875 ounces -

you never know how the scale tilts

under God’s thumb.

 

Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside

Driftwood

 

is lifeless, yet restless.

Lifeless, yet nurtures life

mussels, barnacles, sand verbena.

 

Driftwood dots the beach

with fires that spark blue, green,

hotter than live wood.

 

Rootlessness is not poverty,

even dead wood has a purpose.

Cast up on your strand,

I will burn for you.

 

Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside

music video dream

We're walking somewhere, a city street. in the dark. There's neon. The street is wet but it's not raining now. We pass a marquee that announces Zoe (I don't remember the last name).

The singer is Korean. She has blond/pink hair and is singing and dancing chest-deep in a swimming pool. The song is about healing. The refrain is:

Air comes in

And the poison fades away

And the poison fades away

Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside

In Praise of Rain

Because it turns the grey concrete to silver

and the brown grass to green

 

Because it giveth the thirsty to drink

 

Because the music of it on the roof at night

is the sweetest lullaby

and because of petrichor

 

Because holding an umbrella over a stranger’s bag of groceries

can win you a fleeting smile

or a life-long friend

 

Because of salmon

 

Because the robins rejoice when the earthworms rise

 

Because we take for granted the turning of the taps, hot and cold

and the easy power of the showerhead

 

We take for granted the humming of the dynamos at Bonneville

and the flip of every light-switch

 

Because every kind of mushroom grows from the bark dust

around the trees in my neighborhood

 

Because when I am tired I wrap my eyes in green

 

Because of trilliums in the ravines of Marquam Hill

 

Because when I am tired of hot blue skies

there are thunderheads towering in the sunset

 

Because it reminds me to look up –

to look above myself

I praise rain.

 

Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside