NECESSITIES
1
The obligatory whorls
of the red rose
on almost every stem,
as if beauty
and redundancy
were one and the same.
2
The way a fugue can seem
sad yet reassuring,
someone always ready
to carry on from where
you—which one is you?—
leave off.
What you think we’re carrying,
that is something else.
NOTES
It’s hard not to laugh
at the frantic zig-zags
of the cabbage moths—
one so like another—
tying loose bows
in air.
*
A half degree warmer
on the hottest day
in the hottest year
on record.
Something to make note of.
Averages
playing goose, goose, duck
in the valley of the shadow.
*
Music has so many ways
to end where it started.
Only Mozart laughs at us
as he makes it happen.
We’re back—
or close enough?
A half-note higher here
to liven things up
KINKS
Loops and scribbles
of electrical wire
around the bare pole
almost pretty.
Almost summer
Almost Xmas—
desiccated exchanges,
almost nostalgic
Ritual bankruptcy:
kink in the supply chain;
the absence of bees.
SELFIE
1
How the
hard rings
stack up.
2
Light on the branches,
pairs smaller
with each fork.
3
Selfie, autie, bird:
one thrills itself
awake with chirps.