musiciens jubilee

Terran blew his horn, and 

we flew through space with Liam.

Star Wars music was well represented, 

but Telemann, too.

Mom and Son sang Broadway 

and two friends, one 60, one 15,

laughed when the older one stopped playing

before had been previously arranged.  

She was roundly chastised and started laughing.

and then, S, tentively playing her guitar,

apologizing, insisting she could play it perfectly

at home, we all know that.

who cares, it was fun.

stealing bikes right under our noses

I know they're stolen.

I see them under the bridge lined up to be stripped

down, hauled out in pieces and sent south,

the sellers will snort something up their noses

and scout for more bikes.

It's right in front of our noses, every

day I ride by on my bike to work,

I see them diligently at theirs.

stronger at sixty

I'm dubious of such things
at a certain point, imagining my chicken wings
blossoming into arms of steel seems
unlikely
unless I drink protein powders and meat,
pushups, pullups, a full bridge pose, handstands,
cartwheels.
my body protests, I listen,
talk back and we discuss,
my body and I.

Lessons learned

don't underestimate the level of your knowledge
and notice how long it took to acquire it
you're not a spring chicken after all.
and so, don't overestimate the capability of a
young person to do what you do, it ends
in long nights and weekends at your computer.
it take years to cruise to the moons of Jupiter,
it took years to accumulate this wisdom, these
skills, going to the Moon is a piece of cake.

I'm getting smarter

the words come to mind immediately

one down, three across, seven down, six down

old weeds debug owls, the crossword told me

and deny the gym slam as Leia lies in the sauna,

libel, you say, and I wrote, in the puzzle today

go figure.

no one's home

they don't live here,

just add the bill to the one for

their main house, their private jet and

private schools.  

the houses behind the signs are large,

well appointed and 

empty.  

one in front of every empty house

along this lovely dirt road, hidden up 

in the hills above Santa Fe.

beautiful and empty.

Learning the iPhone

I insisted that he get a bigger phone, and 

then I insisted that he learn to text.

I don't do phone calls anymore.

He demurred with a mumble about not 

"doing that", and I retorted, "You're being lazy"

No excuses.

On a Saturday, I picked him up for training,

with a nice young lady, volunteering her time,

and he fell in love,

and he learned how to text.

his name is Slav

I imagined a heavy set older man
sauntering into my office, extending his hand
I'm Slav.
he would sit down heavily onto my too small
guest chair and would gaze at me directly,
small, sharp eyes and a set jaw
he'd get right to the point, brusque in fact
I'd respond in kind and the meeting would end,
efficiently, items noted, a plan forward.
I was almost right.

Next Job

his next job will be walking Bella

through the long corridors of DIA,

her nose to the ground seeking bits of 

fallen food,  a welcoming smile 

as north is drawn to south, so Bella 

instinctively moves towards small children,

sure to be coated in sugar, dropping small

crumbs alongside.

they giggle, moving back and forth,

in terror so much as laughter 

and when they are thoroughly licked

clean, her nose drops to the ground, pulling

the leash, pulling him away from this 

one, and on to the next.

Reaching for the hummus

it's in the middle of the table
her hand, so delicate, refined natural nails
pounces
and retracts holding a toasted pita piece
dripping warm hummus
mmmm she murmurs
while he's reading he reaches absent
mindedly across the table, the long dark hairs
on his arms glisten under the overhead light
I watch all this
and when their hands are empty, they find
each other, clasping each other
without looking.

Numerical Computation

Indeed,
if the slope is steep and abruptly
changes sign, the solver skips merrily past,
pigtails swinging, a rock clanging in the bottom
of the red pail.
on the side of the road we wonder
how the hill disappeared, it was there 10 minutes
ago, and then 20, but now the plain is flat
and nothing will rise the grounds.
i discover this in my office chair
I am glad to know it.

zum zum capoeira mata um

we sing songs, we have names

she's the ant, the tiniest one, 

arisca, the one who moves quickly,

except when she's nursing an injured knee

and miravilla, the super woman, the ex-gymnast,

ski instructor and yoga master. and then

there's curiosa, the one who always is wondering

the one with the braid and the green T-shirt

I know her.