Coughing

I'll lie in bed and cough,
I'll wake and gaze starry-eyed as the
earth's shadow moves across the moon
finally revealing a golden orb suspended
above my bed where I lie
coughing.
there are advantages to coughing,
I can check what's happening in
the world often, then reach for a cough
drop and doze off until I wake
for the next great adventure.

silence kills

silence
kills, words that hurt would be better,
the vacuum where sound does not travel,
silence.
let us speak to one another
from heart to heart, do not
leave me alone here
now.
silence kills love
always
speak.

Ah, Youth!

ah youth!

flowing wavy hair and freckles

hidden away amidst scholarly books

and file cabinets.

youth and beauty wasted on the young

who do not recognize how fleeting

are these moments that seem to

stretch towards infinity, not

realizing that freckles will merge

with age spots, and that as the

years spin by, hair thins and breaks.

ah, youth, enjoy its luxuriousness

while you can, 

it is so fleeting!

Dear Mommy

the sweetness of a young boy
away from his mother,
such transparent and precious expressions
of love captured on a postcard that
she kept for years,
today she
opened the box and saw his heart
spread out in front of her, this boy
is now a man, but she knows that
the same heart is beating inside
his broad chest, even if
he does not reveal his love
so plainly. 

Three Cheers for Volunteers

three cheers for volunteers,

the ones who design, build and install

on time and under budget.

the rare birds who stick their necks out

and walk their talk, the ones who smile

instead of looking away, their eyes

meet your pleading gaze, their lips

form the word, "yes". 

thank goodness for volunteers!

Listening to Football

the announcements bounce off houses,
amplified into this bedroom on the second floor,
I hear all the plays and pause for half time antics.
the fall darkness waits for the stadium lights
to dim and finally extinguish when the hush
of night will rush in just as the fans shuffle
off onto buses and the sound of car ignitions
tapers into the soft whirr of tires rolling
out of the high school parking lot.
Silence will replace the blare of the loudspeaker
just as I lean over the lamp and extinguish
its light. 

Scarcity

the opposite of scarcity is not abundance,
it's just enough, forget the big expensive cars.
a modest paycheck pays the bills, French and
flute every week to feed the soul, to practice
mastery in each moment, forget abundance,
its insistence on more, bigger, better, just enough
is enough, scarcity only exists in the
search for bigger, better and more.