Double Cosines

The urgency of knowing 

whether the method used a single cosine

or double cosines,

it would make all the difference

and the words could not bridge the gap.

only pictures, a smile, a gesture can bridge

the gap across the divide of misunderstanding

the same one we visited two years ago,

yes, draw it on the white board, show me a picture

and I'll understand.

The Birthday Boy

now we can take the flat champagne out of the frig,

refizz it and add the orange juice that I bought 

a couple months ago when Stephen was sick,

Mimosas a Sunday morning after our Saturday night

dinner with friends, where we all were ready for bed

at 9.

That's what 49 looks like.

Oh,and that's what 60 looks like on top of that.

A sign of wisdom, a flexibility and resilience

to handle such vagaries of aging,

fizz makers!

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.