Category: Uncategorized

Memory Noir

Cigarette smoke and cheap perfume

linger in a dance of remembrance

An unmarried aunt who clerked in a store

her rummage sale pearls yellow with age

wrapped around my memories and my fascinations

I was eleven years old when she died

and I heard my parents say: “Floss was never really happy”

But to me, she always smiled and took a

nickel from her shiny black plastic purse when itwas time for

us to leave…

putting the coin in my hand and a big red lipstick

kiss on my cheek

Looking back, I think it was my parents who were

unhappy with who she was

There were whispers of past husbands and

maybe a child—but no one ever talked about it out loud

In a black and white 1950’s world Aunt Florence

was bigger than their disappointments

Living in the shadows of the post war mid-century   

 a ‘loser’ could slip into one and hang on

She has outlived almost everything

I was encouraged to forget

  and her life has become rich in my memory

 —growing richer with time

 

(Lansdowne Pennsylvania: 1959)

 

 

Strange Days

You can’t burn out

if not on fire

You can’t be hurt

without desire

You can’t be found

if never lost

You’ll never melt

without a frost

Your memory void

without a thought

You’re never freed

if never caught

You’ll never plant

without a seed

You need the words

to have a creed

The past depends

on present spent

The pawn shop thrives

on items lent

The morning lost

without the night

The truth abeyant

—wrong or right

 

(The New Room: July, 2022)

Scot-Free

They don’t kill politicians anymore

though some might say they should

Those vermin breeding malcontents

all worms in rotten wood

 

To feast on dreams of hope and change

and sell what pain has bought

They rape our souls in daylight scorned

—no punishment when caught

 

(The New Room: July, 2022)

Chasing The Light

Orphaned by the distant wind

as darkness bathes the dawn

My wings have flown beyond my sight

to catch the cygnet swan

A brother to the foreign soil

lost father to the man

Hearing wisps of memories past

old promises remand

Alone upon a falling sea

in depths my heart bemoans

The water cold inside my veins

fresh images I’m shown…

To raise my spirit from its sleep

and chase the light above

The night relinquishes its grip

and frees the mourning dove

Returning messages of hope

to course before the sun

That shines upon my reclaimed self

—my flight at last begun

 

(Dreamsleep: June, 2022)

Verbum Dei

Twelve men in the beginning

reporting unto God

Ten Commandments to proclaim…

devotional synod

 

Sacred by their nature born

each man immortal bound

Divinity in every word

salvations thorny crown

 

Choices come and choices go

judgment waits beyond

The weight incumbent, buried deep

embedded in a psalm

 

Nine will cloister, locked in place

the future theirs to choose

Decisions based on marble text

—Noah’s Ark in view

 

(Villanova University: June, 2022)

“Before I Sleep”

Till life retires me I won’t retire

all cries to uncles stalled

And won’t slow down or buy the farm

till Abraham has called

 

My will as though a five-year-olds

wild and dancing free

Those trees of life I’ve yet to climb

still calling out to me

 

The view much clearer though ladder worn

from high atop myself

With passions free and burning hot

each thought more deeply felt

 

Somewhere a bugle waits for me

an Angel standing by

To blow my name when time abates

—upon whose wings I’ll fly

 

(Beaupre: June, 2022)

 

Summa Mater

The Ocean has no conscience,

no judgment, joy, or hate

 

She dances with you to her beat

in stirring waves of fate

 

With reverence you may enter

all blessings on the day

 

But just one slip and she reminds

what ancient mariners say…

 

“Red sky at morning, sailors warning

red sky at night, sailors delight”

 

Her message best taken when early to bed

life in the balance, her power to dread

 

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: June, 2022)