Dryer sheet
swirls
with cotton shirts
and faded blue jeans,
they mingle with one another,
buttons and tags getting caught on coarse material.
As the temperature rises
dryer sheet longs for extra time,
but when the door opens
dryer sheet is the only one left with loss,
for clothes know they will return.
Dryer sheet
gets thrown in the trash.
I’m looking for the difference between
what humans see and what cows see. I see
a link to what happens when a man grows a beard;
I can’t stand to nuzzle with a guy who doesn’t have a beard—
so I must look. Nothing I didn’t know. Then, I go back to my eye
article and get interested in a link to cattle behavior,
as if I don’t already know cattle behavior,
but I am a sucker to read what I already know,
like a two year old who asks the same questions over and over.
Allogrooming. Wait, what does that mean; new window to open.
Then a link to wikipedia highland cattle;
how are those different. I must know.
Back to colors cows can see. What is EM radiation.
Keep the definition window open for ease.
Before I know it I’m off into the differences
between the structures of human and bovine eyes.
Which leads me into facts about green eyes.
Did you know green eyes are not even green,
they are the result of rayleigh scattering—
which is also used to explain why the sky is blue.
Marcus Licinius Crassus lost an army in China (ok, technically,
he was a little too cocky against ‘inferior barbarians,’ he died, l
ost the battle, and his 10,000 man army was captured as slaves).
The lost army, it turns out, lived peacefully in Liqian,
and 2,000 years later, voila—dna shows
that over 50% of the villagers in modern day Liqian
have Caucasian ancestry including green and blue eyes,
increased average height and distinctly Roman noses.
There it is—half my day—gone.
A fishing trip
With the sound of a waterfall
So much going on in my head
Here comes a cat
A black and white cat
He must hear my thoughts
Because he sat beside me
The entire time I fished
When I felt so alone
A soul found me
There or not
No fish caught
The black and white cat
Had me
And I had him.
Her back is sticky
twelve-year-old baby hairs in spirals
like a crown around her temples
She took a wet face towel and
a bottle of handsoap
from the downstairs bathroom
Came back an hour later
smile of a lightning bug
that just barely missed
the mason jar and said
“I did it”
“You did what?”
“I wash mama car”
1.
Hey there ditch lily
You sure do blaze so brightly-
and so fleetingly.
2.
The roller derby ladies were loud,
and drew curious glances
jostling for coffee in the hotel lobby.
Muscled thighs and high ponys,
they were not young and wore no makeup-
but had thick numbers scrawled on their arms.
One had a wild gray streak in her hair
and a direct gaze: they had won.
3.
Years ago I heard the phrase:
“You are old enough,
and ugly enough now
to do what you want.”
I thought it was so unkind.
Now I find it to be freeing-
no longer worrying
about the surface of things,
and getting to the heart of living.
All is as it should be
Even though it hurts
It is what it is
For better or worse
Live to fight another day
Fight to stay alive
What did you give up on today?
What did you give up on today?
Fight to stay alive
Live to fight another day
For better or worse
It is what it is
Even though it hurts
All is as it should be
my son,
you didn’t notice
the frog eggs
you crushed.
I will teach you not to blame them
for being in the way
of your white foot
beware the ones
who fight for those eggs
until they are born
then ask why
they play the crushed tadpole
it’s safe to fight for a life
that never imposes
and damning to choose to forget,
the foot that lifts it’s own self
always crushes what’s underneath
My brain won’t shut off
ideas always swirling
though, I know the truth
the truth of it all
there are only two of you, I say
only two, shuffling around
bumping into walls
firing off neurons
so if there’s only two
how do you make so much racket
in there, at all hours of the night
hellbent on keeping me awake
all you can do is point fingers
at each other
and blame me, because the sheep
are keeping you awake
