athenaeum whispers
Books balance on top of stacks of books,
books overflowing their bookshelves,
stalagmtites grow on my desk,
SPINESPINESPINESPINESPINESPINE
bedside book mountains.
I turn my back.
I think I
hear them
chat.
Books balance on top of stacks of books,
books overflowing their bookshelves,
stalagmtites grow on my desk,
SPINESPINESPINESPINESPINESPINE
bedside book mountains.
I turn my back.
I think I
hear them
chat.
Cardinals call signals across the yard, and
a Carolina wren sings overlapping notes
just as a hummingbird lands on a branch with
a buzz beside where I sit on the front step
strumming my dulcimer in fading light.
Bullfrogs join our tune, a baritone background
as soprano tree frogs chime in from the hills, and
I pause my practice to bask in this medley.
I watch this cat
wrestle with my gym bag
to climb inside
looking for a place to
assess surroundings check the temperature
when the coast is clear
she frees herself
here she is now
a calm tiger
basking on the quiet carpet
I watch her nap
knowing now
she’s seen everything
Tucked into a sliver of sunlight, my cat dreams
beside me, paws twitching, jaw trembling,
eyes fluttering beneath orange
lids. Maybe in slumber she splatters
scarlet across canvas, remembering how she ripped sutures
from her paws and painted beige car seats bloodred,
or perhaps in fantasies she feasts
upon flimsy phone cords and loose shoelaces, pesky spray bottles banished
to reality. In her dreams, she could be a fearsome tigress
speeding through thick jungle without walls to impede her rampage,
her pitiful mewl traded for beastly roar, her claws poised to rake prey’s
flesh.
Or maybe she just dreams about tomorrow,
how she’ll snuggle in that same swatch of sun and snooze
the afternoon away.
It is early for the beach, but I love the morning air
1. Tornado Siren
“Toto rode it out,”
my dogs croon from the kitchen
three part harmony
2. Fizzy Lifting Drinks
grandbaby giggles
like bubbles filling the room
time stands still in each
3. Slapstick
goose egg on browbone
eyeshadow palette: Shiner
rake handle said, “Hi!”
that day
we stopped at the rock shop
your hand brushed mine
walking past the agates while
a rusty gramophone cried
tinny sounds of Louis Prima
until you smiled, red-cheeked,
placed your hand in mine
and twirled past arrowheads,
polished pebbles, fossils of
things we never knew existed,
stony evidence of past lives
escaped
“Blood is thicker than water.”
An old proverb that has stood the test of time
but does this ring true?
Some would say yes,
the greatest strengths come from familial bonds,
but are they truly all that strong?
Others would say no,
found families through friends can help you to mend,
but what if they give you the wrong medicine?
“Your family knows you best.”
“Your friends know you best.”
But I really must attest.
I would say maybe,
there are merits to both due to the words they wrote
into the margins of my continual, introspective notes
Like how Mom taught me how to stand tall
and my friends build me up, not making me small,
but each still not without their grammatical flaws.
Dad tried to leave, erase himself from the scene
my friend’s dramatic acts caused me constant heart-attacks
but neither meaning to cause tragedy in my reality.
Overall, blood and water, two sides of the same coin
both affecting me and the identity I form
so truly, what is the true viscous liquid?
Not water, not blood, and I wouldn’t say toxic sludge
or would I say sweet, home-cooked, fudge.
Something that crafts a mold, maybe a new form of Jell-O?
Should we change the saying, rephrase it to mean
that people really lie in between
and neither is better, they are mixed together?
“Blood is thicker than water? Water thicker than blood?”
Morph them together, and that’s where I come from,
a Jell-O molded someone of water and blood.
When my wife and daughter
are away at camp
I stay at home alone
with the Basset
I work online
spread out in bed at night
and cook for dinner what I like
(salmon burgers and mashed)
Then she texts me
and I ask how our daughter
is doing
The salmon and mashed taste good
This lifeline in the knick of time
feels better
