Keep eyes, ears and nose
on alert. Practice patience
till you can wait like a cat
perched on a stone wall
intent on a mouse.  

Dispute trade-marked half
truths, like that Everything
Bagels are topped with
everything.  

Smell the air after a storm
to see what fury’s end can
release.  

Attend to the sound made
by bills dropped into
a mailbox. Record it
as a curiosity for
posterity.  

Sift a clod of dirt
with your fingers.
Contemplate the soil’s
powdery gift to you  

but don’t bother learning
the names of weeds. They
won’t be any easier
to uproot.  

Watch a hummingbird’s
wings beat and with that
same energy ready-set-go
a good deed  

like looking your bus driver
in the eye and accepting
her smile as if it were
a trophy  

Ignore the come-hither  
of a store’s water bottle
aisle, its implicit greed  
an icy version of hell.  

Plant pansies outside
your window so you’ll
see flower smiles when
life’s sun hides.

Because I don’t know how my car works, 
I pray to it like the ancients to the sun.

Hallowed be thy name, Toyota Corolla.
Please get me there, both of us in one piece,

and if you do I’ll sacrifice some green leaves
to buy you oil and a new air filter and maybe

even tires, oh car god. I must seem so slow
to you, so close to the junkyard, and it’s true

that the fast lane now seems far away just as
eighteen seems far away.

I have rust, chipped paint, a rebuilt engine.
When we get there, the ground looks at me

hungrily, like its mouth yearns to swallow me,
and the streetlights shine in my eyes,

the green a flashlight
that spots the problem,

the yellow a dim waiting room light,
flickering as I fill out insurance forms,

the red a doctor’s bleary eyes
as he says I should sit for this.

Three Kentucky Town Limericks

Muldraugh, KY

There once was a gal from Muldraugh
whose tongue’s tricks had the townspeople in awe.
Pointed and split
it licked d*(ks and cl*!s
and at all the church picnics it made the slaw.

Dycusburg, KY

A Dyscusburg steamboat captain named Freddie
Steered clear of Cumberland River eddies,
but once on land
he could barely stand,
sea legs and Silent Brigade Bourbon made him unsteady.

Lexington, KY

Dear friend Kevin, who resides in Lexington,
your limericks today are a blessington.
They purge
my continuous urge
to create poems profound and well written!

It’s not easy owning the world’s cutest dog.

Walt Disney Studios calls every day

begging to buy the rights

to her likeness.

They are close to meeting my price

but not yet.

It drives a wedge between

family members

and friends

and even strangers on the street,

knowing that their dog

is only second cutest

at best.

Perhaps the hardest part

is that the dog knows

just how cute she is.

She pauses at every pedestrian

and waits expectantly

as if they are a member of her fan club

and owe her treats and head pats.

She stops to watch every car

as if she expects it to pull over

and the driver to get out

and pet her.

It is a big responsibility,

documenting her adorableness

for posterity,

taking endless pictures and videos

because she’s always

doing something

sweet or funny.

It is difficult

not to give her

everything she wants,

to refrain from

showering her with bone bones

when she looks at us

with those pretty eyes

or bows in front of me

knowing that is my favorite trick.

Yes, it’s hard owning the world’s cutest dog.

But not as hard as living without a dog

at all

for five years.

New moon
unseen
hidden in daytime sky 
aligned with earth and sun
waiting for high tide,
secrets to escape
foreign prisoners desperate 
to find the way home.

Waning crescent moon
in February chill
you remind me 
of someone from another time
forgotten dreams buried
deep in frozen earth
untouched love
waiting for solace.

Quarter moon
smile again
in  the season of the
jasmine bloom
sweet remembrance
purity of chance
your reflection 
in the swollen harbor.

Grandmother moon
full faced in
August dark
teach us the
curve of the river
where wild blackberries ripen
and juice pours
down your chin.

If I describe each scene like a picture.
Will you capture it in a poloroid?
Shake it into reality?

Or would you develop it in a darkroom?
Keep it hidden
Drown it until it bleeds the truth.

If I tell you any amount of lies
would you care to look further?
Or would you leave the pictures untaken?

Sometimes you’ve just gotta try
to drop off some of the pain
and keep on going.
Kick that shit to the curb.
Drive off into the sunset
let your phone blow up
with calls and texts saying
How could you leave me and
Go fuck yourself.
Block the number
with a smile.
Carrying around that pain
riding alongside it
ain’t gettin you where you want to be
if you allow it to keep rerouting
your course.
The pain will be there waiting
should you return. There will be more
passengers along the way
keep your eye out
make room for beauty
to roll with you.
The beautiful will be painful too
it will remind you
of the beauty and pain you’ve left
to get to this point.
There are only so many seats
in your vehicle.
Sometimes it’s just gotta be you
the road
the beauty and pain out the speakers
and that which you pass along the way.

That’s the way I use to think of my cigarettes,
a companion I could always turn to–
that would be with me no matter what.
And now what is it, cigs abandoned decades ago?

My ability to get lost in learning,
which book to read next,
exploring my endless enchantment with words,
striving to write the perfect poem.

when drawers fill
with junk mail
scissors pencils pens

New York City subway
tokens disguised 
as loose change

her past fat with
relics even she
cannot recall

She is a republic
falling under its
own dead weight

though not too late
to save the future
No  not too late

Sisters are friends from birth

Friends can be sisters
Sisters can be friends

Friends stick together like glue
Sisters’ bond is blood, and it is unbreakable it’s true

Friends hold each other together
Sisters’ DNA connects them always and forever

Friends love like sisters it’s the best
Sisters love like friends they are blessed