OF CONSEQUENCE

I have heard it said 

that thunderstorms

are angels crying 

up in heaven.

Two tears for Auschwitz
and Hiroshima, perhaps; 

and one for Pilot’s yielding

and the washing of his hands.

But I can’t help but wonder
which spear of silver water—
which single drop of trillions
did I buy and manufacture

with my callousness, dis-

comfiture, or 

self-righteous reach 

for the shield of solutions?

How much absolution can 

one tiny bit of certainty cost? 

And what desperately thirsty 

but innocent plot

might that tortured drop
of water nurture—when 

and wherever it chances 

to land?

CHRONOS AND KAIROS

When it moves too fast,

even mastery 
will break stuff.

There’s a time to make 

appointments—and a time 

to test your patience. 

For instance: this tercet 

has been intentionally 

left blank.

And the clock in your 

pocket—or the one

in your chest

may palpitate
but doesn’t have
a thing to say about it.

ITE MISSA EST

A life isn’t finished
at the moment 

when it ends,

but when 

nothing more
can be added to it,

and nothing less
subtracted—
in other words, when

certainty is sentiment,

and clairvoyance

is distant past.

That’s a nice way 

of saying
that acquiescence

is preferable to out-
and-out dismissal.
From then on, perhaps

all beings go in peace

to love and serve
an afterthought:

a man and a woman

and a blackbird, 

for instance, are 

dust—or

are finishing 

one another’s sentences 

in heaven 

while the studio 

audience laughs.

SEQUITUR

Vanity must have its place,

just as sour grapes
deserve their fable.

After all, 

several mirrors 

are still the best way

for you to be able
to view of the back
of your own head;

just so,

the wicked men
of the world are not evil,

for they are raw
material
used to make good men;

and standing on tiptoe

to look taller 

than others

is not immoral, just
unstable—and ergo, not

an ideal solution.

AIMLESS Rx

First off: get buzzed

on the brightly dark 

shadelight, 

as cool-filtered 

by hundreds 

of recondite maple leaves;

now, you are ready
to jump up 

and challenge

the rowdiest 

cicadas to a 

karaoke battle; 

you shall start 

with a small rattle, then

work up to screeching

any-any-

any-any-

any-any-anything

from the not-quite-
bottom of your

full-throated lungs—or

the insectile depth 

of your newly ancient

resonators, respectively.

Congrats, you now 

have a routine 

so valueless

that it can't be put 

to any use—and 

hence, can't be defeated.

No need to thank me. Just

take as directed—and

fill again as needed.

UNLEARNING

They say the right moment
is the moment when 

the flower opens. And so,

I guess, here I go: having
the temerity not to grow

but protect still-
tender tendrils
with the pesticide of no.

I am sick unto death
of watering fear,

of waiting 

to unfold, and of the canker
of comparison;

tired of hope which hardens 

to the blight of demand, 

and of that stealthy 

predator called 

Anointed Expectation.

Discernment, from here, 

be my point-sharp shears

to prune away 

all these

blanched leaves of want

and desire's ever-

proliferating branches—

for, if not for your 

rhizomatic thinking, I never 

would have thought

that accumulation could lead 

to such devastating loss.

BOUNTY HUNT

Near the close 

of summer, the dead center 

swells.

And I still want to pass

my losses off 

as pleasures—only

now I’m

unsure how.

On the street, 

everything pales
and sepias toward 

the same congealed color—

parked cars, houses,
tree bark, lawns—

and I don’t know whether

to capture or kill—

to feel

turned on

by those traitorous images—

by thought’s 

benign downshift

from sawing violins

to pin pricks—or
repelled.