Monthly Archives: October 2022

RESTORING THE DECK

 

Tenuous, dangerous navigating

redwood sagging on rotting joists

even the dogs avoided

 

and it took years to make repairs,

slices of time wedged between

perpetual routines

 

caring for the survivors of drought

when there was no grass or water.

It took the expertise of a patient friend

 

we have learned to love

and work with—Robbin and I

comprising only half-a-man.

 

                        for Jeff Spoelstra  

 

LATE OCTOBER

 

They’ve taken Saturday’s rain away

with future promises

like plastic magic debt

no one intends to pay.

 

We’ve been here before,

crooning to godesses

not to forget us

like the hopeless homeless.

 

We are this ground

rooted into the future

like the plodding lives of cattle,

trusting, trusting, trusting….

 

DEJA VU HAIKU

 

1.

Gray dust clouds rising

behind cows down powdered trails

off these bare mountains.

 

2.

The diesel feed truck

awakes a bawling chorus

to claim the canyon.

 

3.

All imperative

and hungry, it twists our guts—

La Niña pending.