Dance Me to the Edge of the Moon

Dance Me to the Edge of the Moon

Calypso to the edge of the moon,

                    (Crickets' cryptic drumbeat tune)

Dance me to the edge of the moon.

Dance the rapid banging beat

                    (Thrust and bite of all belief)

Turn me to the banging beat.

Turn the climb into the dance 

                    (Darkened precipice of chance)

Make me see the climb as dance.

Calypso to the edge of the moon,

                     (Leverage the bite of doom)

And dance me to the edge of the moon.

Begins and Ends in Dust

 

Begins and Ends in Dust

This is the door

I stand before:

The entry, ivy and rust,

Hinge that groans,

Wood that moans,

Step that is covered in dust.

This is the door

I stand before:

Heart that stills with trust,

Body that groans,

Mouth that moans,

Hands that are speckled with rust.

This is the way

I go today:

The way that all men must.

Lorem Ipsum

Lorem Ipsum

I just noticed

how the  lighted screen

looks ripped across the top

like the mini yellow pads

that clutter and stack a desk --

to dos and dones, calls recorded

calls returned, hand-drawn charts,

the stuff of later talks,

pages ripped,  discarded

starts and stops.

The keys along the bottom

click away as if something really

is depressed and strikes.

How like a life this screen,

bright as the eyes can take,

yet cold and flat and final

as the hand that hits delete 

but does not think to save.

When the lights went out

When the lights went out

And the winds blew hard, harder

Than Appalachian summer ever sees,

And the children ran dripping to the house

While Poppy held then gave the umbrella

To the yard, family and guests --

Fourteen in all, gathered beneath the stairs,

Children up and down like popping corn,

The littlest one cried mommy, mommy, mommy,

Who was somewhere, later learned,

Moving trees that blocked the road,

Unable to go forward or go back.

When the  winds died down

And the sky cleared off as if it never raged,

And the damage was surveyed,

And neighbors came together for a change

To tell their various stories (all the same),

The children gathered pool toys from the yard,

The men, the bent umbrella from the tree,

And the eerie sound of no electricity --

The lack of sound, gave life a different sound,

Pure and clear, the sound of feet and breath,

The sound of living on and living through,

The littlest gathered candles for the dark

And built a tale to tell again, again, again

As the power hums, of the fun we had 

when the winds blew hard on the day the lights went out.

Still, the clock

Still, the  clock:

Back and forth

Settled, regular, like the heart.

Staccato notes

Dum dee, dum dee, dum dee

Patterned background chatter

Morning song that fades

With the scrape of shoes