Monday, October 8, 2007

That Mighty Villian



How oft are
we frustrated?
When we are late and

the light won't turn green,
or we go to the gas pump
and wait for that woman

talking on her cell
to move her car
Or or or.

We expect better,
that life will go
like clockwork,

swiss clockwork,
that is, keeping
time so precisely

a second is not
lost. Yet we get sick
and injured, and we die,

always with a
surprise on
our face saying

"how could this
happen to me."
Perhaps

all these
seemingly catastrophic
events are not

that mighty villain,
but actually
the stuff of life.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

The Runaway Book



How many times
in one day
do we lose

a good friend
only to find her
moments later?

We set down a book
and can't remember where.
We search and search all

the obvious places
and she is not
to be found.

We nervously zoom
though the house,
in a somewhat frenzy,

wondering if the runaway book
might have walked off
on her own.

We hold our breathe,
not wanting to waste time
as we run up the stairs

to check the bed stand.
And then back downstairs
to check the living room, the dining room, the basement.

And even the dog bed.
"Where is that book,"
we wonder.

Just before giving up
and calling it a cruddy day,
we catch a glimse

of her frayed cover
under a magazine.

Is that the book?
We say a prayer,
lift the magazine,

adjust our focus,
and once again we take another breath.
She's back!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Dad's Golf Bag


The old canvas golf bag
collected dust bunnies
in our summer cottage

waiting for my father
to return from the
hot Chicago summer.

From time to time
I'd take out the
putter and

dig a hole in the backyard
and try to bear down
on the grip

focusing hard to sink
the one worn ball
that we had.

Each summer I'd ask my dad
if he had ever used
those clubs.

He'd say that he did
and that one summer
he'd go out again

with his archaic canvas bag
and that one single ball.
I never quite

believed him
but thought,
maybe someday,

I'd take the bag out myself
to those neatly trimmed
rolling hills.

The cottage and the clubs
are now only a faint memory.
My dad's ashes wait

for next summer
when it will be
just the right day

for his attempt at
that elusive
hole-in-one.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Is Anything Passive?



I look out
at an old chair
on our patio.

It has not
been moved
for a month, and

even through rain and wind storms,
it is stoic
and immobile.

Yet when I glance at her feet,
I see her holding on
for dear life,

to an earth
revolving around the sun,
a sun moving in a galaxy,

and a galaxy
floating in an expanding
universe.

Hummingbirds dart so quickly
that they perceive humans
as statutes.

I suspect they are moving
just a minuscule faster than my chair
or even a stone Buddha.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Relativity


Sometimes it takes
a lot more time
than we think.

Like getting the oil changed,
or saying goodbye
to a friend.

And sometimes
it takes exactly
the time we think,

like a sixty minute massage,
a fifty minute class.
or even a half-second tooth x ray.

Someone asked me
if the night
seemed longer than the day,

and I said no,
for me
it was the other way around.

Our lives seem long
when we meet an insect
that will only live for a day,

and short compared to how long
there has been
life on earth.

And a mere flash in the pan
compared to
the age of the universe,

or even how long ago
was that special moment
when Adam and Eve

took that delicious bite
from the
apple of life.

Monday, October 1, 2007

The Nonmask


I wear a mask.
My being, hidden from you,
is also hidden from me.

You see a
thin exterior,
and I see

you looking at
the me
that we both

know is not really me
and not you,
but a stranger to both of us.

I smile, or laugh,
or frown,
or so you say,

but is that me or
the multitude of my faces
seducing me into thinking that is me?

I don’t need another mask
to hide this mask
that is so very hard to remove.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Ben's Bday


Ben turning 50,
a legendary event
for a guy who always
gives 100 and raises
the bar for the rest of us.

Selflessly the caretaker
of gardens, trees, and a
wife who wants to
change the world
yesterday.

Life demands diligent
work for exquisite beauty
and everlasting love to occur.
Ben does that work
every long day of
his life.

Who's in the world?

Xiushan said, "What can you do about the world?" Dizang said, "What do you call the world?"