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king Wen

late afternoon
bright sun strong wind
I'm thinking of King Wen
and the Duke of Chou
writing down

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and dreaming
of an afternoon
after the hail fell
from dark charcoal

and bright sun before night
fell from

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Returning

it's always here that I end up

that same place where I start

the quiet builds

snow falls on the window sill

the small rectangle

of reflected light

on the ceiling

following with the mind

my own breath

the disturbed

settles again

snowy foot prints

fade under the street lights

scraping metal

pushed across blacktop

from a distance

tracked

as it approaches and drifts away

her shoulder

rises and falls

next to me as she sleeps

telephone & power lines

arc after arc

in a long chain

black under a layer of white

connecting us all

silent in our beds

snow

follows the cold breeze

down from Ontario

it wasn't planned

this silence

is what happens

in between

the plow gone

for now the empty street

stretches up the hill

74

Even as he died

At 74

He didnt have a last wish

A last thought

Only a last image

A brown breast

It was all

It was

The only

Thing

It was not the breast

Of his mother

Pasty white

It was not the breast

Of a lover

Or first girl friend

Small

and smooth

But that of a nanny

He never had a nanny

But he saw one once in the park

When he was seven

She was Polynesian

But all he knew

Was her breast

Was dark

He saw her bend down

To pick up a childs toys

Saw the top of her breast

And wanted it

He wanted it

Then

And never stopped

Night Walk

Scent of spring in January

            as the burn of carpel tunnel

                        stings the right inner palm

                                     walk back home

                                                take four ibuprofen with a double

nine year old Kentucky bourbon

Unleashed

Warm evening under streetlights

            in upstate Ontario coast town

                        grass edged with mud

                                    rain falling mistily

                                                as suburbanites walk their dogs