There is a war going on

There is a war going on

.

I wouldn’t care about that but

my brother is there

and I am wearing his army shirt

and it seems to me that I should

have something important to say

about it

.

But I don’t

.

This is his third tour of duty

.

Isn’t it marvelous that the word “duty” also

means shit?

.

The war bores the duty out of me

Is that important?

Earth Patch

The backyard has sticks all over

and the neighbors are going

to start to talk about us not

caring about our lawn

.

We don’t.

.

We will plant

wildflowers back there

and let the whole thing

go naked and tangled

within its self

.

So when we go in our backyard

we’ll feel like we are going

somewhere we don’t belong

and wonder what we are stepping on

Cycle of Might

There is a pile of old sticks and logs

in the backyard.  And there is a fuzzy rabbit

living under the pile.

.

The rabbit’s red eyes, shiny and wet

look at me, hold their pose -fear.

.

Excitedly I point the rabbit out to daughter

and when she sees the rabbit’s cuddly face she says,

“I am going kill the rabbit and we’ll eat it”

.

“I am not going to eat the bunny” I say.

And she says, “Well, I am still going to kill him.”

.

“We live in the city.  The bunny has nowhere to go.

It probably has little babies,” I say.

.

“So,” says daughter. “The rabbit can’t live here.

We’re going to have a garden.”

.

My daughter became my mother.

Her heart grew matter of fact and her body

the strength to get the bloody thing done

.

it seems like over night

She’s the woman

and I the little girl pleading

for the animal’s life

Just another day in springtime

This morning while shitting I held onto a bucket

in which I did some puking

-

Now in the early afternoon I stare out onto the blue

sky

-

and the fever is gone.  I should be out raking or skipping

in the sun

but I got sidetracked

inside a poem

-

Beautiful Emerson,

you weren’t the first to know

that all is connected.

The redwood knew that long

before you, and before the redwood

the jellyfish knew