A WISTFUL OF BOTHERS

The salt of the earth
Peppers my perception
Of who I am & who I
Want to be when I
Grow up / how long
Does it take to grow up
To get where you want
To be only to lose it to
Age & ancestors past
& present / how if I had
A shovel to dig my way
Out where would I pile
The dirt so no one else
Would know it / I would
Drop myself back in to
Be a seed of intimacy
A little bit of you & a
Little bit of me / to grow
Old with flowers twining
& wild weeds winding
Mixing elixirs to keep
The cold away / to keep
The old away awhile
Longer / I’ve yet to do
All the young things I
No longer desire / I
Get so awful tired of
Remembering

KE

Laptop

I was getting
a lap dance on my laptop
computer the other day
and all of these dirty
pictures started
coming
up on the screen
pretty smart
computer
for what
it’s worth
it’s a charming
language
isn’t it?

Anonymous

Oasis

Walking up the drive way with
forty years chatting in my ear,
to knock on the door, welcomed
by someone that calls this place
home.

Sitting in a room filled with stories
a generation old, whose colorful
tales are of a unique hue to me.
There was a tapestry that kept
them warm.

Remembered roofless house,
concrete bruises, blood stained across
the street. The doctor’s decaying hands
gave me shots. Sled riding down hills
fingers freezing hat left somewhere.

Then listening to a waterfall
of friendship, that has been feeding
flowers and willows along the stream,
I search for a glass among the blossoms
to hold this clear liquid I can feel,
and drink of it again and again.

Steve Thomas

tricks

my mother tells me it’s all a trick
on old ladies
they tell them to stay in bed
then they lose all their gumption

she’s out on the porch with the cactus & the cat
sipping tea
a lovely day in florida

she says that robert schuller is in on it
& i say
no, not robert schuller
but yes, robert schuller has sent her a book
he wants fifty dollars

he’s a good salesman
he sent a check with
i need your help
written on it

she sent the fifty dollars

it’s all a trick
they tell you to stay in bed
then you lose all your gumption
you die
and they get your money

but she fooled them
she’s reading hillary
and she’s not dead

wendy shaffer