The Yellow Tree

The Yellow Tree

Maybe

Lucy the Alligator

(Driving over)

(words)

You’re Right

Japanese Breakfast

Rabbit Nightlight

The Red Wagon

The Third Morning

(A branch sways)

Wet Morning

Morningtime Rhyme

Mt. Baker View

(The October bee)

(Walking the dog)

(Reading haiku)

A Garage in Ohio

Old Love

The Nightwatchman

(I keep returning)

At the Bus Stop

A House in Maine

Crowded Meadow

Ohio Tornado

The Yellow Tree

(A deer)

Rumi’s Book

(Monday morning)

Monday

For Winter

The Tuba Tree

(A wet dollar)

House in the Woods

(November)

(A white cat)

(The moon)

Maybe

you

could fly

a tall kite

so I could see

where you are

Lucy the Alligator

Around

folding chairs

we finally got

to pet her

surprised

how soft

like a moth

or a wave

Driving over

chesnuts

popping

in the driveway

words

like apples

waiting in the air

to be ripe

You’re Right

There is a best way

to wash an apple

picked off the tree

hold it like a ball

roll it downhill

over the wet grass

Japanese Breakfast

A bowl of rice

a book of haiku

suddenly

I’m late for the bus

Rabbit Nightlight

On the trail

all I see

a white tail

The Red Wagon

The red wagon

filled with dirt

a shovel and grass

pulled across

the yard

leaving

tulip bulbs

planted

The Third Morning

I remember

open the gate

carefully

it’s okay

the spider web

is gone today

A branch sways

an owl landed

in the gloom

Wet Morning

Finding

footprints

a cat

a dog

a man

walking

to where

he parked

his car

tires leaving

a dry square

on the tar

Morningtime Rhyme

The window is open

the shades are drawn

in a high-ceiling room

the lights are on

Mt. Baker View

After throwing away

a carload of trash

at the dump

turning on Slater Road

to go back home

there’s the mountain

a cone of white snow

taller than anything

The October bee

makes due with

dandelions

Walking the dog

a cat hiding

behind a pumpkin

Reading haiku

and you appear

a sunny day

A Garage in Ohio

Everytime we went

to the landlord’s house

to pay our rent

we saw where

our money went

tall white pine

beside the garden

boards moving up

beams and walls

built with our help

getting bigger

every month

Old Love

He sees old love

getting Food Stamps

holding a baby

while he’s there too

with his family

The Nightwatchman

Something wakes me

each morning at 3.

I clock in. Everyone’s

asleep, even the dog.

Nothing happens outside

but a passing car once

in a while. An hour

goes by, I toss and

turn and listen.

It might be raining

windy or utterly still.

The only thing I’m missing

is sleep.

I keep returning

to the place we met

hoping to see you

the ground is cold

At the Bus Stop

Three girls

holding pumpkins

on their laps

A House in Maine

Steps painted

white as snow

stacked against

the wooden house

walking up

to a door

Crowded Meadow

I’ve been in

this dream before

like a flower

waiting for

that one bee

Ohio Tornado

It’s on the way

piling the sky

into a wave

over the I.G.A

The radio

warned us

waist tall

sunflowers

spin and bend

petals milling

in the wind

I planted them

beside the kitchen

to grow and look in

but now, staring

at those clouds

approaching,

there is nothing

more than knowing

they would be

left outside

while the window

thrashed in rain

The Yellow Tree

half its leaves

have flown

onto ground

they are ducks

around a puddle

scattering in wind

A deer

on the sidewalk

orange streetlamps

Rumi’s Book

Letting a few

drops of rain

land on the page

Monday morning

a puddle is waiting

on the way to work

Monday

eating from

a can of green beans

water running

off the fork

For Winter

flowers

plowed under

in chocolate rows

The Tuba Tree

turns into brass

then with a blast

all the leaves fall off

A wet dollar

painted on the street

unpeeling it

House in the Woods

Sunday walk

below the branches

a shower of rain

a squirrel

in the rafters

further on

in another room

startling an owl

it flies deeper

into the leaves

the chimney beside

a green window sill

November

our house

in a raindrop

A white cat

licking ice

on the porch

The moon

shutting her door

only a sliver of light