Slap-lapping water, with a little imagination, can float the solid earth we stand upon, watching a loading boat. Hungry, an eager ferry is big enough to carry several cars, but seems a shade too small for that close-up. Fresh-painted steel appears of grander stature when the captain’s tower takes an hour, sinking at horizon, nearContinue reading “Horizon Is Illusion”
Tag Archives: Free Verse
Accidents
Big water slaps two shores and the birds don’t care, one shore being as another for those who travel without documents. I am paused to wonder, how some are perfect-built for flying and splashing about, web-footed and well-oiled. The feathered creatures do not notice me nor do I see myself, though our shared water isContinue reading “Accidents”
Hello?
We are standing outside a bar that would be dingy if it weren’t so clean. This is a dim building but tidy. Inside, the floors are swept and the glassware gleams. We are waiting for a man called Henry S. Woodworth or Paisley or Brownley or some other two syllable last name. A cab slidesContinue reading “Hello?”
The Language Arts
You turn the page and find a box of fireflies. As you read, the box-lid slips askew and florescence begins, as gentle shocks that surprise, then fade, in a heartbeat rhythm, warning that a summer day is ending, that everything is temporary.
A Box of Dream
A Box of Dream There have been seven years of steady work. The tidy restaurant is busy, people come and go. We are starting to relax. Sometimes, folks buy an ice cream. Ours is not unlike a mining town. We are owned, we are antiquated, but, it is claimed, we do our business above theContinue reading “A Box of Dream”
The Eyes Have It
What if your eyes were only held in by their lids and you had to be very careful, in the best of times, squinting always, just to keep them in then, one day, you accidentally said something stupid and someone ran away, far away, and you never saw them again and you had to holdContinue reading “The Eyes Have It”
Cuore Come Fiore
The bills are current, the bed is made. It was sunny and bright at eight, though snow stacks up in for-a-while-yet piles. It is the ‘eye’ of winter and we are still alive. When February slips under the wild days of March, what will come? I am trusting that the heart is a sturdy crocusContinue reading “Cuore Come Fiore”
My Sister Screamed Underwater
My sister screamed underwater once, years ago. We were taking swimming lessons and I remember the scene as if it were a still-life, maybe or a painting by Andrew Wyeth, though my sister’s name was Helen, not Christina. The painting I remember is done in the baked-out colours of august, where anything young or greenContinue reading “My Sister Screamed Underwater”
Might Have Been Somebody
One of the big boats is moving, about to disappear, existing not much longer at the aged horizon. You cannot see from here, but must imagine there is a whirling radar, observing, set atop her steel wheelhouse tower. On his solitary round, a deck-hand will be making certain every ore-hatch is battened down, lest theContinue reading “Might Have Been Somebody”
Sweet Bruises
a human being is hard to kill. the killing often takes 80 or more years and can involve various instruments, some sharp, all brutal. the system of a bi-pedal body is sturdy enough that any worthy attack must occur on several fronts in order to be effective. for teaching example, I offer myself. something hasContinue reading “Sweet Bruises”
Robert On The Air 