Been-Rejected Blues ...

I've got those

low down,
good for nothin'
been-rejected blues.

My meter seems fine.
My rhyme? Sublime.
So why, I whine,
this awful mess
I find myself in,
so sad and unseemly,
loaded with chagrin?

Beats me. I've just
got 'em. Bad as they
get, I guess,
those unexpected,
pain-injected,
stripped down nekked,
been-rejected blues.

© 2001

(received an honorable mention award in Ohio Poetry Day competition)

***

Today's word: unexpected

Letting Them Crawl ...

These words I write

are the embers

of a fire that has

smoldered far longer

than I had imagined

it would. How much

longer the sparks

will race among

the cooling ashes

of my past, I have

no way of knowing,

but I intend

to give them air,

let them crawl

as long as they will

on this journey

toward becoming

something that has

the sound of poetry.

© 1996

(originally published in ByLine)

***

Today's word: embers

Fickle Petunias ...

I have a nodding

acquaintance
with some petunias
who bob excitedly
when I walk by,
but then they
do the same when
a stranger passes.

© 1995

(originally published in Capper's)

I know ... I've gone a bit off-season with this one, but I like to do that sometimes ... to remind myself of those warmer days, no ice on the sidewalks, no spinning tires at the curb ... shirt sleeves weather, with the petunias bobbing excitedly when I walk by ... or merely hanging out together where they've been planted, envying the freedom of movement I have. Ah, those were wonderful warm days. And they will come again. Won't they?

***

Today's word: fickle

Solitary Candle ...

My candle sculpts

itself in its corner
of the room, flame
gyrating in the draft,
tiny avalanches
of wax slithering
into the maw,
a fungible, seething
mass that labors
back up the wick
to sacrifice itself
as a bit of light,
distant warmth. It
flickers, warning me
that I shall soon miss
the warmth, its quiet
companionship, gently
flowing memories, its
solitary, sustaining
work of holding
the darkness at bay.
© 1996
(originally published in Anterior Poetry Monthly)

***

Today's word: fungible