Electoral College

I make my puny voice heard
I said
I vote!
Swing that curtain around behind me:
I’m somebody -
One of zillions forgotten until today
Yes!
I said
I am!
Pull those tiny switches
Slap the lever
Down, down, down
Choosing the one to speak for me
I’m protecting my tiny
Piece of pie
This box my room
My bed
My body
My name
My memory
Mine, all mine.

The sun will never set on me
Now I am immortal
Because I elected this man
I VOTE
We call for
A recount.

THE EDDY

It was nothing special
Just a spiral near the shore –
A place the lake forgot to water
Then the currents carried to it a
Fragment – flotsam –
From a weeping willow tree
Still green, recalling clearly
What it was to be with others
Alive in a family of tree.
Now independent,
The branch flirts
Spinning slowly
Leaves dipping and teasing
At the eddy's edge
Never allowing full embrace:
That would mean
Being devoured.
The eddy does not draw in
Its newfound companion
On pain of
Being choked, strangled,
Stifled into nothingness.

And so they spin
Together apart
Locked forever
In loving combat.

BIRTHDAYS

God has a mule
He calls Time
Time plods
On and on
Without stopping
Without thinking
Without seeing
Treading
Sure-footed
The treacherous path of
Infinity.
Shackled,
Tied to Time's tail,
I follow.

Infinity

Just beyond those cold stones
Where you can catch a glimpse
If you work hard to see it
Is the place where earth and sea and sky
Become one
And that One
Is the laughter and the waves of grace
At the end of the world.

Pen & Ink Pompeii
Originally uploaded by the NOB.