January 2022

if you’re done with that –
do you mind if I eat it?
there’s still so much left

and I’ll put it to good use
said the fungus to the tree

looking up to the sky
the color fades
as contrast deepens
a cold looking canopy
where so few leaves remain
lets more light come in

so much lively color
for such a grey day
I don’t know when
I’ve seen a beech
this vibrant
or even
noticed one
this time of year
they hold their leaves
all winter, dancing ghosts
with the wind in their arms
but this bright color feels
like a testament and
a mirror for what
moves inside
and beyond me

after drifting to the ground
on air currents, inspired by gravity
these leaves found their way to the creek
where the rising water, now receded
entangled them with one another
with a more orderly style
than is apparent here
from this angle

the lights are on inside
but the sign is gone
what was this place?
this interior all that’s left
of the late Ben Franklin
I hadn’t seen one of these
since the one on Main Street
closed down thirty years ago
had they moved in to compete
with the Roses almost next door?
apparently not an effective strategy.

the only reliable source of espresso
for two towns in any direction
before the corporate player
set up shop by the interstate
what with my constant travels
and a propensity for drowsiness
I had sniffed out every option
for a way to wake back up
and to do so with style
I’m glad to see this shop
is still open and well loved
and I realize now how its size
is like that of a demitasse
to an American venti

freshly fallen leaves
still crisp even in water
traipsing down the waterfall
by now they must have settled
sodden to the bottom of the stream
and begun that languid process
whereby they will come to be
grounded in a whole new way
a reintegration by disintegration
though integrity is never lost
as the whole resides in each part
and no part is ever separate
from the whole process

wrapped for some reason
almost looking cracked or skewed
Main Street after dark

above the green of a lush valley
obscuring a subtle prismatic effect
blots of light and color float in the sky
what is the strange profile behind them?
unsettling by virtue of being abstruse
is it the skyline of a dark, unearthly city?
a jagged cloud bank boding a coming storm?

do cars ever dream?
do they haunt one another?
these two get along