Two

When I’m a Small Bird Floating

only wing and twiggy bone

            sailing a chimera,

well above firm ground

much higher than mountains,

            I hover supported by membrane

rising heat forms with frigid sky

            where ideas and images join 

and little is known or said,

                        here,

where day and night are one,

When

from far below all sight

                    her voice from a pinpoint

forms, expands, reverberates

to ask me,

"What's this sticky stuff
all over the kitchen floor
and why is this little bit of
potato salad left in the bowl?"

my muttered "I'm soaring"

                    does not reach her way down there

where she may or may not realize

just how far away I've been.

bald orchid
stained statue
couple with beer cans
marsh gasses
steamed swiss chard
flayed victims
giraffe-worn earrings
ruins of Dresden
accepting angels
little Johnny’s ear

empty algorithm
feed & grain store
evergreen December
resting forklift
pater noster
cyclone ferry
train to nowhere
Star Ricotta
smirking bigots
momentous brake lights

plastic chopsticks challenge
restaurant chatter
red and yellow gum balls
table glass Windex sparkle
dusty geraniums
plastic Jesus
draped dry raincoat
laughing Buddha hefting dollar bills
glass of water diet coke
plum sauce chili pepper paste

ketchup slathered on cold meatloaf
gherkins on the side
black dog panting salivating
New Year quiet everywhere
all in its rightful no place
silence predominates
dog pants refrigerator whirs
meatloaf ketchup pickles
dog and silence dusky
pink and blue alone with food

paper dimming sun obscured
astrologic
what’s Aquinas?
never ending
reason failing
middle January
balmy crazy
fountain splashing
breeze is chiming
in with present tense