write a (sloppy, half-formed if need be) poem every day (or so) during March 2010

Apples and sinner
men aplenty tilting at
windmills and playing

Pinball; dunking the
attendants in deep water.
We are April’s fools.

Bluest balmy sky;
first season’s perspiration.
Sunshine has finally

Asked us to go steady
now, but let’s take it slow.
Summer patiently

Waits.

How do they ever
find their way to the store with-
out Oprah’s guidance?

Let me listen to
me, and not to them, said she.
Deep breaths and new grass.

Salty licorice
with a sweet center; marzi-
pan soaked in cognac.

Chicago, you were
my deathstar; cold planet of
metal and concrete.

A few years there,
grief and sleep covered me in
a blanket of dust.

This Spring, though, I feel
elated by your charms; the
flowers poking through

The cracks in the ce-
ment in front of my building.
Breathing deeper now.

Flamenco is a
dance requiring stomping and
arched backs; shoes with nails

At the bottom of
Each sole; at moments we clap
And shout ‘Ole’!’ Snap

The way back to life.
It is bliss to play it out;
This spit and scowl.

Resistance and rage,
And the posture of protest
Acted out each week

In this tiny room.

Model a way of
being for me; be better
than I would expect.

Ketchup and mustard
on a tofu hamburger;
March, the meatless month.

All is well, and then
there is the smoke.
It was thick with it.
I’m glad the days of
that are ended and I
spend the time
inhaling it out of doors.
Street corners and
stop lights; the haze
of smoke wafts towards
the yield sign. The
green arrow only lasted
for a moment. Somehow
the sign seems perpetually
stuck at yellow.

There are questions and
answers and then there are
years that go by. Sometimes
the answers depend upon the
weather. I wonder if my
questions would have
different answers if I lived
in the Pacific Northwest or
in the Tropics? What if these
local Nor’easterly winds of
fate changed to Southerly?
My yearning has grown accustomed
to down coats, insulated boots
and waiting outside in the
blowing wind for the train.
Gentle breezes are predicted
next month. But for now,
bundle up, dear one.