Exposed Empathy

While visiting with others their ghosts intrude
whispering their sadness into my bones,
sharing withheld tears and cancerous sores.

It is easier to be out in nature
where sunshine seeps into my soul
birds sing god’s praises and flowers

capture dew to adorn their petals.
Creatures scamper through the grass
and life seems blessed and sacred,

but in the company of humans
I can’t resist their worries and fears
where they reveal their darkness

disrupting my tranquility
taking me where they dwell
in dark caverns at the borders of hell.

When I was younger I could resist
but as I age my boundaries are less secure
I can offer comfort but they want more.

Fifteen Pounds of Meat

The freezer door was left opened
the day after we had been shopping

all the hamburger meat, two packages
of ribs and frozen biscuits

all defrosted before the mistake was found.
So this morning we’re fixing some spaghetti sauce

with plenty of hamburger meat,
a meat loaf and two platters of hamburgers

the ribs will be cooked for tonight,
freezing the leftovers for other meals.

This is our attempt to salvage the food.
before it goes to waste. The biscuits

we be thrown out, 
they’re too mushy to handle.

My sister’s coming over tomorrow for a birthday
celebration, we’ll have the sauce with spaghetti
we may have discovered a way to put
a day's effort for meals to last for 

a whole week as long as we like the taste of 

reheated, refrozen, cooked meat.

Commuting

Merge onto the freeway
car after car moving ahead and behind

now part of the flow of metal and glass
a rhythm of red lights and honking horns

imperfectly formed lines of silver and grey
like a discarded necklace at a garage sale.

The drone of the motor always heard under
the sound of favorite music, even hard metal

doesn’t mask the sound. Forget about
a foreign language, or listening to books

on tapes for the best seller's New York list.
Feel like heading in the wrong direction

the other side seems to be moving more quickly
too much time to be sitting so cramped

everything in slow motion, almost
a bad dream silhouettes and faces

of other commuters, like vague creatures
added to give substance to a nightmare

filling lanes in tandem, moving
in and out weaving through traffic

until the exit home is up ahead
pull off until it is time to start again.

Cops and Robbers

We played cops and robbers 
in the neighborhood long after 
the sun went down chasing 
each other outside our homes

using toy guns and other props
basically a game of  tag
got the adrenaline rushing
exhausted when the game was done

no one criticized our noise
or our running around, no one was worried
that we were playing with guns
because in our world the good always won

and the smartest wanted to be
the cop, the borderline kids became
the criminals, they never ran as fast
nor thought as quick, no one romanticized

the criminal's role. Now everyone is afraid
we don’t know the good guys from the bad.
Who has the moral aptitude to do the right thing
even when everyone else says, "Let it go"?

Copperheads

Allow copperheads to go undisturbed
they’re venomous but do not attack
but will defend themselves

if anyone tries to handle them
or attempts to destroy them.

Copperheads can cause bodily harm
and will kill if bites are not treated.

Sounds like what’s happening

in the world based on the daily news.

Leave the snakes alone! 

I Remember My Father

He was always larger than life
gone before we woke
but came home with an exhilaration
that lifted me towards him at a run.

I knew there would be fun and peace
from my mother who tended to be harsh.

He had a great capacity for love
and wasn’t afraid to show it.

He taught me how to observe
before I asked too many questions
and figure things out before I despaired.

He expected me to match his strength
and energy because I wasn’t
as pretty as my mother.

She was crazy about him too
and missed him when he 
went to work each day.

I never competed for his attention

he had enough for everyone.  

Las Vegas Villanelle

This is my attempt to write a Las Vegas Villanelle
about the city in the desert for the young and retired
an entertainment Mecca for all to dwell

and act out behaviors that might send them to hell
in the blazing desert where dreams transpire
and become the content for this Las Vegas Villanelle.

Some go to gamble looking for tells
betting the mortgage and having cash wired
losing the house then hearing the death knell.

Others go to party where they whoop and they yell
perform on the dance floor to be greatly admired
in a town that never sleeps in this Las Vegas Villanelle.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," but people tell
and secrets are repeated, never forgotten, never retired
even best friends who know better, are persuaded to sell

all the details to the highest bidders who compel
confessions of the most intimate kind to be acquired
and then shown in places like this Las Vegas Villanelle.

Even pictures of the Prince were exposed to sell
he couldn’t be protected by those he hired
cash for the secret was his privacy death knell.

Visitors from all over the world are fired-
up to visit this oasis in the desert and are inspired,
to write their own script and sound their death knell
then sit at a desk and write their own Vegas Villanelle.