Solitary

The rain detained me all day long
In a sparsely furnished cell, 
Implying I’d done something wrong, 
Though what I couldn’t tell. 

It muttered through a musty grate.
It said there was a leak 
In the organization. The situation 
Sounded pretty bleak. 

I knew I was entitled to 
A phone call, but to who?
And if I got a hold of someone,
What good would it do?

The sun looked in at half past noon 
And shook his head and left. 
The wind came in and rifled things, 
Impersonal and deft. 

A man who looked familiar took 
My statement with a stare
And sighed, and said that nonsense wouldn’t 
Get me anywhere. 

So I stretched out on the little bed, 
And I listened to the clock
And fell asleep; and when I woke, 
I found the door unlocked. 

Requited

Lying on its side,
An empty watering can
Tinkles in the rain. 

Olympia

Her gaze will never fall. 
Her lips will never fail
To be that pink and full. 
No hand will ever foul
Her flesh. No prudish fool
Will ever make her feel
Ashamed. She’ll never furl 
The sheets, or seek to foil 
Your view. So as you file
Before her, be sure to look your fill. 

Quantum Theory

The targets in the pavement 
Appear after the drops, 
So that each tiny bomb of water 
Always strikes the spot 

That it intended to; 
And since they now did not 
Fall somewhere else, it’s hard tell 
If they ever had the option. 

Some Trees

In summer, they have a thousand mouths, 
Which make a muffled din 
When the leafy jaws go up and down 
As they masticate the wind. 

In autumn, all their teeth fall out; 
In winter, they gum the snow; 
In spring, they shout with newborn sprouts 
And suck the sunlight’s glow.

Roadside Graveyard

I was stuck in rush hour traffic, 
Staring idly out the window 
At the moss-covered headstones
Huddled together 
Behind a rusty chain-link fence, 
When one of the children 
Wondered aloud
Where everyone was going.  

Hail Mary

I pull the pin and pitch
The crystal hand grenade
Of liquid past my lips,
And close my eyes and wait

For the little bomb to hit
The bottom in belated
Explosions of warm bliss,
And blow me back to date.