Time card

a cityscape and stories to invent

stories because they must be, stories

to thrum some surface

hid by wall and roof, shuttered window,

blind or closed curtain

stories in minds or

shut in hearts, stories

that happened or wait as wishes,

pure deeds

or poisoned needles set

soldering some mind,

calm eyes their windows that belie the violence.

all stories to hint at endless realities,

libraries of nonfiction filled by

books never borrowed or checked

enough to stretch a mind so thin,

perhaps

Free tickets

these free seats to a game I like so little,

puck and stick, blood on shaved ice,

the test of beer and steps a steep curve.

circle farm of fold down settees

most opposite empty.

I disparage not the play,

don't discount those skating arears,

the dread crawl of Zamboni I fathom,

if not the whistled icing

the roaring surge of stretched net.

It is, I suppose, what we know in youth,

Did you hear it?

My uneven design on

wood grain diary.

Quester lines reached upward,

rose, receded in efforted growth,

pattern on time nourished

creep or crush, sprint, spree,

flight and flee, lines in wood were life.

Her remnant of chemical compound intake

such remarkable humdrum, yon

quiet being

once stood sentry

moved by my ax.