Silt City

An unbidden damp
Attracts the fly’s crawl
Through the obvious

Decay of drowsing
Mind—obvious, but
Deeply suspenseful,

The tension between
Decay’s certainty
And the thick, weedy

Uncertainty steeped
Within the decay.
This ecosystem

Is failing—that is,
Transforming into
Some other system.

The mind no longer
Maintains its sump pumps.
The damp is rising

Through the barriers
To sink the city
Like all the cities

Sunk before—it’s time
To become one more
Lost city legend

People may seek out
For quiet visits
In snorkeling gear,

Hoping to haul up
Rich finds by the pail.
For now—moss and snails.

Drum and Bell Declare the Hour

The Drum Tower and the Bell Tower both
Impressed the hell out of Marco Polo—

The Drum Tower beat out the start of day,
And the citizens of the Khan obeyed;

The Bell Tower rang out the chimes of night,
And the citizens on the streets took flight.

The message was the same in drums or bells—
Great Khan ruled the rhythms of time itself.

But notice the Khan never pushed his luck.
Drums were never beat, bells were never struck,

When the sun stood directly overhead.
Khan never chose to put the world to bed

When the world might be tempted to say no.
When you must go, announce your choice to go.

At Thirteen

She’s fire.
She started
Microscopic,
No identity,

And grew through the phases
Decreasingly standardized
Child, pudgy infant to small soul
With her own fine characteristics,

Who else would handle a tarantula
At the same angle as her sketching pencil?
Like flames now, she changes shapes and colors daily,
And you hope that, in your absence, she consumes the world.

Desert Island WiFi

And it can be a cheerful day,
Marooned on the island of ends,
Nowhere anyone would request

By choice to spend their latter days,
The body disintegrating
But the painkillers working well,

The nurses efficient and kind
The fierce desert sun outside flat
Against the double-paned window

And virtual conversations
With old friends making a chorus
Of soul crickets and fireflies

You can actually understand,
All the rhythmic, winking seme verse.