Three Houses

There are three houses in back.

I’ve always been suspicious

about their meaning 

but now with the sudden bloom 

of the lilac along the rusted fence

I see that they are the fiery doors of time

past present and future

with its muscular burning framework

which explains why the surrounding trees 

continue to climb upward 

with all of their silent vegetable determination.

.

4:30 A.M. Daughter

O, to hear 

the soft sighs and chirps

of this tiny wild 

creature as she sleeps.

A miniature museum of sounds, 

an arpeggio of clicks and coos,

the notes of our receding lives,

flowing as her limp body

rises and falls

on the slow wave

of the aging giant's chest.









.

Spring Storm

Winds out of the north last night 

brought a forty degree drop.

This morning gray blankets the world.

The back yard is a Bruegel without peasants.

Wait, there’s the cardinal

darting through the dark green

trying to find his legs 

after the long wooden winter.

All these days of waiting.

The trees wave their black arms furiously

as the woodpecker tries to sew

the wet edges of time into their bodies.

.