Bourbon at midnight
Fish net and a slide trombone
New Orleans full moon

Antique Horns

Painfully aware
of the loss of the bloom.
Bewildered, beware
the size of the room
and a sneaking suspicion
about the price of my stock
and my tenuous position
as a decaying dock
where less ships will moor
less cargo be stored
fewer trips will be taken
the decks ignored
and the price of a cruise
slips out of reach
where there's nothing familiar
at the bar or the beach
but the smell of an old dollar bill...

I will arrive
grown old
my sleek yacht sold
and replaced with
planks
and oars.

I have arrived
as old
still no one's cuckold
and replaced with
pranks
and boors.

Resurrection Fern

Minotaur

Confused the calf could not comprehend
the commotion about his fate,
failed acquiescence
attention and affection,
gilded brutish
bifurcated state.

Released from the shackles
of heavy hammered gold
found his calling
rambling
wandering
mazes
broke
but freely bold.

She wouldn't know what to say
poor Pasiphaë
if she knew the primitive power
of must and mimicry.

Ophelia not withstanding,
smoke and mirrors and heavy sanding
hand holding
and hand wringing
will not a love song make.

The frost and second guessing
plans laid late and false caressing
tacit permission
and undressing
further drive the stake.

So the labyrinth resounds
and beckons still
Stockholm syndrome stirs and fills
the void called hearth
or heart
or home
and the beast will find its rest
among the walls he knows
alone
best.

dews first drops
a fiddlehead fantasy
summer's dying breath

Steeple

Awakened daily by crows
feeding
their avarice
on my lambs.

In steeples
starlings
find refuge
and avoid the perils
and plights
of illegal aliens
and interlocutors.

The bells are silenced
ordinances of peace
for whom?