carpenters

forgot his lunch
   now I have to give him
       half mine

ladder work

Tree-trimming at Daisy Blue:
  ratcheting the extension ladder
    to thirty feet
Gravel picked up
  from the drive
    raining down
On my breezy skull

library

Forget the books she browses
   I'd rather study
what her sweater houses

dawn, october

Up to Digger Ridge Trail
Turning pedals pre-dawn
Suddenly the branches
Fill with golden fire
And the looping blackbirds
Show off their stunts

breaking up

Rain across Texas today
Didn't help
The sky so close to the mesquite earth
Weeping
Far as the eye can see,
Through towns like Marble Falls
Luckenback
& Fredericksburg.
Rain across the entire LBJ spread,
Muddy ran the Pederales River,
The sun a distant memory.
I tried different tricks
To push her out of my mind,
"Get Present,"
"She's wound too tight,"
"Never would have worked"--
All failing equally.

haiku

through the fence
   the neighbor's vine enters
      flowering

Plato Good-bye

I gave up my quest
For a strong clear mind

I surrender to the waffle
That decides both sides

I relinquish all claims
I go with the flow

I no longer long
For the high alpine lake

My mind's a broad roaming river
Dark with swirling muds & silts

I find myself substantial
As dust-devils crossing county roads:

Abandoned
To the spin & spiral there...