Dark side of this moon

The egrets leave their mark in the mud

As if on the dark side of the moon

With me alone to witness their foot prints

Before the tides erase them

We are not allowed to leave

Anything behind

The silent stalkers in this remote existence

Struggling to find identity

Striding ever so carefully as to not

Upset the delicate balance of nature

Or show others of our kind

Where we might have strode

We stumble constantly over unforeseen things

The stones protruding from the mud

The carved hearts of strangers left

But we can not leave

If we are to remain invisible

Egrets strutting with long legs

And long memories

Seeking substance among

The debris

Fearful to eat too much

Always aware that the incoming tide

Can take it all away

At any moment.

Rain on tiger lilies

The drops come in spurts

Leaving their golden dew

On each elongated tip

No bees to violate

The tiger lilies this morning

Not even the distant

Rumble of thunder

That had brought this storm

The lightning that had

Ripped open the sky

Gone to a more gentle touch

As each drop gently kisses

And cools these sharp lips

Making the erect pistil shudder

Rain that flows clean

From the tip of each petal

To moisten the rich brown

Soil at their feet,

The flock of them,

Shifting slowly to the impact

In a ritual I know

Must end with the rain,

Each waiting for that moment

When the sun tears

Through the veil of clouds

And exposes them again.

Peace treaty

The Indian tonic

Smacks of dusty trails

Corn cobs,

Long weary miles

Of wavering wheat

Swallowed in two hard gulps

The product of years

Gestating

Waiting just for you

And they stare at you

Wet eyes unbelieving

Long faces struck with shock

The chief coughs

Into a yellow scarf

Worn thin with faded design

Stained with tears

At its center

Grim reminders of

Remembered pain

Then he takes his swig

Wincing slightly

He coughs again

Looking again at you

in disbelief

behind his eyes

he’s thinking

you are laughing

at him.

Pizza man

I’m the pizza delivery guy

Who got run over by his own truck

Before he got a chance to get to your door,

The working out violence he could

Have expected once he got there

The surprise tip he didn’t know

About waiting inside

The pizza growing cold and limp

In the box while you got what he

Really came for

Making up for society’s unfairness

Night after night

The boxes piling up outside the door

The pizza men stumbling away

Confused by what just happened

Powerless to stop it

Not sure they want to

Me, still working to jack up the back

Of my delivery van

To inflate the tire

That went flat on the way

The pizza growing cold

Even without the tip

I might have otherwise

Gotten

email to Al Sullivan

Wish waters

I always come to the water to heal,

Even when my wounds are self-inflicted

Me, seeking the cool wet to soothe

That ache I cannot soothe myself

The idea of living my life

As an after thought,

Some bit of detritus that

Washes up to shore from

Time to time,

Remembered briefly

Then forgotten as the tide

Washes me away again

The idea of living that you can

Live your life

Collecting bits of junk from the shore

All that come and go from your life

Never able to keep

The one that matters most,

That one treasure always slipping

From your grasp just as you reach it.

There is an illusion to freedom,

Our lives always governed

By ebbs and flows,

Moon and sun,

Live and dead water,

Some pools in which we

Get stuck and stagnate,

While other seas drag us

Far from those things we want

I never know which is worse,

To never see the same place twice

Or to see the same place

Over and over,

And know there is no escape,

Caught there by obligations

You just can’t break free of,

While on the other side

No anchor can keep you secure

From the tides that tear you adrift

Always seeing distance shores

As they fade from view.

Witness

These things always come

At the time I need them most

Like my cousin’s wedding

In 1987 when I was down and out

Just when I think love doesn’t exist

Someone comes along to prove me wrong
a hastily thrown-together ceremony

Contemplated for years

Then plunge into in slightly over a week

Meant to last a life time,

And most likely will

With me a not-so-innocent bystander

Called up to commemorate the moment

with camera and flash

and when a witnessed failed to arrive

stepping up into that role, too

To sign my name to a document

Meant to last forever

Feeling like a father giving away

His only daughter

And scared about her fate

When love explodes out of them

With a radiance

I need sunblock to endure

Proving once again

Love does prevail

For those who know how to wait

And what do look for

And me, the ever skeptical witness

Blinded by their passion

And their persistence

A lesson in life

I have to learn again and again and again

But always coming back to this same place

Knowing that it can be real after all.

Union City

All I wanted was a photograph

Of a memory

A meeting in a diner

Then a walk and a talk

When anything was still possible,

In this world where all else seemed wrong

The roots of a family history

Dug deep here like a grave

A place we were later fated

To roam like ghosts

The sadness of the tales

You told me rooted in me

As if I had lived them, too,

So deep a wound we bled as we walked

Still thinking of that one girl

And the eve of her wedding

Still mourning her as if I had

Helped to give her birth

This city so full of grit

That to walk in it

Is to get stained

And all I wanted was to capture

That moment and treasure it

Perhaps – as I framed it in my mind

I did not see the edge

Until I stumbled over it.