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campaign ads airing
like a bad western
with no one wearing any hats
it's hard to tell the heroes
from the villains
Shall we just assume it's the latter?
(Fast Forward 2016: I wrote this tanka for a previous election year. I did not foresee Trump running for President and wearing a baseball cap.)
as though it were
warning me about
my finances
the dead leaf blowing past
the atm machine
how many oceans ago
since I walked along this beach
in the palm of my hand
the sand dollar currency
of a childhood vacation
feeling the pulse of autumn
with all its arrhythmias
the heart seems to steady itself
around the red-leaf
patterns of sumac
this day would be
nothing without
the golden musella*
armed with its brief poems
of raindrops and spider webs
*Also known as the Chinese
Dwarf Banana.
Link to the Missouri Botanical Garden:
http://tinyurl.com/zgorwjj
the lights of the theater
adjusted for fall
I watch the silent film
of a snake crossing
the gravel road
the blare of fire alarms
inside the hospital
maybe now is not
a good time for
another cup of coffee
three blankets deep
into late september
the furnace stays off
until the crickets
stop singing
camouflaged
to blend into
its surroundings
a rain barrel painted
with fallen leaves
the fog slow to lift
from the marsh
I hold onto
my blurred photo
of a whooping crane
