9H Pencil In the first turn of the stubby little pencil sharpener is a reminder for next door To keep an eye out for a missing cat and can they water the tomato plants A second turn...

    Left If this flat were the one and the chain held and if we fell for ‘String’ by Farrow & Ball – or ‘Cat’s Paw’, ‘Joa’s White’ or whatever it’s called - would we strip the ceiling...

    Meetings In memoriam Kurt Waldheim*     Small world, what, Excellency? We shall not shake hands. I do not care how you manage to live with the murder of children among the...

      House on a cliff The little wooden house peers over the edge, at generations of his owners inching forward.  A premonition of fence tips, broken teeth in free fall white foam...

    Reunion There are no shrieks of recognition. Skiddaw outside the window is the least changed though it changed with the weather then. Gradually the faces fit the names; last seen on...

      Poems in Bed  …the darkness around us is deep. —William Stafford Winter’s close—light’s low and brief. The body’s slow heft slumps in the early dark toward sleep. I resist,...

      Woven In i. Once my head was off a new house was needed, as though the stones had blood so soaked into their porous, gritty hearts that no water could wash them clean. The pond...

    § Angel, the morning after heroin first time. I was your boy. Once, we were Gods ignoring each other. Rats come out The back of dim wood lacquered mantle-piece. Sweat drips On the...

    4’33” (In honor of John Cage’s centennial –1912 – 1992) He climbed up the stairs and said – No more.  Sinking into the sofa he wired himself to his iPod, thumbed for the track 4’33” of...