KIRKGRIMS

When at last one cannot tell that here
A church once stood, the kirkgrim
Is relieved of duty, given a suit of clothes
And a very small sum of money
Having been, perhaps for centuries, church spirits
They are woefully unprepared for the modern world.
Those who look like men are able
To find work as bartenders or navvies or ninjas
But those of animal shape too often take to crime.
It is for them we solicit today. Give as your heart prompts
Remembering that your spirit, from the look of it,
May well spend time in similar plight.

MEMORY PALACE

On the advice of Dame Frances Yates

I built a memory palace years ago

(A small one; more a villa, really)

Stocked with symbolic statues,

Enigmatic pictures, weapons, geegaws,

And instruments I cannot play –

All intended to refresh my recollection

Of the vast stores of information

I intended to acquire. (My childhood

Was a series of flags, a flutophone

And a gaudily dressed toy bear).

When my house vanished I moved

Into the palace's old stables

Where someone -- not me; I can’t drive –

Had abandoned a Knox Runabout

With three flat tires. The palace itself

Has been much abused; cats and ninjas,

For no reason I can understand,

Broke in and, apparently disheartened

By the paltry memories I'd left,

Sanded some down and repainted them

Sold or gave away many others,

Dragged in things that caught their fancy

And rearranged everything. I am pretty sure

I was not actually the criminal mastermind

Known as the Dreadlord Zircon 

The summer after fourth grade and yet

I recall so clearly the highlights of his career
And --if the statue of Trismegistos isn't lying –

Exactly where my gang and I hid our loot.

NINJA CHILDREN

Before we began our campaign

Few were aware of the problems

Of having a ninja baby. Born stealthy

Some of them are three months old

Before their parents catch more

Than the most flighting glimpse of them.

There is something unnerving – believe me--

About a silent baby, dressed in black

Clinging next to the window at  3 A.M.

Squinting thoughtfully at the moon

As if only it understands her.

No matter the parents  your ninja child

Is, of course, Japanese. Communicating

Can be extremely difficult.

Nor can one use sitters who are not masters

Of a wide variety of martial arts

THIS. THAT TOO.

Only old ninjas throw their interbangs

After which they walk stiffly

And retire within parentheses.

Their hearts are folded steel but

Their semi-colons give out at last

Putting a period to their time on earth

And they walk amidst the asterisks.

The ghosts of my  parents came by last night

To assure me there was no life after death

Only surcease., absence, ending;

“Then why are you here and, for that matter,

How?”

          “You think long-held habits can be broken

As easily as that? You called and we came.”

Try to remember

That each day you are growing

More absent-minded