REMINDING

 

Ono No Komachi, standing by the river,

Informs the air that the spring rains

Are three weeks over-due.

The Master of Rain smacks his head,

Saying "Fool of an Immortal!"

SHADOW TALK

 

My Grandfather Joe returned

From the Great War with a stranger's shadow.

It mimicked him fairly well but sometimes.

Lost in thought, would keep on imitating

Some gesture after Joe had finished.

It didn't speak a word of Yiddish until Mabel,

Joe's sister-in-law, taught it a few commands

Nemt di fis arop funem tish! Take your feet off the table!

Es nisht di kats esn! Don't eat the cat's food!

Her aoyf tsu pruvn makhn di tsayt loyfn tsuri!

Stop trying to make Time run backwards!

PRODUCTION

 

At sea, the galley slaves were fed

But on land they fed themselves

Hauling, lifting, pushing or selling

Things made from broken oars --

Jacob's ladders, spheres, lidded boxes,

Model ships or joint-limbed figurines

With expressions that changed 

Each time you looked at them.

MARTYR

He sits down on a log that will,
In a few minutes, be part of the pyre
On which he'll burn and takes off his coat .
After shaking out the wrinkles
He folds it neatly  and sets it down.

CORVINE

 

Corvids or corvidae are

Oscine passerine birds including

Crows, ravens, jays, grackles,

Rooks, magpies, jackdaws,

Treepies, choughs and nutcrackers

And, on certain days, me.

I then speak grackle flawlessly;

Get by in crow, raven and jay (I have

Only a few words of treepie but who

Wants to talk much with treepies?)

I display, sometimes, an almost human intelligence 

And the ability to use simple tools.

CHECKING IN

 

My father had three jobs so he rarely

Had time to watch an entire ball game;

He'd turn on the tv late to watch an inning

Or two, reassured that the great game of which

Every game was a part continued.

APPEARANCE SAKE

 

Since Old Man is deaf

His shadow's begun

Covering its ears

Against thunder.