AS IT WAS

Some nights when everyone is gone

My old office remakes itself.

The cabinets burst with files;

Smoke from a pipe lost since 1986

Dances in the air. A scarecrow

Sits at my desk, writing letters,

Making phone calls, turning to the window

To watch the new moon setting,

Though this, he knows, brings bad luck.

AESRED HAS THE NUMBERS SOMEWHERE

In 1338 Venice counted each household’s

Men, women, boys, girls, servants, 

Livestock, windows and gondolas. The dogs 

Reluctantly subscribed themselves

As "servants." Most cats

Insisted they were the Doge. Others

Were content to pass as gondolas.

CHOICES

The dust from which I'm made
Had other plans. Sometimes
When I spend the day
Just staring out the window
Or twiddling a length of string
It whispers "You and your refusal
To eat mice! "

ACCORDING TO AESRED ANY DAY MIGHT BE WEDNESDAY

According to Boogie Woogie the Blues

Takes himself too seriously.

The Blues never rests; he wakes his clients up,

Hunts them down, bids them good morning,

Puts them to bed. When they climb out a window

They find the Blues holding the ladder.

At meals, the Blues makes food taste like dust

Simply because he can. Falling in love with the Blues

Is easy but, just when you are convinced that he,

At least, will never leave you he is gone

Leaving only Boogie Woogie and he

Doesn’t want to hear talk about his brother.

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