Eschaton

Slack skin and arthritic hands.
These are the raddled lands

where at the dusk of time
an old man lies,

his head to the wall,
his feet to the door.

I will rest here forever more,
facing the dusty window sill

and the yellow lights outside
running a bent line up the hill until

I find a way to survive.
There is a silence to tell.

Summer, Alive

A jack rabbit, startled,
flies at the barbed-wire fence,

over the dense weeds,
towards the sun, which is rising in the East.

A boar picks acorns
one hundred yards away.

A gray cat stalks by,
feral and stray.

Stonyford 2015

Coyote yelp:
a throat-caught call
from hills
half a mile East.

Man as beast:
pelts clipped to a wire.
Water and ash
in a barrel four feet deep.

Soap hung on a fence
keeps the sheep safe.
Cows low, upset --
they are separated from their calves.  Seek

not so much to be understood
as to understand.
Here is a sandstone mortar and pestle
used to grind acorns in the past.

Fling

Daisies in May
faces bob and sway.

Yellow, white:
he loves me,

he loves me not.
Kiss the spot

under your chin,
then run away.

Controlled Burn

Prescribed by the forestry,
hundreds of square acres
smolder.

__________The smoke
rises and drifts to the South.
Sweat on his brow,

a man bows to the ditch
before him.
_____Flames, orange and wild,

lick the brush.
__________He feels a rush
of blood to his head.

His partner stares,
inferno-led,
_____fixed on a dead

squirrel not five yards
away.
_____The men stay

at a temporary camp.
Tonight they will rest,
but for now the sun

sparks in the sky,
_____a white-hot
__________arc lamp.

Black scraps run up --
_____ashes of burnt prayers --
__________to heaven.

Lavender, Rosemary, et Alia (a Garden Poem)

Abutting the kitchen
_____a witch's dream

Thyme and parsley

_____Carnations, red
smell of spiced cream

Snip
_____Fold
__________Clean rag

Gold saffron alone

grows elsewhere.  Seed

Dill in a windless
_____corner

Chives pay their rent every day:
faithful boarders

Cilantro for salsa --
delicioso

_____Garlic also
summons bees

__________Rosemary
(memory's friend)

_____remind us this year
what sprouts again

Commute

Yawning beyond into haze,
the bay from I-80 seems
littered with islands.

The water is still.

We filled the tank
at Dunnigan.  Past the windmills
near Vallejo

light streams in

blinding the driver and me.
Hills, green, roll by.
We cut off a a red Corvette

driven by some heavyset guy --

his car has tail fins
and a popped trunk.
By the time the sun has sunk

before us, to the West

we are approaching
the exit.  It took an hour.
Our best time yet.