Rabbit: Ode to a georgia o'keefe tree

Rabbit: Ode to a georgia o'keefe tree: To know a tree best, lean your bones and skin against the sleek round firmness of burnished charcoal bark. Touch limbs that ...

Ode to a georgia o'keefe tree

To know a tree best,

lean your bones and skin

against the sleek round firmness

of burnished charcoal bark.

Touch limbs that reach sky.

Twined twins grow from center cleft

sprouting green sisters and cousins

leaflet babies birthed by wood. 

See the soft animals who

make their hidden home here,

crawling over nubs, chattering in leaves leaving

small bits of fur and feather. 

Utah Morning

Slant rock faces of sandstone kings

become gilded by morning light. 

Silhouettes against blue sky

clothed in robes of dusty ochre 

tucking shadows in crevice pockets. 

The day whispers-

here's a secret, here's a mystery

held within the tiniest pebble

the drop of rain, the swallow's nest

the footprint, the lizard, the raven.

Here's a place where earth creaked,

heaved, squeezed, folded, molded

layer upon layer of mineral sand

varnished smooth by wind fingers

in sculpture tethering a fragile tree.

Here's a place where river glitters. 

Sun stars crown waves

The ethereal entourage dances downstream

where flickery sparks flash, fade and

mercurial water kisses timeless stone.

The Wild Hairdresser

my eyes walk the circles

of her curved bark bumps.

fibrous tree breasts nippled

where small branch babies

once suckled heartwood.

mother, sister strong survivor

long roots reach deep dirt

ringed torso reaches skyward

immoveable but her crown

lifted, blown, rinsed, dried.

winds brush and caress

green leaves and straw nests.

the wild hairdresser is tireless

flinging a red bow to the sky

where it opens wings and flies.

Six Oh Birthday

No, sky I don't need to write my name across your blue today. This day is filled with run and play.

Since the start I was left right silly smart. Boy girl yin yang light dark art. Strong weak messy sweet. Tender hard awake asleep. Good bad puzzle complete.

Yes, Mrs. Applegate, I'm the girl who colored pink and red,
and I'd do it again in a beat,
because broken rules and beauty
are truly very sweet.

The Childless Shoemaker

It would make all of you happy

To know of my interest and fascination

With this German shoemaker,
Great Uncle Henry of Rising Sun, Indiana. 

Me, being the childless descendent

younger brother Daniel
and wife Viola. 

Great Grandfather Daniel valued movement over comfort

Leaving his nest in 1878 with yearning.
Go west young man with a woman who will follow. 

Uncle Henry and Aunt Meg

They stay square with an iron fence.

House full of Victorian fancies,

books, music, lace and roses.

A flat photo traps them in time,

Flowered living room and a gramophone.

Meg in a silk skirt balances a book
While Henry looks on.

The distance widens and separates. 

Daniel and Viola, now live in a fenceless world.
Dust, snakes, and wide open spaces.
Signed with signatures of wagon wheels.

The dapper shoemaker and the farmer with muddy boots
never see each other again.

Daniel and Viola build their Kansas farmhouse
With sunrises at the peak,
painted in pinks, blues, and yellows.

Glory to God they said. Rising Sun.

The Dad Series

Blue Horizon

It was a fly over, a crow’s view from a small plane.

A hot still moment of summer captured

with so much LIFE in a flat photo.

The landscape down there

means much to your daughter.

Our Farm, Our Farm...

Cattle are sprinkled everywhere.

Dad, are you there somewhere? In your favorite chair?

On your tractor? Out on the distant horizon?

I would fall face first from the Kansas sky

if I could find you now.

The Work Shirt

The day after you died,

Mom burned all your boots and overalls with the old tin cans.

She said she'd been waiting for years to do that.

I ask for of your blue work shirt from the closet.

It smelled like manure, and Mom hated farm smells.

The chambray is in my closet now.

With each inhale, the fragrance fades.

Mark of the Beast

Your weathered hands now quietly crossed.

The funeral director asks if there was an accident,
Because the curve of your spine is awkward and bent,

And your forehead is creased
With the mark of a beast.

There was the horse who pinned you in the railroad track,
the tire you changed when your heart said attack,
the day your forehead smacked the Chevy glass,
and a then steer literally kicked your ass.

No sir, we don't know why he won't lie flat.

Corral #5

The chocolate lab was named Obama.
The far sections were North and South Iran.
There was a tractor named Suck Egg.
Everything in your world named with a wink.

Articles came with notes on yellow lined paper
Concerns with commentary cut from headlines.
Mad cows, Washington, casinos on Boot Hill
All signed, love Dad, corral #5.

Kid, the message is you can drink and gamble your way to success.
Kid, got a little break here from corn harvest.
Kid, the USDA man told me airport security is not good.
Kid, we seem to have strong country, I think.