a great blue heron watches from a mogul of grass as I scavenge a poem from the marsh Tom Peepety calls

which of our ancestors did it - traded wings for thumbs burdened us with possessions fed us to the uncompromising earth…

a cookbook is a strange place to find a recipe for the mind but the notes tell me the lemon tr… blooms year ‘round, never stops; while one branch sweetens the air

Tide tickling sun’s wake Under a thin skin of ice Beach disappearing

looking at the world through drops of counterfeit lace on the window pane

crickets and brittle leaves empty seed pods scurrying in the heavy scent of autumn

I’ve known rivers swift currents set free escaping to the brine of the ocean and on to exotic places I’ll never be

sunlight through the clouds in a ring of bright water loons fish two by two

I remember the summer of the polio scare we couldn’t go to the cove to swim that whole summer

I met her at the supermarket this… She told me she works in the schoo… I saw again a little girl nervousl… at the taunting –Tallest girl in g… And I wonder if she’s back there…

we don’t know who he said he was we came from curiosity and stayed for the inhumanity

Still they knock at my door And complain About the state of the world Selling fear Like grape Kool Aid

There is an even-handed justice in… No senility forgiven, but caught a… Blood and flesh, bone and marrow To feed the life of another, And back to the earth that gave it…

The taste of winter ice Dug in August from the sawdust Of Conley’s ice house The slap of the screen door On Grammy’s porch