Old Long Since

The groves in my brain
Are deep from following you
Ritual folly

Singing on the Night Train Home for the Holidays

Sad to cut down trees
But trimming makes them holy
All so beautiful

Substitute

Making friendly love
With Robert Downey Jr.
But he became you

How Wonderful This Life

Reading every night 

Head falls to my shoulder, sleeps 

Eyelids like blue lace

Re-writing the Narrative

Only old lost friends
All it was, will ever be
No connection more

Second Week of Kindergarten

"It's great. I love it.
We've had art and P.E. twice.
My favorite is math."

New Job Ideas

"I want to sell rugs."
"Can I play at Wimbledon
On TV someday?"

New Gmail Thinks We're Still Contacts

Sitting at the park
You've decided to go home
A good idea

Terrible Things Out of a Six Year Old's Mouth

"You think I'm stupid."
"Now I want to kill myself."
"How can you love me?"

Mission to be Yummy and Sweet

"What is the mission
Of a mission fig, mommy?
I know...to be sweet!"

His Sacred Body

Bones and blood and flesh
Needing better attention
Than life's been giving

The Book of My Life in My Mind

"Each year a chapter
And every day is a page
I am the author."

X Files Comfort Moment, or, I Used to Know Famous People

Gave me a warm hug
The Gillian Anderson
She remembered me

Half Past Poets

Words we thought were true
Writing about me and you
Meaning collapses

Natural First Communion

Three seats in the front
Come with wafer and chalice
On Easter Sunday

My Strong Man

Gets back on his feet
Travels to the Great White North
Fear, just a sliver

Unrequited Infidelity

The ultimate waste
Key economic driver
Desire deferred

Don't Love Me Too Much, Mommy

"If you do, I will
turn into little floating
Valentine's Day hearts."

Towards a Comprehensive Theory of Experience

"God is the father
And the son because they share
The same DNA."

'Cause You Stink

"No, I don't. I smell
pure as a pearl at the bot-
tom of the ocean."

A Great Marriage

Forgiveness and joy
Basking in the little things
Sharing one success

Bridge Building

Across the darkness
Viaduct of weathered stone
I reach out to you

This Is How Life Is

"You start in Heaven
Then you come down and live life
Then you go back there."

This I Know

My mind is for now
Our soul is forever one
Loving everything

The Restaurant of Mommy

"I love it so much.
Appetizers and movies
Everything is good."

Getting Better all the Time

Scorn, grill, and startle
Shower makes a fine retreat
This time he backs off

Nice Visit

Give love without want
We can't be ashamed of love
Take care of ourselves

You: Happy, Healthy

Lecturing the crowd
Gave back your secret journals
Cupping your knuckles

The Littlest Marriage Counselor

"You shouldn't fight back.
Just take deep breaths in and out
And do the hula."

Not Like the Jetsons

"I hope the future
Is just like today, so we
Can take a nice walk."

This Is What I Thought:

You are a "real man"
Doing the right and good thing
By staying away

Ran Into You at the Bookstore. You Looked Drunk. I Wanted to Say:

Do not be afraid.
Let go of pain and pity.
You are loved always.

Benjamin Buttons On A String

Love works the same way
Backwards or forwards, apart
Together so brief

World Without Words

So. He cannot read.
And I am still a writer.
Print does not matter.

The Velveteen Rabbit Is About:

"Imagination;
Friends; Love; The Christmas Spirit;
And the rabbit, too."

Breathe With Grace

"I am so grateful."
"Things could have been so much worse."
"You're doing quite good."

When the Vessels Burst, the Blood Poisons the Cells

"Why am I dizzy?"
"Well, you have blood in your brain."
"Oh, that? That's nothing!"

He Understands With Compassion

"Well, he's treating you
Like a little girl instead
Of a grown woman."

Now the Tables are Turned

Nights in ICU
Imagining worst outcomes
I'm the one who snaps

Bohemian Rhapsody

Enticing thickness
Blonde freedom with no heart strings
Someone else's life

A Strange Lesson in Change

"You know about change?
Some parts are good and some aren't.
Mostly, change is sad."

Resonances from Twenty Years Ago

Won't be our parents.
We don't want to compromise.
We still feel guilty.

Sammelshon's Simple Cure for Romanticism via Brilliant Joseph Skibell

If you hear pure love
Weeping in a secret place
Turn your back and run

Instant Replay in Dreamtime

You and your friend come
To take me to foreign lands
Again, I refuse

No More Past Lives, Okay?

I need to live life
As if this is my last one
Release this old soul

Such Bitter Fleeting Sweetness

When his voice is soft
It is strong like an angel
Leading me to peace

Other Side of the Fragments

Don't understand me
Always getting your own way
Repeating yourself

Why You Need to Eat Your Dinner

"Well, tell me again
What you said to correct me —
Why it's good for me..."

An Unwanted Spoon

His Bolshevik style
Pressing the issue always
Against my back thigh

Drawing Invisible Boundaries

Best magic power
A female can exercise
Is just saying no

Fragments to Remember

Calls me an asshole
There is something wrong with me
Go do what I want

Crying Over Split Monkey

Quick funny creature
I accidentally broke it
By hugging too tight

The Eternal Human Condition

Are we Narcissus
Loving the part of ourselves
Which is really That?

Like The Academy Awards, Only Smaller Scale and Much Rounder

Proud of everyone
Together through truth of art
My work recognized

The Sweet, Self-Deprecating Sexism of Russo's "Straight Man"

"To make her feel good..."
Is why it's okay to flirt
With crazy women

Focus vs. Obsession

Like a sponge, they say;
A nuclear power plant.
Choose to use it well

Meeting Your Inner Child

He came to see me
8 years old and wild, wide-eyed
Hungry and confused

Can't Remember Your Eye Color

Up towards the tower
Circling like an osprey
Again, I retreat

Mommy, You Have To Learn...

"...this thing about life —
There are things that you can do,
And things that you can't."

Honeymoon Flashback

19 years ago
Same campsite by man made lake
Nothing's changed, with child

Yin, Yang, Zen... Fail!

Toothpaste and coffee
Cannot escape crazy thoughts
Utterly human

American vs. European and Russian Anti-heroines

Emma and Anna
Take a hint from Hester Prynne
Good deeds eclipse sin

The Endurable Wonder of It All

If you had a dream
Balloons bursting in heaven
Would it be a gift?

Treatment for Chronic Blove Clots (Bad+Love)

Those cold hard dark rocks
Grown from habits of despair
Dissolve, then absorb

Daddy's Big Small Birthday

Buca de Beppo
Neil Young and Daniel Lanois
A contented smile

Nightmare...nightmare...nightmare...

Wake gasping for breath
A horrible disaster
Don't remember what

New "What I Want To Be When I Grow Up"

"Anthropologist/
Scientist/Astronaut who
finds another Earth"

Why Worry is Imagination Misused

I do realize
That the advice I give to you
Is really for me.

He Gets It Already, On His Second Creative Drama Session

"Well, what I learned was...
The secret of an actor.
It is not to act."

On Being a Playwright

Torn between the gods
Of written and spoken art
My entire life

Re-inventing Ophelia

Courage to survive
Escape to the nunnery
Bear Hamlet's baby

Not Better Off Financially Dead Than Alive

Maybe our net worth
Is not the best measure
Of a good marriage

Echo and Narcissus Heal Themselves

Her recycled voice
His sad petals by the pond
Wake up and get real

A Sea Teaming with Multi-horned Dinosaurs

Old theatre teacher
Showing off his retirement
Condo with a view

Is There Any Real Difference Between a Wish and a Prayer and a Dream?

Good meditation
Open the rusty heart gates
Holding mother's hands

Nobody Can Have Too Much Love

"Kissing you too much?
Am I hugging you too tight?"
"No, silly mommy..."

A Prayer for Christopher Hitchens

May your body heal
The unbearable greyness
Oh, what thoughts you'd find

New Definition of True Love

To be fully known
And appreciated completely
Fully know in return

Small Personal Triumphs of "Cyrus"

My college classmate
My former writing student
A hopeful ending!

How to Heal a Broken Heart

Aching red balloon
Ever-so-gently: release
Up, back to heaven

Lessons in The Digestive System

"Snot can protect you
If you're covered in acid
So you don't get burned."

Trumping Freud, in the Style of Carolyn Knapp

"...ways that women want."
Not what...need to redefine
Be more loving moms

Power, Sex and Money are Only Games

A pale pink liquid
Teach to open up your throat
Catharsis and quit

Dreamt about Alex or Jones...but it wasn't Alex Jones

Came to sell matches
To the university
"You've done well," he said.

Visiting the Texas White House

"Dad, I like this house.
Can we buy this house someday?
Barn and cars, airplane..."

Foreign Language Terrorism

Breaks into office
Holding me hostage with guilt
Must produce phenomes!

Don't Go To Work Mommy...

"I don't want you to.
When you're gone it's like you're dead...
Never coming back."

The Last Dream I Had About You

Near revolving doors
Climb out of water lilies
Smile and walk away

A Last Request Fulfilled

Professor Daddy
In his smart rust tweed jacket
A perfect sandwich

The Metaphor of "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus"

Lured by hairy men
Insecure in your beauty
Desire self-destructs

Mommy, Who Will I Marry?

"What about Judy?"
"Astronaut Buzz Aldrin?" No.
"Just an idea."

Mutton Busting

"Okay." I will ride
The back of a full grown sheep
Until I fall off.

Good Network Guys Make Me Feel Safe

A birthday present
Grown cat in a doughnut box
It purred and they smiled

The Trouble with Vanity

Plastic surgery
Slices in stripes though my face
Doc's flesh is rotting...

All Things Must End

Death walks in, white mask
"Hell no. Go away," I say.
He says, "I'll be back."

I Dreamt I Was Water

"Baby water
Going down a calm river
Rushing waterfall"

For Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor

My mother loved you
Drunken with the reckless want
Love portrayed that way

The End of "The Road"

Apocalypse fears
Could be any time of pain
Hope must be the choice

You Should Be In The Guinness Book of World Records

"Aw, Mommy. You're the
Goodest funniest person
In the whole wide world."

P.S. Daddy's the nicest and funniest.

Flight of the Bumble Bee

A small dark office
Ignoring what's created
Except for the self