April Morning

Gray returns
like a wandering cat,
cool and condescending,
looking for a place
to sleep.

Almanac

After four embattled years,
Lincoln toured the captured south,
split logs as he had done
in youth, and sat
in Jefferson Davis's chair,
unaware he had just two
weeks left.

A girl with a daisy's name
was born in St. Louis,
fated to a private tragedy
that made her fear her voice:
five years of silence
broken eventually gave voice
to a nation's dreams.

And the dreamer,
sent to sleep forever
so we can walk
aware through
days like
this.

Postcard from Fool

On the road between,
at the crumbling edge of time,
I admire the view.

Yesterday's Spider

Crisp black pearl
in an eight-pronged setting
inched along the gossamer
on the living
room window,
caught
my eye by contrast,
shivered the skin
on my nape.

Ignored,
it's gone today
invisible
and waiting
for another
chance
to shudder me
by surprise.

Exact Change

What are the chances,
do you think
that a random grab
of desktop coins
stuffed in a pocket
and examined hours later
in an attempt to make
the convenience store clerk's life
more convenient
would yield uncommon
cents?

A parade of scowling Lincolns
tracing lessons learned
like so:

1966: Retrograde primers and block
printing reveal that education
and learning are not
the same thing.

1977: Summer discovery of intelligent
life on Earth and the loss
of the one friend
who would have enjoyed the news.

1988: Getting everything you want
isn't nearly as satisfying
as is sounds.

1999: Just when you think the adventure
is ending, somebody
makes a sequel