I Let You Go

Sooner or later
something very valuable
slips through everyone's hands.

It may be a coin
fed into a slot or
a rare stamp on a yellowed envelope
thrown away without a thought.

Have you overlooked a masterpiece
in a junk shop selling for fifteen dollars
or left an autographed first edition
in that pile of books on your stoop?

Maybe it was a piece of real estate
not purchased or
a job you should have taken.

I let you go
and tossed you aside
not recognizing your worth,
your beauty.

Haiku or Poem-a-Day

Curbside
tree carcasses
piled unceremoniously
next to the garbage bags
having fallen from grace.
no smell remains
as they lie in their limpness.
Next day a few flattened branches
and scattered needles
rest on the damp sidewalk.
1/14/09


List Found in Bag
Gas
OJ
Donuts
Then circled: french horn
and
accordion file
Underlined: exam materials
and, circled again,
garbage can.
1/14/09

Get Out of My Way
Snow like in
a Christmas Card.
But in January
Bad moods, traffic snarls
and no thought of joy prevails.
No trace of goodwill towards
anybody.
1/15/09

ARC
Philly snow and ice
t-shirts, coffee and boxes
detritus and dust.
1/19/09

January 20
Barack’s day (ours, too)
a fresh start, new beginning
with woes, war and worse.
1/20/09


For Ray
Ray the negative
one who criticized from love
death with no goodbye.
1/22/09

Katy
Can’t learn by reading
period three, art history
but she wants an “A.”
1/23/09

Reception
Morning at Ellen’s
loft talking of our art and death
while chewing on cake.
1/24/09


Phone Call
Elizabeth in
bed with bionic hip; she
asks me now I am.
1/25/09

Anger/Hurt
I left without a
goodbye even though I heard
shuffling slippers.
1/26/09