StreetsReaper

The zoo's siamangs are howling tonight, hoots
across the canyons in the dark, bare
fear in their voices as they beat back
intruders with punctuated sound. No worse
than the off-stage sirens usually heard
squawling & racing to & fro. I
wonder at the drama unfolding, squirm
deeper into my thoughts though it all
drags me out, sidelong glances not leaving
me alone. My siamang cousins, though safe,
cannot realize it either.


Midnight
streetsweeper
machine, implacable
ominous, chewing
churning toward me
I'm awake in its path

modern-day grim reaper

its path my path
blocked my way
I'm in my own way
and cannot turn aside
since everywhere is this
path.

everything is
detritis
unstoppable devouring
too big to deal with,
who can control it?
who escapes?
Death & love only.


Her father ran a 7-11 SpeedeeMart; she was 8 or 9, a spunky girl you didn't mess with, all business and sure of it. I met her again years later after she'd graduated school, again all sure and again her own woman, by now working towards opening her own salon. I became her client and we became friends, decades now. Over the years she's been the only one, whenever I've lived in this town, and her touch has been the only consistent one I've known, massaging my scalp with as much care as anyone else who ever touched me - some years the only one who did touch me.

She's now fighting cancer - death - like we all will, the only way
she can, her choices narrowed; brave as her fist, but her stomach
churns. Rebellious, she's fighting. And, still, so sure of it.


(from The Gospel of Thomas v.77)
Jesus said:
I am the Light
That is over all things.
I am the All.
From me, all came forth,
And to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.

*****