Hot
Summer sun scorches
The breath still.

Morning wave
Buries its hate
In scratching grass-sounds.

Floating yellow
Line of sight bends
In brain-sensed tease.

Echos
Empty canyons fall
Beyond stillness.

Caution winds silent spirals,
Soaring distance -- unswerving sight.

Melted minutes
Sultry stares
Torrid tease

About the time you voiced to me
Above the river, by the tree
Across the bridge we saw the lights
Against the setting moon of night.

Behind my fears and fitful mood
Beside the others chatting rude
Between my silence and vacant  talk
By evening on a summer walk.

Except for fumbled fervent words
For you I wish my feelings heard
From a challenged passive way
In wait my lonely times would lay

Into the words, what could I do
Of nouns and verbs and pronouns too
On days I scout without success
Over terms I should address

Through magic words a pact is made
To phrasing language dues are paid
Toward prepositions, there points a sign
Upon the start  of every  line

Startled sprinkles twinkle and toll
The time ignores my grunts and groans
Everyday empties its force of roll
Cannons sound -- and mothers moan

Between the place where time is not
And heaven’s hell slams its door
Little men with giant heads hot
Are lost beneath the fluid floor

New nothings interrupt the waste
Of petty playthings -- argue -- lose
Experience coats with sugar taste
The salty melancholy muse

Perhaps -- possible -- should -- could -- can
“I saw it rise and fall alone”
Reaction time relative to man
Depends on tendered tailored tones

Wishes want thickness, color and cover
Design for moth and spider to loan
Answers are easy like lionized lovers
And time ignores my grunts and groans

Many moments recalled in pain
Even as everyone wonders in vain
Martin lay motionless at the Lorraine
Photos pour popular chords of disdain

His was a hallowed history to gain
Innocence into infinity’s drain
Seasons secure will never be slain

Overgrowths of arm-post life
Lift upward as my steam-breath
Vanishes thinly into the sky.

Cool sweat drips deliberately
As the stacks grow larger
And the sawdust smells and sticks.

The wagon-load will wallow obediently
As the frost bites cleanly
Through the still winter dusk.

Ash white smoke curls softly
From the cut-stone chimney
Where a portrait of simplicity
Sleeps eternally in my mind.

It was the first, and never before
Had flavor exploded, and I wanted more
My partner was dizzy from taste overload
Downing a pint of sweet Rocky Road.

Many a night, while sleeping alone
I’d drift off to sleep, and dream of a cone
And wonder what it would really be like
The time when you take that very first bite.

Tasting together the scent of each flavor
Ecstasy for each partner to savor.
And then a time of recovery and rest
Knowing that now you have mastered the test.

So go for it, and search the right type
Devour it all, with major delight
Just take the chance, and right it will seem
When you finally taste your first ice cream.

Lonely words cling to weak fabrics
Of shallow and wasted minds
Like the free flowing of life
From a blood stained fountain.

Temples of direction and aim
Empty their contents into the fury arms
Of helpless longing, needs, desires,
That lure the man to mankind.

“Can I help you -- Let me help you.”
He looked through me kindly, lonely
With but a fleeting fire,
Shook his head, and walked away.