Bachelor Rat

 

There is a bachelor rat

living alone in my neighbor's garage

as I also live alone,

a single dog lady in my lighted box. 

I have begun to feed him

leaving a Tupperware of dog kibble,

french fries, a leaf of lettuce

or whatever, out for him last thing each night.

Watching from the window

I see him, five minutes later, skittering

across the yard like a pleasure

boat on choppy seas, to claim his plunder. 

I eat in the evenings

in front of tv, solving mysteries

as the bachelor rat

also does, always alert for killers.

Predators concern us both

(mine call me up, his lay low in the ground ivy.)

The neighbor behind tries

to poison him, as social media tries to poison me.

We just woke up in these skins,

he in his, me in mine, flesh costumes of the moment,

costumes that get hungry, cold,

ill, old, and any number of other similarities.

Why feed that bachelor rat?

some may ask, aghast. He's nothing but vermin.

I just feel like there are so many cats

set on doing harm to one little rat, or one old woman,

and so I set out his Tupperware

meal last thing while letting my dog out each night.

I wish him good fortune, my simpatico

bachelor rat, to make it through the winter all right.

_______________

Kathy

 I felt bad, after

like a house of dirty windows

like my heart had hit a quicksand ditch going 90

and my ribs kept giving me a sharpwire bone-hug every time I breathed.

Kathy came by, 

crossed her arms

dipped her chin and said,

"Well don't you look like hammered crap."

Knowing I'm sober,

She goes, "Wanna get wasted?" 

and there's that shit-eating grin.

"Yeeeah," I tell her with a loud sniff and a lip twitch.

"Well you can't, stupid," she says.

Filling my coffee maker, she strings together some very inventive,

vile, and hilarious names for Ms. Thang until I finally snort and shake my head.

"You are one fine fucking mess

and more trouble than you're worth, you know that?" she says, tilting her head. 

I know that.

"And I love ya, ya goof."

I know that, too.

Then I am crying, and she is rocking, 

and the coffee maker burps and coughs like it might die, but doesn't. 

_________

for NaPoWriMo day 5. 

Mykonos

 Sugar plum, fairy

who kindly took me in,

you looked like one of those

white buildings on Mykonos

clean as a tide

in an open shirt.

Me, just a ragamuffin then, but

you treated me like turquoise and silver,

a small sparkling thing.

I loved your love of Gato Barbieri

and the notion

that I was worth the introduction.

Sugar pea, you knew me better

than I knew myself,

didn't you?

That soothing shade of Greek blue is called

Ambiguous,

and it's lovely, like early morning

or an offered hand

in a pearly cuff.

______

for Dverse Poetics "double dipper." 

I used Sugar Plum. 

Medea Visits Phaedra On The Ninth Floor

 

Hey Phaedra, what gives?

I came as soon as I could.

Creepy how they lock the door like that.

Hey Phaedra, shh now, don't cry.

You're emotional and it's late in the day.

They said something happened with the kids.

When they call like that, it's never good.

Acamas will be all right, he's in his room with his cat.

Demophon told me it's all a lie

and Hippy himself won't exactly say.

Did they give you those little cups with lids

for pills to take with their shitty food?

God, Phaedra, it's so hot, why do they lock the thermostat?

Theseus will be all right as long as his martini's dry

and I'm sure he doesn't think you're cray.

So, Phaedra honey, just tell me this,

was it Hippy who put you in this mood?

You've been just like a mom to him. No one's denying that.

I know it's cringey but what happened? Tell me. Try.

You know I'll listen. I'm here. I'll stay.

This all got Theseus where he lives.

He's gone to Poseidon's to bitch and brood.

Phaedra baby, Hippy's just talking trash.

He's confused or maybe even high.

Aw honey, who can figure brats today anyway?

_________

Rimas Dissolutas for Dverse Poetics. 

A Peculiar Blindness

"If I were blind, would you be my eyes?" --Todd Rundgren "Pretending To Care"

It's a peculiar blindness
so many of us have. 

There you are, little bug, looking for a place to land
never giving much thought to how you came so far.

That's why a breeze brought you me.
You think you are small, unremarkable,

but I can see your big glorious wings
spread out like an exclamation

right behind you,
in fabulous display,
plain as day.
______

for Wednesday Muse "butterflies."

Upon Receiving My Woodstock Chimes

Asian pear tree branch

mother of April's white blooms 

hosts brass temple bells 

____

A hai...ha...hik...

A three line poem for "Season Your Poetry"

Someone activate the holo-doctor. I feel funny.

 

Gypsy Love Poem

for STWIASD

My bones take their bend from the curve of the moon--
your silence is as rich as the knife's edge or its ivory handle.

I am the little nightjar on your silver-lit lawn.
You are the surf forming itself into patterns of lace.

I am the Gypsy, keeping your heart in a deep red velvet pouch, loose and open;
held in my fine nightblind fingers to the life-warmth at my breasts,
two hearts, ours,
each with a scarce rare beat.

I speak your name, I open.
You speak my name, it comes back.
The stars themselves turn
on such language as this.

My Love,
I will always be yours.
Your hair is my dark bed to adore and seek out--
I am set off there, a small star,
a celestial navigation of skin and soul.

Together, we are the safe-place despaired of and then born
in this strange fire that dares to build as it burns.
_______