Eternal Return to Work

Monday morning crisp air cuts up

from the lake.

With my ever-stained jeans

I kick the start on Putt

my scooter.

We scoot 5 miles down the old road

as Putt’s oily gas fumes

blend with early morning gravel and

overgrown dewy wild grass drainage ditches.

On the edge between towns

passing the roadside motels

to the paint and sandblast shop

at the cross-roads of a half dozen or so

construction sub-contractors.

Punch the time

clock card marks

my pay and my life

for the next 8 1/2 hours.

The shop foreman’s

cheap cologne mixes with

cool freshly sand-blasted

iron as I wipe each piece

tack cloth clean

until they permeate dreams.

An eternity croons backwards

Keats’ nightingale song.

My mind aches and I wish

I was sleeping.

Mime snap an

imaginary twig to signal

10 minutes to sit

and forget how many more minutes left today.

You’re not making any

more money than

how you figured out yesterday

but you calculate again.

Payday Wednesday we

cash our checks at

the bar with beer burger and fries lunch.

Five o’clock Friday

see ya'll

in the funny papers.

Elegy for Cousin Mart

Jeremiah was a bullfrog

who is a good friend

of mine

though I

never understood a single word

of his

he always would share his wine

and say joy in the world!

We bounced up on the bed

my mom said

don’t work up Mart

he has the ADHD

but we bounced and played the song

over and over and over

I said but ma

we’re having fun.

I Say I Never Tire of Looking at the Mountain

The mountain stands

               and

the mountain reminds.

The mountain is there

even

when we don’t see it because

of the clouds

or the fog

or a vapor mist

and then the mountain will be there

when we’re

all gone.

To walk to the top of the mountain is

called climbing you

can’t just stroll meander or amble

across let alone over

the mountain.

To climb the mountain

you must have gear –

clothing designed especially for the climb

tools purposed

only for such a climb

and then as well there is the training –

physical training

skills training

mental rigour training all essential

for climbing the mountain.

You say to me

why should I care –

this doesn’t make the mountain in

any way special

we very simply

should never have to

have anything to do

with walking up any mountain.

I say

the mountain is a symbol

of a struggle

to see meaning.

You squeeze the mountain

between your fingertips.

Nature I say

doesn’t feel a mountain

                        as any more majestic

than an ocean bottom –

most creatures know only features

                        of the small spaces they inhabit.

However

I continue saying

to be human we try

to grasp immensity with

fierce vision or our

imagination of a

freedom.  

You say what did you say I was texting work.