who is this Fool
stepping forward
into a New Year

looking neither forward
nor back
stepping out
hopeful
untrammeled

not me

I run
I look all around
I free-fall
trying to grasp
anything
but the falling is fast
nothing stays the same

I look forward
in trepidation
I look backward
it drags me back
into darkness

now

there's a concept
here-and-now
and nothing else

Who is this Fool?!
I would trade skins.

roller coaster

she takes her teeth out
for him

who knew?
no one tells you
that sometimes
the best is saved for last

compensation
for creaking limbs
thinning hair
death and loss

the roller coaster
isn't done
there are twists and turns
a few thrills
left to go

she takes her teeth out for him
who knew?

there she perches
high above

where we can't see
what she contains

what tricks or treats
this glowing
golden dish

not full
nor new
but holding secrets
all the same

secrets from
her children
too little to peek
over the edge
of her sky-borne table

will she empty
silver coins
or a drenching
shower bath of rain

upon her tiny humans
straining from beneath?

kittens everywhere
only two
but a mighty herd
a force of nature
ears back
eyes fierce
S-shaped tails
there is tiptoe dancing
a showing of
tiny
ferocity

catnip for everybody
on the house

Dear Shower Spider,

I do not eat spiders
not intentionally

I recommend that you
continue scrolling
onward and upward.

You are clean enough.

Thank you for your service,
The Management

#smallpoems

spider child

tiny spider
pin head size
valiantly scrolling
up and up
in this vast universe
of my one bedroom
apartment
surrounded by space
she doesn't even gasp
I want to grow up
to be her

#smallpoems

he looks
he stares
he says
he loves
my beautiful
face

now I do
own a mirror

I know better
I tell him

oxytocin

that hormone
that glorifies

the love hormone
of course he thinks
the impossible

as I look at his
handsome face
I gaze
I stare
my heart lifts up

oxytocin, dearest

oxytocin

duck duck goose

everything
has a beginning
and an end

the moment is eternal
always Now

there are no second chances
but possibilities are endless

infinite
infinity

we live in a Universe
Uni
Verse

we are dead in it
much longer
than we are alive

maybe

paradox
is how we roll

ease your heart
with flowers
though they only last
a season

everything dies
no matter what they tell you
you are not dead yet

there has only ever
been one of anything

unique in the Universe
all at one time
which is
now

It's you.

if I am here
only as a rescue

a respite from
the parched dryness
of your bed

the echoing silence

no eyes to contact
the dearth of
other skin

so be it

you are worth
any increment
of my life
you choose
to inhabit.

I am here

I'm in it
for me too