Eyes Closed

Staring into the mind's

Coal-dark cavern

Waiting

For sleep to sneak up from

Behind

Throw its arms around me and

Yank me down into the pool

Where

Through the ripples

The painted images on the tunnel walls

Come alive

Men

In groups

In clubs

In coteries

May boast their way to

High regard

With exploits of

Insurance claims and

Mutual fund prosody

Still

Never feeling as

Heroic

As their

Fathers seemed

Isn't It So

Apropos

That a word like

Subtlety

Nestled in its

Sibilants

Would contain a silent

B

We Crossed

The street en masse

Against the insistent

Blinking red-lit hand

Defying law and a

Drove of cars

It started with a single man

Stepping out

With stride that made us

All believe

He had done this previous

Three more followed

Carpe momentum

Trusting only in his

Confident

Savoir faire

Then

As one

We joined the rank

And filed

Together

From the curb

A vulnerable stream

Daring the growling

Alloy horde

Propelled by our insurrection

Made faster by

Midwestern guilt

We leaped triumphant

To the walk

Carrying a quiet

Victory song

The End of Summer

With its pared down

Days

And firefly nights

We begin to brush off the

Lingering warmth

Like grass clippings

And prepare

A bonfire glow

Against the approaching

Wistful

Evening breezes

Set An Alarm

Mustn't sleep too long

The day's spindrift of

Sensations

Will not wait for you

Laggard

Whatever dreams play on the

Back of your eyelids

Their only resolution will be a

Clarion call to

Awake

Arise

The world will turn

With or without you

Will you help push

Or merely

Ride?

Hostage

Sometimes a word fastens

Like a burr

To the gray folds of the brain

I picked up

Yegg

In a tangle of prose

And something in my head must

Like the way it sounds

Maybe because it rhymes with

Egg

Only more Yiddish

Or Seussical

But a Yegg

Is not a good egg

And if you meet one

You may have to beg for your life

Believe me

It's no fun being captive to a

Yegg

Yegg

Yegg