Poetry

a woman who’d been imprisoned for 17 years for arson and murder: burning her house with her child trapped inside was freed when new arson science proved she couldn’t have done it she was pregnant when jailed the baby was given to the grandmother – under the circumstances her son was raised poorly, suffers now […]

I cannot find enough horrific words (or guts) to tell the slaughter of the Kurds of murders that have never had to be all caused by gross insane insanity 2019 Jacqueline Jackson

I swam young can’t recall anylessons – for my first child I usedthe red cross guide put a tub ofwater on the dock little demi, 2 plus,  blew bubbles in the water, docily followed all the directions hold yourbreath etc she gradually learned firston land then out from shore now alongcomes daughter #2:  I again […]

 Ulysses you scumbag go ahead stuff your REI pack take off with your new  buddies – you didn’t manage to bring the old ones back, with them turned into pigs or done in by scylla, charybdis   who raised your son for twenty years?  little Telly was one when you left to fight a friend’s war […]

extinction poem # 9 did you hear her words last monday? 16 year old greta thunberg of the youth  led climate strike at the UN? “you have  stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words” “I want you to feel the fear I feel every day – and then I want you to […]

 sometimes there comes a perfect day: a shallow river near our vermont lakemeanders unconcernedly among rocks earth drops sends the stream plunging a spectacular waterfall the flow spreads in a great foaming fan all other soundblocked the land below is now a cliffedgorge my grandsons leap and leap fromincredible heights into the deep pool the […]

you all know bemelmans’ madeline (“twelve little girls in two straight lines”) my granddaughter five read reread reread it the morning she got it in the afternoon she complained of belly ache it’s an appendix how sweet  said the adults how she has internalized the story at supper she complained of worse belly ache at […]

she returns with the herd: distressed no longer pregnant where is your calf? asks ron – how can you lose a baby? girls, he asks the others, where is it? for everyone knows when a bovine birth is in the wild the others circle and watch (curiosity? protection?) he sends out pasture search parties his […]

we were warned some forty years ago much of this planet realizes we are  dooming ourselves is taking steps  a date has even been set for when life-as-we-are-accustomed will cease we will all be eco-immigrants with no place to  go – here in Vermont I’ve  been keeping a wary scary eye invasives are clogging our […]

literary tour poem #1    24 students our coachman myself had left whitby where dracula  came ashore bent on blood from virgin veins we were wending our way across cumberland when we  realized we were passing near the clinic of james herriot (all creatures great and small) though retired we knew he came in frequently […]

scene 1: on one side of path, small dog on leash. on other side of path, large turkeymother, a dozen chicks lined up behind. action: dog and turkey eye each other further action: none scene 2, next day: small dog on leash, same spot turkey mom leads chicks past other same spot action: turkey gives […]