On the road many a which way
proof of too long gone
I left my notebook
in the Wallowas.

Fishtrap folk found it
it's coming home
who knows who read what
probably nobody
boy do I feel exposed.

Gray day east of the Cascades
I'm more blue than gray
not ready not ready
to do what I should do.

Let's all run and play
lie in the sun and not care
our skin is folding pleats
in face and neck
let's throw ourselves
into the lake and not care
it's so cold too cold

Let's not only be me
let's be a tribe
like my little brother
and his "mans"
when he was four
before what came
I won't name

the ravens cry their raucous cry
they fly at each other and lash beaks
they'll devil the bald eagle
until he drops the fish
if he catches a fish
don't you wish the world
was more benign
that when your friend says
"I'm fine" you believed her.

I wrote this morning en plein air
my pen a whimsical cudgel
walloping my malaise calmly
as mayonnaise. The lesson
we never learn or I don't
is to get up and go again
all is forgiven in doing
all done is done and sun
wags no accusatory digit
I go low in disbelief until -
relief - I lift my pen again.

New York Times Crossword Poetry Draft


oh blinkin bladder oh latte
Lizst me Bach in g clef
squirt me a dash of PAM
thunder me not your Eliot
swami swim my past Irani
I bet it all on number seven
oh heaven oh Hook my Smee
we sing we suffer apnea
we see the shooting star
that ran the sky, the gamuts
of lives in crusty relics
the Ottos, oliphants and Omars.
ask not but genuflect for oil
run we now the bulls in tutus
the real McCoy Fibber Magee
McPhee monkeys masked in panic
oh manic mayonnaise oh maize
amazing Incas, you nod tsk tsk
we backward bend the blarney stone
go home to lives less large
no Haydn on the barge, ink
fodder, a rabbit's foot
in boots more agile
but fragile as Ionic
columns underground your zit
ginormous as your earlobes
and no respite from trash.

today I may get a loaner car
my knight may fly over the pass
swoop me into the passenger seat
and whoosh me back to Chelan
or I may drive in a loaner.
Meanwhile my yellow car
sits waiting for a new hose
a $250 hose because of biodiesel
says the guy who acts as go between
between me and the mechanic.
the guy who when I kept questioning -
this seemed overly coincidental
that the hose goes just after
they don't top off fluids
when my oil was changed
oh! and at the top of the pass
with nowhere to turn off
and a red light yelling
that I must stop
so that I illegally called
the service department
and engaged the very young man
who answered in a dialog
that included the question
"Did you guys give me a wall job?"
and then, "Can you go check
with the tech?" and then
a little unladylike speech
when the reststop had pit toilets
and no water. Though I had
a quart because of modern
hydration needs - a red no-peta
nalgene. Is it peta?
Yesterday morning the go-between
asked if I ever put biofuels
in my car. Yes.
He said they have
solvent properties. Yes.
He said biofuel got on the water hose
and over the years softened it
until it popped a hole. Hmm.
Coincidental, don't you think?
He said if I was going to be distrustful
I could go elsewhere. But really,
I said, doesn't it seem
the least bit odd?
My friend says he'd
never have said that to a man.
As a relationship driven woman
being told I was being distrustful set
off my anti-confrontation bells
so they still have the car and
I will pay for the $250 hose
and the how ever many $$
it will take to unhook
the flaccid one
and strap on
the new rubber.
Yippee Kai Yay
as Bruce Willis would say.
Peace Out.