Poem: From a Payphone at 4th and Pine

There’s a pay phone on the corner
Of fourth and pine that I used to call
You collect from on days when I was
Wandering this city alone and thinking
Of you in a red sundress all laughter

Poem: The Girl of the Wild Horses

The smell of hay and horses
Reminds me of a girl in flannel
Shirts with ripped dungarees
Leather of real cowboy boots
Like someone out of a movie

Poem: Queen of California

11:11 and I’m making my wish
To be with you where you are
I picture you standing there
In your underwear in front
Of a full window overlooking
The lights of LA stretching out

Poem: On Swings and Old Relationships

The swings creak on rusty chains
In the summer Virginia humidity
Kicking our legs between blue sky
Then green grass worn to dirt
We laugh talking about nothing
And everything all at once so often

Poem: On Stationary with No Address

You promised you’d write me
When you reached California
The first letters were filled
With joy of exploration of new
Places the sights and sounds
Of the west coast sunshine

Poem: Searching the Vertical Horizon

In the dark her love shines
Like a broken lighthouse
Frozen ahead in one direction
Blind to what is around her

Poem: There She Waits as the Wind Gently Cries

A girl in red stands on hillside
as the wind gently cries
it blows drying her tears
as the wind gently cries

She watches for boats at sea
as the wind gently cries
watching for a single ship
as the wind gently cries

Poem: Breaking the Distance too Impossible

Out here on the edge
Where moon cast shadows
Marks the passage of time
From yesterday to today to tomorrow
In that space my thoughts wander
Where I think of you
I think I can see you

Poem: Walking Down an Old Pier Still Changing

Walking down the old pier at sunset
In the shadows of twilight I see
Ghosts sitting at the waters edge
Toes dipped into water cool for May
The heat of summer still months off
Still they linger with toes going numb
Talking and laughing over cups of coffee
Hoping the caffeine will keep them going
Until the earth eclipses the moon

Poem: The Living Part One

She holds a hand wrinkled by age
A long the sand cooling I sunset
While younger couples run by
Hand in hand laughing between kisses
Reminding her of a young blond
In a polka dotted bikini at the beach
On spring break in nineteen seventy one