Minnesota Nov 16th

                       minnesota nov 16th

                                 beyond the remains of the phlox and peonies the yellow grass lies dormant

                                 I watch from my living room window ... sip my tea
 



Photograph by Diane Varner

Morning on Tsankawi

                                                            ... walking on the bones of the anasazi / listening for stories

                      ... snow falling on the pajarita plateau / light moving across the valley

                                                                                          ... morning on Tsankawi

         

Late November

        ... late november 
           
                ... calling on his great grandfather for a blessing he smoked whitefish in an old refrigerator

... pulled salty flesh from crisp skin

                                    ... the ways of the ancients ... the remembered taste of snow on pine

From My Father's Window

                                                         ... from my father's window

                                   ... a bird feeder in the snow
                                                           
                                                                        ... a grey squirrel stealing seeds
                                                         
                                            ... and all the time that's left






Photograph by Alexei Mikhailov

My Father's Thermos

                  ... he worked away from home to put food on the table / came back on the weekends
   
   ... at the bottom of his lunch pail ... a candy bar / three musketeers for three daughters
                                             
                           ... five decades later / I still feel the weight of my father's thermos
                       




My reading of it on public radio, KAXE:  https://beta.prx.org/stories/111319

Abandoned Schoolhouse

                                                                  ... abandoned schoolhouse

            ... in the basement / the ghosts of broken boys

                                                                                              ... mistrust lingers on the stairs







Photograph by Steve Hirsch

For the Goat Man

                            ... reclusive and quiet / known only as the goat man 

     ... we ski in the snowy woods past his cabin / stop to listen

                                               ... from a single window lit by a single lamp / Pavarotti in moonlight



                                                                                                     


my reading on public radio:
https://beta.prx.org/stories/111240

Escape Plan #1

                                         
                                                    ... escape plan #1: age five

                                                                  ... a model T in tall grass parked inside the pasture 

                                 ... I turn the metal handle / hop inside

                                                    ... an imaginary sun sets behind the rockies

Escape Plan #2

                                               ... escape plan #2: age fourteen ... '57 chevy / turquoise and white

                       ... en route to roosevelt lake

                                                        ... me driving / rusty beside me ... my world exploding

Escape Plan #3

                                                                ... escape plan #3: now ... a piece of land along the river

                       ... bicycle in the woods
                                            
                                                    ... blackbirds calling from the fence line