Small Stones Saturday

There is a great and silent beauty
to the night,
to the snow,
to the whole world waking
It's just once we rise...
we forget to see it.

The beauty fades before us
as the heat of our days
melts it away
and so we do not stop
we do not slow
we do not remember
to wonder
And thus the world goes on fasting faster
starving and anxious
hoping someone will stop
and recall
this life was made for beauty.

Filling out a resume
It's been 20 years
since I had a job
the world would pay me for doing.
...

Listing dead places and dusty contacts,
never before have I felt
like I allowed so much time
to pour out
without taking full notice.

Pediatricks
For all her schooling
she really should have known better
than to think a three year old ...
my three year old
would agree to talk to her.
She shut her eyes
sucked her fingers
and declared NO to everything.
So the doctor
couldn't check the boxes.
I could have told her
if she listened
none of my children
ever check the boxes
but it isn't because they couldn't,
it's because they will to won't.
All the way home,
she proves the point
answering everything
she'd been asked
and pleased as possible
that the woman who asked
didn't get the answers.

Overheard at the Barber's shop
When I grew up
I lived near that house
set back against the woods...
down the street.

My sister and I
and eight other kids
learned to ride horses
from the old woman.

She trained for the Olympics
so she wouldn't take money
so my parents gave her
boxes of Scotch.

But the houses got bigger
and the families got smaller
there are fewer horses
and fewer people,
and something besides scotch and horses
has been lost.

Embers or Ashes
I have to wonder
why I write
when friends say...
they won't read
what I've written
for fear they
won't like me
after they've read it.
I have to wonder
do they really like me now,
or am I just far more needy
than even I know...
or worst of all,
both.