Notes on the Blowing

(inspired by Ken Burns PBS documentary The Dust Bowl)

Three dimes-

gift from grandpa-

make a dust bowl daughter richer

than her own imaginings

until  mother needs

treasure unearthed to purchase family bread.

Illness Haiku III

First broken femur
Now costochondritis foils
finding dominion.

Breathe

I focus on air.
Chest pain grows as if obese
cat awaits love there.

Cold Haiku

Mucus signifies
error in immunity
still recovering..

Hurricane

(for Nick Dupree and every other undeserved or undeserved Sandy casualty.  May you recover stronger and better.  Help here or here.)

Army of strangers

carrying one car battery

up a dozen flights of stairs

every dozen hours

to make one disabled man’s

ventilator keep him breathing.

One of many random kind acts

done by neighbors, citizens, volunteers

as FEMA failed in duty to another

group of weather victims.

You would’ve expected

the Katrina catastrophe

provided sterner instruction.

Come Calling

Muse roars in ear
during predawn pee break.

After our more than month long parting

I’m all but atingle to encounter her

although I’m a bit irate

at her extended absence.

But like any paramour

I’m eager to engage

in the adventure I know

comes with her nocturnal visitations.

I find her midnight rides

more entertaining than most intercourse

I’ve experienced.

Lessons

In wider culture
my impairments, attractions, ancestry
mark me as weak, marginal, less.

But I have been enlightened.

Instructed by fellow rebels

in the art of defiance.

From awareness,

comes realization

that each body/soul/essence

is not only designed to

survive, but thrive

and teach coming generations

as we were taught.

We must continue

work of unceasing forbearers

to work, to strive, to challenge.

Even as we

push our own way

on the path they began

as we come up, outward, and through

to continue building

a more perfect union.