WE REMEMBER

you in the living room singing songs of praise

Go Tell It on the Mountain in pajamas,

then dancing to your mother’s techno music.

You’d ask me, what hat should I wear to play catch?

You’d talk about snakes and herpetology,

Athlon Sports rankings, pretend game announcing.

You told us your thoughts and shared your ideas.

Now, it’s quiet with ear buds, iPhone, Twitter.

Driving down the road, not much said by anyone.

ON MONDAY NIGHTS IN MILLTOWN

ladies start the week leafing through

King James Bibles, talking about Jesus

at the dirty tables of a Dunkin’ Donuts.

With an arsenal of scriptures and pink

highlighters, they’ll study the sermon.

Down the street, the Reformed Church’s

5 story spire glows in the floodlights and

flags whip in the cool winds of early spring,

Worries are a terrible substitute for prayer

and A Call to Worship fill up the sign board.

But I don’t go to church, I just sit here on

Monday nights with a butternut doughnut

and a coffee, absorbing the enthusiasm for

John 3:16, their newly found insights into

the apostle Paul and the Book of Revelations.

GONE DOG

I hear paws clicking across the linoleum floor,

she continues to sweep crumbs from the table,

our son still thinks he has to put the gate up.

She swore she heard barking in the back yard

and yelled, Can somebody please let him in?

Opening the door each afternoon, she expects

him there, waiting to welcome us home again.

Today I went down the Pet Food aisle, reached

for a bag of the healthy food, a habit for years

Even Cat knows he’s gone, he stares at the

corner where the little round bed used to be

He’s not stupid, you say to us, but we all know

he’ll never care to learn how to respond to life’s

most important words- biscuit, bed, outside, food.

MESSENGERS

Sister wears a dragonfly necklace and

sometimes speaks with the butterflies.

Cherokees called them messengers of

the dead, she explains with calmness

and describes her visit with a medium,

who told her things no one could guess.

She hesitates to continue with her story.

I tell her how lately dragonflies land

nearby when eating a meal outside,

as I stop to rest with a bottle of beer

in my backyard after mowing the lawn,

at a ball game on a seat in front of us.

Too many to count hovered above the

dunes as I walked down to the beach.

Others say butterflies come to them in

places you wouldn’t expect, city streets,

the middle of the night, in a rainstorm,

on the tip of a finger as you begin a hike.

Suddenly images of these insects appear

on coffee mugs, labels of wine bottles,

neckties, on front of some baby’s shirt.

Must’ve been there all along or maybe

I’m seeing them after hearing the medium’s

words to me from our father- “Don’t feel bad,

let it go, stop feeling remorse”. How could she

know of my regrets since his death or the last

time we spoke? I told no one of my feelings.

I think of dragonflies now as my pen runs dry.

CONFLUENCE

“When you're travelling, the best advice is

 likely to come from a local person.”-F.Mawer

In Pittsburgh, even the bridges are yellow.

Should’ve painted a few green or blue.

If you end up getting on the wrong bridge,

you’ll probably end up being lost for hours.

In Pittsburgh, they roll with the black and gold.

And things come in threes like Pitt’s flag with

three castles, three rivers, that I always misspell,

and three stars on one side of a Steelers helmet.

In Pittsburgh, be sure to ride the inclines,

they’ll take you up to another neighborhood

make you think how beautiful it must look

at night- the city, the bridges, the confluence.

In Pittsburgh, you must have Iron City beer,

get a Primanti Brothers sandwich, hamburger

drenched in Heinz ketchup on thick, soft bread.

They put the cole slaw and fries on the inside.

In Pittsburgh, you should try to visit Oakland,

stop at the Cathedral of Learning, get a key

to see the classrooms from around the world.

Take a picture with a statue of the panther.

In Pittburgh, you have to go to a ball game,

monuments for Clemente, Stargell, Mazerawski.

The old fans still sing, “We Are Family” and they’ll

tell you all about living in the City of Champions.

In Pittsburgh, get to the Southside, tattoo parlors

and bars line Carson Street- but don’t stay too long

or have too many beers, or you’ll begin to think of

how perfect a yellow P would look on your forearm.

THE BROKEN HOME

The fuse box was flickering, it needed updating.

The faucet came off the sink, it needed changing.

The light switch snapped, it needed doctoring.

The cord of the fan came out, it needed rewiring.

The kitchen window cracked, it needed replacing.

The heater stopped working, it needed refurbishing.

The water meter was inaccurate, it needed correcting.

The cable was always pix-elating, it needed upgrading.

The slop sink had a crack in it, it needed mending.

The hot water heater was leaking, it needed patching.

The sewer line was clogged again, it needed snaking.

The wiring wasn't up to code, it needed revamping.

The cabinets were stained, they needed refacing.

The closets were cluttered, they needed reorganizing.

The hinges came off the gate, they needed tightening.

The living room was uninviting, it needed redecorating.

The dining room was full of ants, it needed spraying.

The wood floors were scratched, they needed polishing.

The furnace was the original, it needed removing.

The fence slats began to rot, they needed mending.

The landscaping looked messy, it needed revitalizing.

The mailbox fell off the rail, it needed re-affixing.

The lawn was full of bare spots, it needed reseeding.

The weeds grew in the patio's cracks,they needed pulling.

The driveway was cracking, it needed resealing.

The front porch was gray and aging, it needed painting.

The storm door was sagging, it needed adjusting.

The siding was moss covered, it needed power washing.

The shingles were aged and worn, it needed re-roofing.

The costs rose and the bills piled up, it was never ending.

The family’s bank account emptied, they needed lending.

SHARP

Nothing like

a 52 inch

flat screen to

bring us all

together each night to watch

games, movies, our shows.