Upon receiving a postcard from a stranger 

There was a time when i would get postcards from friends

and family on vacation and though the purveyors of the cards

always sold them using "Wish you were here" as the hook,

everyone one knew it was the seed of the facebook age's

"look how much fun i am having without you" subtext.

But even that had some semblance of love in the personal

message that came on the back of the postal missive.

Now i get requests to buy my house from people i don't know and

though Robert Frost's "Provide Provide" rings in my ears

I want to respond to the card without getting umpteen more treekilling requests.

In the words of Daryll Hall, dear Sender, you want "five minutes of what's

taken me a lifetime."

In the words of John Gorka, dear Sender, "I just want to make enough to buy this town and keep it rough." 

I know you want to buy my house and bulldoze it and put up a house too large 

for the land it is on to sustain it. And that dear sender, is why i will never ever

sell it to you.

Wish you were here,

Pluto Corsini

 

October 4, 2021

Upon hearing his intention (a fish story)

Perhaps you might try fishing today

And take your brother with you.

Or at least think of him as you cast away

cares of media deluge. True, 

it would be more fun to have him

with you calculating trajectory

beneath the October sky on a whim,

but sometimes it is enough mental rocketry

just to hold him in memory's orbit  (like the combination

Michelin man/mickey mouse 

once positioned in its dashboard station)

and turn it in your mind's hand and arouse

your reeling sense of humor's wing

upon hearing his intention not to catch a thing.

Brought to me

 A rainbow bridge over unbridled sea,

A cry for life after hours of grief,

A cradle made by arms for thee:

All this, my wife did bring to me.

An acorn's promise to shade the tree,

Days of summer, exploring for free,

Wrapped in autumn's bounty: a single leaf:

All this, my daughter did bring to me.

Time to breathe in what i see,

Imagination: my realm while reaping sheaves,

A prayer to keep the flock with me:

All this, my parent did bring to me.

My head made of cookie,

A boat launched on laughter's sea,

To carry me ashore to great relief:

All this, my friend did bring to me.

No dual world can explain away how sorry

i was when i missed what they brought to me.

 

The leaf drifts, twirls, sways,

and before it lands; I hold

it forever. Let go.

Palms open to the sky

Grow without remorse from darkness!

Reach sunlight and make a fist!

Own your living power in your   

Olive branch and dance with the family

Tree! Relax the fist and offer palms open to the sky.

Justice by example: how youth learns about age

Justice by example: how youth learns about age

We have done a lot of thinking; 

yet still need to understand.

We have done a lot of speaking; 

yet words don't heal as planned.

We have done a lot of waiting; 

yet patience teaches still

and God goes on listening; 

yet do we what we will.

In some past perch we laughed

at her raking down below as God's whispers

caused her pile of leaves to go

in merciless spirals, dancing to and fro.

But now we send our wishes: her

toil to ease at last.

And look we up above 

and hear God's knowing laugh

just when a present from a dove

lands in our coffee: splash. 

Lines written while waiting for twenty-twenty to forget

 "Just drop the 'G,'

she said to me.

"It's broken, yes,

and I confess

we should have known

from Samuel's moan,

to dispose of the king

of our own making.

But, drop the 'G,'

for the community

is in ruins

over results due in

shortly. In kingdom, come!

Drop the 'G'. Bid kin come home."