center

Suggestion:
Strike the porch.
Replace with air missile or apartment balcony.
Add a radio tuned
to an obsolete language.

Sadie led dog soldiers down from Cold Mountain. I planted black flowers in the bend of the Burning God River. Composed garlic ballads in machine dreams. All while my spirit guide asked about a light I could not see.

Outwardly, it was impossible that Marianne could be responsible for my current predicament, in fact she had been nothing but supportive and encouraging. Yet I had the horrible suspicion that she contained a hidden, inner self that I was not privy to.

She called every Holocaust Memorial in New England to ask if they would sell her a Jude patch. They all thanked her for her enthusiasm and respectfully declined.

When God kills, he kills to erase.
When you judge him, it’s a crisis of faith.
He drops his bombs and closes his eyes.
He plugs his ears to drown the cries.

You are not a moment in time
That can be shared
Or a regal garment
That can be changed
Nor are you a season

mountains blaze, trees candled into brief avatar explode
       as we breathe an invisible future’s scent yet
                                 watch hope’s green grass
grown thick as morning once again

The president called and ordered Greenland. As usual there was a bad connection on Maui, so I thought he said Foodland and picked up a dozen eggs. I texted a pic to the prez who exploded in anger.

A lumpy couch squatted in one of the corners. Someone had tossed a thin blanket and a pillow on top of it. Otherwise, the living room was devoid of furniture. Darlene pointed towards the couch. “You three can fight over who gets to sleep there. Otherwise, the floor is available. I’m off to bed.”

The flight from Seattle to Paris was in autumn but we were exhausted, broke and travel weary, seeking the shelter of our makeshift English base, not the euphoria of Paris.  We could be turned back or detained and deported.