dinner at 40

hi how are you?
I'm fine, susie's fine,
she's staying with sarah who's fine,
terry's learning his algebra,
he's fine, we're fine
how are you?

Pass the cheese, please.

I'm fine, Jackine(who's fine)
and I are having another baby,
and Brian's fine,
we're all fine.

taps over norfolk

I shook the hand of my grampa,
it felt of the summer sea
and salty sores of epsom.
I sat on his shore and watched.

His watch almost at elbow,
and lenses resting on-nose,
"He shouldn't have done that,"
he says to his sacred screen.

I lent my ears to his story
of his sea life in the Navy
(while he watched his channel 27)
and waited until his high tide.

7am sunrise

The sweet smell of the barn
begins the day of the farmer,
who tugs cow udders
as the orange sphere
makes the sky slowly blue.

His blue overalls become
soiled with white milk,
as the grey clouds become
brushed with orange and
dotted with white.

He pushes his oxen across
his fields of sweet corn,
never stooping to pick
an ear of Nature's barnyard
trough-laden breakfast.

I sleep 'till noon in summer.