Resident Poets

VE VURK ‘TIL VE DROP
can we civilize the salamander
make him
sit in a cubicle
for eight hours
exactly
The animals don’t stand for any of that crap
my dog knows what is important
it is important to sniff at that bush
I
on the other hand
have trouble with
the importance of things
and other people
like me who
don’t allow themselves time to sniff
the air for
anything really
important
really
other people like me
don’t have time for that bush
unless
it is landscaped into our orderly little lives like
the trees in our yard which are
planted just so
and
made to look just so
like
that
was
important
but
my dog knows what is important
and I,
we
unfortunately
have
forgotten

– David Jackson

***

Nursing home
Clean white
dry sheets
every day now.
There are the memories of another place
another time
wet sheets every day
bladder infection
kidney failure.
No don’t think about it, he says.
The bed pan persons
are doing the job
as important as the doctors
as the nurses
totally
un
heralded
There is a place for you
in my tears
We need
heaven
for you

here you shall find me
must find me
we must meet
having met, we must
meet again in the shadows of
truth
beauty shines through the window and
dances with the dust in the air
the cat sits by the window
watching the birds
I sit by the window with your memory
watching for you
in the birds
in the trees
we must meet across the river
in the shade of that tree
that tree we cling to
so the raging waters of the flood
may not drown us in our own
innocence
***

Children of War Poem

We’ll give them all to the
war, these children of
our hearts, we’ll let them march
away, we’ll wait for their return,
we’ll wait beside the spring, we’ll
wait beside the spring
hoping for the best
wishing for the best
praying for the
rest.
Oh will you rest beside me
as the water gently flows.
Oh will you walk beside me
when the water gently flows

I’ll carry you into
the forest
We’ll make it our home
I’ll run among the branches
until I find you
waiting for me
like
an
angel.
Yes
We’ll give them all to the
war, these children of
our hearts, we’ll let them march away,
we’ll wait for their return, we’ll
wait beside the spring.

I knew nothing of the war
except what they told me,
that it was for freedom.
All I really remember is the boy
lying on a concrete slab.
I remember the dried blood on his cheeks.
I can’t make out the race so well,
he’s a brownish boy
just lying there with his
bullet wounds,
staring that stare.
His arms are at his side in
the photo
and he’s lying on his back
on this grey slab.
That’s all I remember, really,
just the boy.
No soccer matches for him,
Mom won’t take him in the SUV.
He’s lying on his back on that concrete slab
No one called the police.
It won’t be on the news.
They won’t interview the parents and
seek our help to
find
the
killer.
There will be more
at
ten.

***