Union Cemetery

There's frost laying across their beds

this morning, like it did

when we were kids in Vermont
No central heat, they slept us

If I Ever

If I ever
anyway
do
or seem to

In "Michigan" Woods

I’d never trade the roaring brook

that bordered our front yard

for anything.  My brother took

his Blazer up the road.

Angels

Angels appeared in my poems
long before they became
as common as lapel pins.  Once

A Psalm for Lent

Write a Psalm?  Me?

I feel so far from anything throne-like

Apostasy is my refuge,

Ego, my strength.

The Candy Shop

You broke in
   Sampled the non pareils, 
      The licorice whips

Between Deaths

there is a moment

of indecision

as when a mist lifts

from a willow brake

Picking my way over food scraps

Picking my way over food scraps

and litter in Chinatown

on my way to work,

my attitude is just fine

Flash Poems

Ethel Merman, Edger Bergen, and Charlie McCarthy

went out one night for a dinner of plank steak.

Charlie was very quiet throughout dinner.

The Eloquence of Absence

In poetry, it's the margin

of the page, the space

between images, thoughts.

In barrooms, the sparkle on glassware.

The Steps Lead Up

Like a tree that's dying

and takes years to fall down,

our neighbor's house now

that the old man is gone who