writer, storyteller, veteran (see BirchBark Editing.com and MaxieJaneFrazier.com for more)
I
Can wait
Protecting my health
I
Can wait
Protecting my neighbors
I
Can wait
For flattened curves
I
Can wait
For new vaccines
I
Can wait
Anticipating new life
I
Can’t wait
Anticipating real change
I
Can’t wait
For social responsibility
I
Can’t wait
For national community
I
Can’t wait
Protecting my anticipation
I
Can’t wait
Protecting my hope
Purple haze, afar,
Blossom blur, tender and sweet,
Now and forever
Jetting after the sunset,
A misplaced belief that our
Hurtling metal-light skin,
Buoyed by air,
Or hope,
Maybe belief,
Could outstrip time, itself.
Red flashing eyes score the nothing while
Wagon train ruts, now traced by
Sulphurous orange glows,
Score the destructive path of
Progress.
Shrouds of exhaust fumes
Exhaled from so many
Someones,
With someplace to go.
And I want.
I want.
For once my imagination
Outstrips what it knows,
Beating time, place, chronology,
Until the best of our
Pastpresentfuturefantasies
Converge in this moment.
Here in row 14, seat F.
There is peace on Earth.
With a side of
Goodwill to so many someones.
October 4, 1968
Mom counting one two . . .
Ten perfect toenails.
Chasing my brother
49 years, 5 months, 7 days later
On the Appalachian Trail.
Going up so we can go down,
Over hill and dale,
As they say.
Lifetime memories of
Snow, sleet, rain, wind,
Sun.
A long section hike,
Well short of my goal.
I want more.
10 perfect Colorado toenails
In two slightly tight shoes,
And then there were eight.
(update, and now there are seven…)
Put Out to Pasture 