Darwin really nailed it, didn’t he? Really caught that melody
that matches every lyric in the song of life.
The prime IF-THEN statement buried deep
in the basic program of existence:

winter very quick poem
out my window
white snow begins, again
another wondering winter blast

What do you use to stuff the crack under death’s door?

plain dirty laundry sweet sour and constant
the neverworn wedding dress
left hand gloves

I put her to bed, frail as a torn rag,
and tried to erase the images
of her rickety legs at the edge of the chair,
my hands under her bony seat,

You gave no sign of knowing
I was there
tucked behind pussywillows
at the riverbank

A tough woman
lifts dozens of buckets of feed
and does not wince
when the hot wire fence catches her

So they met for dinner
at a country inn and found
something like desire still
hovering between them.

We who live in this country
never become inured from grief.
Each time one falters it is the same:
the raw incomprehension
that this beloved could fade, or fail.

He fed me
the root of a licorice fern,
sheep sorrel, a soup
made from stinging nettles.

“If net worth is negative,
enter zero.”
My daughter peers over my shoulder,
knows the weight of what can’t