Puff Of Smoke Poems

the snow has to fall
three times on the daffodils
before it’s springtime

later, I’ll go out
and explain to my garden
what your grandma said

There are ditch mermaids
gossiping in spring runoff
at the edge of fields

No seashells here.
Freshwater mermaids know
how to glide by all that trickles and drops
down these steep banks, the trash
caught in the weeds–
plastic bags and dented cans,
takeout styrofoam and Big Gulp cups

Sure, they dream big dreams,
fantasize about wider horizons,
about the lives of their ocean cousins
(who call them mean names–
poor ditch trash, and worse)
But here the fields carry green spring smells
of clover and manure and in their hearts
they are hometown girls who prefer
fresh mud to sea spray

even the worst yards
mud and gravel, sticks, road trash
still daffodils still
crocus bloom purple and white
still robin’s blue eggs
still robins hunting thick worms
in the leaf mold grass

Dear Students,
We, your teachers, are running
in busy virtual circles. Picture us
snapping our fingers inches from
your faces. Picture us–if you picture us at all–
waving to get your attention.

Some of you wave back. Some of you
crave connection. Some want to learn
what we still know how to teach.
For you, I post Daily Assignments from far away
Read this. Think about that.
Compare. Contrast.
Compose a song or a portrait.
Conduct an experiment within
this experiment we’re living through.
Cite your sources.

Those of you who won’t wave back
or who can’t wave back
I am setting you down, gently,
in the place you like best
whether that is a beach, a forest,
your grandmother’s backyard,
your friend’s kitchen table
or in front of a game on a screen.

Because above all I want,
I want you to be comforted
so play the game that comforts you
Then get dressed. Go outside.
Write a letter or a poem
and send it to someone.
Send it to me
I’m here.

sleepy with the spring
quiet plants, quiet people
breathing in and out

from above, this world
looks gray–but our roots deepen
long before we bloom

twenty minutes later
it’s daytime sky, washed blue
not deep violet
not indigo hush
not what was here, before

the sky is on the list now,
added to this daily tally
of ordinary things
we
once
were used to
but now
are going,
gone

on the road, weather

drapes disguises over trees

tricks our hurried eyes

drive east with the storm

passing miles of white birches

look back on striped rows

and the costumes fade

into rows of dark brown trunks 

snow-spackled maples

dinner with you, old friend

astounding we still have so much 

to say to each other–

and so much still to learn–

tonight we wander through our shared childhood,

the neighborhood of memory we built.

We keep stopping each other here,

side by side on my couch

Really? we say

That’s how it seemed to you?

we lean closer, fascinated

comparing the different pasts we’ve constructed

as if putting together two jigsaw puzzles

from the same shapes

There’s a list of things 

about this winter,

all that cracked open

this frozen shell 

Here, for example–

the cows on my morning commute.

sweet-faced and calm

no longer looking like dinner

Then there’s the news every day,

full of creatures less lucky than cows

When I can’t take in any more bad news

I listen to lectures on astrophysics.

A smart man talks with enthusiasm

about the nature of time and space

I drive through the comfort of

tiny particle physics

and let all the words I don’t understand

drift on a wave out the car window 

towards the cow barn.

Let ‘s see what they make of it

in the apple tree
one bird sings a two-note song
to the winter air